School District 57’s projected surplus of about $1.2 million for the 2024-25 school year is largely due to unfilled staff positions, the chair of the board of education said after its Wednesday, Feb. 11 meeting.
At the meeting, district administration presented an amended budget for the current school year that projects a surplus of $1,195,152, up from the $11,934 surplus projected when the budget was originally approved by the board.
Director of finance Hannah Brown told trustees that the figures in the original budget were determined based on preliminary estimates for student enrolment, funding and expenses like salaries, transportation, utilities, insurance.
Under BC law, the education minister can require school districts to amend their budgets if their operating grants are different than originally expected.
Enrolment numbers and operating grants are typically revised from their initial projections each December and a revise budget accounting for those changes is due by the end of February. However, Brown said it’s due by March 28 this year due to delays to the ministry’s recalculation of those operating grants.
Initial operating grant figures are determined by a per-student funding amount multiplied by estimated enrolment numbers. This makes up the bulk of the school district’s funding.
While total expenses ended up being $7,439,660 more than originally estimated, revenues were $6,559,552 more than expected.
There ended up being 89 more school-age students than originally estimated for 2024-25, leading to $1.6 million increase to the district’s operating grant. Another $1.6 million boost to the district’s operating grant came from additional labour settlement funds provided by the province.
The cost of instructing students, which includes staffing and supply expenses, is projected to be $3.78 million more than initially expected.
The largest factors in that increase are a $1.25 million increase to the amount of funding needed for substitute teachers and a $2.5 million increase in services and supplies stemming from costs paid for by previous years’ surpluses being returned to school budgets.
The district’s administration costs, which include labour relations, continuing education and labour relations expenses, is $938,154 higher in the revised budget.
Salaries are about $1.7 million higher in the revised budget, an increase of 1.1 per cent. When you look solely at the salaries of teachers, the costs are $82,249 lower than the initial budget.
That, Brown said, is the net result of the addition of 10 school-based teachers of $960,000 to hire 10 additional school-based teachers due to enrolment increases, a $130,000 decrease in costs due to the hiring of uncertified teachers who are paid at a lower rate and a $880,000 decrease in costs due to classroom enhancement funding being higher than expected.
Another factor in the projected surplus is the use of around $3.8 million from a surplus from the 2023-24 school year.
Of those funds, the school division initially used around $1.67 million to balance this year’s operating budget. Brown said that was because the ministry didn’t approve labour settlement funding until after the 2024-25 budget was passed. Now that those funds have arrived, they are no longer needed to balance out the amended budget.
After the meeting, board chair Craig Brennan told reporters that when you dig into the math, the surplus is “mostly from positions that weren’t filled.”
“That means jobs that we posted and were not able to find someone to fill that job,” Brennan said. “It sounds like a good news story, but it’s just a fact that we’re not able to fill all the positions that we would like.”
Because of that, he said the conditions that led to the surplus aren’t sustainable. Ideally, Brennan said, that means the extra funds would be used to pay for one-time expenses and not continuing ones.
The board’s meetings in April and May will focus on the 2025-26 budget and include discussion over how those surplus funds should be used.
“If it’s a bigger-ticket item, it will be coming to the board table for deliberations,” Brennan said. “We do want to make sure that we’re spending that money wisely, because again, we’re hoping it’s just a one-time thing.”
The difficulty in filling positions isn’t restricted to Prince George, Brennan said, but some of the district’s outlying areas as well. The positions not being filled include teachers, educational assistance and specialists.
“It remains one of the top things we talk about at this table and at the British Columbia School Trustees Association.”
The addition of another administrator to the district’s human resources department was discussed at the Feb. 11 meeting to help in its recruitment efforts.
