The Nanaimo school district is planning to use financial surplus money to offset an anticipated operating loss of close to $1.6 million due to higher than expected enrolment.
Preliminary enrolment numbers for the school year were about 13,089 full-time equivalent students. Graham Roberts, school district secretary-treasurer, said because there were about 130 more students than projected, the funding allotment from the B.C. Ministry of Education increased by $348,558.
International student enrolment numbers also rose to 297 from a projected 245 and because of that, the district received $730,000 in funding.
To account for this, the number of teaching staff rose by close to five full-time equivalent positions, while educational assistants rose by close to 12 full-time equivalents.
Roberts said the costs of extra staffing exceed the increase in funding. According to a presentation made at the business committee meeting on Wednesday, the preliminary budget for 2015-16 had total teacher salaries pegged at $54,932,528, but with the increase in staffing is now expected to reach $55,298,783. An amended budget is expected next month.
The district has a surplus of $5 million from previous years, which will be used to mitigate the operating loss, said Roberts.
“In our operating fund, we’re running an operating loss of just under $1.6 million, which is being funded out of our prior year’s surpluses. At the end of the year, if things go as we anticipate, our surpluses instead of being around $5 million, will be about $3.5 million,” said Roberts.
He said the district is no longer under funding protection from the ministry, which is additional money doled out to districts to “ensure that districts are protected against any funding decline larger than 1.5 per cent when compared to the previous autumn,” according to the ministry.
“It’s very complicated,” Roberts said. “Generally I think it’s good news for the district because it’s actually easier to plan, because we will receive funding for our actual students that are enrolled. It means less need for building contingencies because with each additional student we will be funded for them.”