The Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education held its monthly meeting Tuesday and looked at the past year of financials.--SCREENSHOT FROM STREAM
mcranker@medicinehatnews.com@mocranker
The Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education held its monthly board meeting Tuesday, which centred around a presentation on financials.
After an opening prayer, the board dove into a quick chat and presentation on audited financial statements.
“We looked at expenses and revenues from before and after COVID,” said MNP’s Delayne Sackman. “We found no breaks in the internal controls, and everything operated consistent with the policies in line.”
Next up was an in-depth look at the school board’s financials from the past year, and a look at where the board is at going forward. The presentation was given by assistant secretary treasurer Amanda McCrie and secretary treasurer Greg MacPherson.
Last fall, the Catholic board had a surplus of $697,000. The board also knew its funding from the province was being decreased by $1.114 million, with some of that being offset by a one-time grant of $503,000. Despite cut funding, enrolment had increased.
“With all of this knowledge, we knew there was a lot of work to do to balance this budget and to meet the priorities the board had set,” said McCrie. “We went through the budget and identified places to find potential savings.”
The board wanted to hire 132 full-time equivalent certified teachers and to shift a few hundred thousand into the capital reserves account. The plan meant a deficit of $693,000, which meant the board would use $450,000 from the reserves to pay it off and it would not move money into the capital reserves.
When COVID-19 hit and schools closed, the board saved money on utilities because the buildings were empty. It also received PPE from the province at no cost, though it did buy its own masks and sanitizer. The board also hired extra cleaning staff.
The school board’s main revenue sources this past year were the provincial and federal governments. The board’s biggest expense was instruction, which accounted for 76 per cent. Plant operations and maintenance made up 13.9 per cent.
MHCBE’s revenue this year is the lowest it has been for five years, but expenses were also cut to the lowest.
The school board has less money to respond to emerging situations, according to McCrie, but it is still in a healthy spot. When compared to school boards of a similar size, MHCBE has less money to work with in this category.
In the 2019/20 year, MHCBE had $182 per student to spend on special initiatives, which was down from $311 in the previous year.
McCrie showed information on school buildings, which showed they are newer, on average, compared to other school boards.
As for capital reserves, MHCBE has $24 per student. This is $3 more than last year, and the highest in the past five years.
The full meeting can be viewed on the MHCBE Youtube page.
