The Rainbow District School Board's $2.7 million budget shortfall for the 2016-2017 fiscal year comes down to years of declining student enrolment, says the school board's director of education.
Rainbow Board director of education Norm Blaseg said the public board has lost 250 to 300 students per year, on average, over the last decade.
On average, the Rainbow Board receives $12,000 from the Ministry of Education for every student enrolled in a given year.
But the latest budget – of $185.5 million – was $2.7 million short mainly due to unused infrastructure.
To push school boards to close schools if they are no longer needed, the Ministry of Education has started to cut operational funding for school boards that aren't running at capacity.
Blaseg said the Rainbow Board's schools are currently running at 67 per cent capacity as a whole. While some schools are “bursting at the seams,” he said, others have a lot of empty space.
“Most boards in Northern Ontario have struggled with filling their schools,” Blaseg said.
In the previous fiscal year the ministry cut $1.3 million from the Rainbow Board's operational budget, and in the latest fiscal year the school board lost $2.6 million for not fully using its infrastructure.
Blaseg said the ministry will reduce the operational budget by $3.9 million in the next fiscal year if the school board continues to be under-capacity.
During the Aug. 30 board meeting, Blaseg said staff will present proposals to trustees on “accommodation reviews.”
In other words, they will explore potential options for school closures to bring the board closer to 100 per cent capacity.
Blaseg said staff reductions could also be an option to cut costs, but that would be a last resort, and would be left to attrition, if possible.
The board says salaries and benefits make up 77 per cent of its budget.
