Public school budget OK’d with $757K deficit planned

By KELLEN TANIGUCHI on May 26, 2021.

ktaniguchi@medicinehatnews.com@@kellentaniguchi

The Medicine Hat Public Board of Education approved its 2021-22 budget Tuesday evening with a planned deficit of $757,000.

Last year’s budget had a planned deficit of $268,000, but superintendent Mark Davidson says it’s likely there be a small surplus because the division was held harmless by the provincial government for students that didn’t register or show up in the fall due to COVID-19.

The MHPSD is also expecting to see a reduction of $2,337,800 in revenue this upcoming school year.

“We feel that past practice in our system has put us in a good position to deal with reduced revenue for the upcoming school year and it allows us some time to see what will come in the future in terms of enrolment and budget cycles,” said Davidson.

One area of the budget that saw an increase in funding was the specialized learning support for kindergarten students – an increase of $1,980,200. Davidson says in previous years Program Unit Funding (PUF) covered children from the age of three-and-a-half years old through to the end of kindergarten, however the government moved the funding to support pre-K students only.

In this budget they recognized what was being provided for services to students in kindergarten was insufficient, so they moved money around in the budget in order to provide funding intended for supports for the youngest in the K-12 system.

At the MHPSD’s general board meeting on Tuesday, it also carried a motion to authorize the use of locally developed courses.

The board re-authorized three high school courses for the next four years: forensic science studies from the Pembina Hills School Division, forensic studies from the Edmonton School Division and musical theatre from the Calgary School Division.

Five new courses to support English Language Learners at the school have been authorized from the Calgary School Division for the 2021-22 school year, including courses with a focus on math, science and English, while focusing on developing the English language.

“Certainly, our ELL population has grown over the years. Having some students be in a math Grade 10 course and struggling to learn the language and understand the concepts and so we don’t want them to struggle in a semester and end up without being able to earn credits toward their graduation so these courses can be put in place to meet them where they’re at and give them a credit for their hard work and acquiring the language and starting to develop the skills in the area, too,” said Jason Peters, assistant superintendent universal design and learning.

A theatre performance course will be offered at MHPSD high schools this fall along with the re-authorized musical theatre program, says Peter. He adds students who put hours into the theatre will now be able to earn more credits.

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