Bow Island school’s board reports $1.6M shortfall
By Medicine Hat News on November 30, 2019.
Southern Alberta’s rural Catholic school board is facing a $1.6-million shortfall as a result of changes in the provincial education budget, administrators said this week. The Holy Spirit Roman Catholic Separate Regional Division No. 4 operates 15 schools in Lethbridge, Coaldale and Taber, as well as St. Michael’s in Bow Island since it left Medicine Hat Catholic Board in 2014. “We’re looking at a shortfall in funding … that’s significant,” superintendent Chris Smeaton told the Prairie Post weekly newspaper. “We’re a board that doesn’t carry an awful lot of surplus dollars.” “But (the board members) were also pretty firm in their stance that to make any mid-year cuts would not be good for kids.” The plan is to use reserve funds this year, then adjust the 2020-21 academic year’s budget after the next provincial funding plan is revealed next spring. “When that funding framework comes out we will see if there’s going to be reductions required at that point in time,” said Smeaton, noting that retiring teachers may help contain costs. The district will be left with reserves equalling about one per cent of its annual budget, which Smeaton described as not a strong fiscal position. 8-7
