York Region school board approves slightly bigger $1.5B budget, despite cuts
York Region District School Board says increase due to enrolment growth
Yorkregion.com
July 12, 2019
Dina Al-Shibeeb
York Region District School Board approved a slightly bigger budget, at $1.515 billion, for the upcoming school year in comparison to last year when it had $1.49 billion.
“We’re proud to once again present a balanced budget that is focused on the classroom and providing students with the support they need to succeed,” Board Chair Corrie McBain said after the budget was approved July 10.
Speaking with YRDSB, the board says the increase is due to the “growth of enrolment.”
“We are still growing slightly; we are funded per student.”
The new budget is also in line with its previous trend as each year YRDSB’s budget has increased due to the increased enrolment.
In 2017-2018, the budget was at $1.44 billion but saw a slim increase to $1.49 the year after.
Due to the education cuts, however, it's the quantity of courses that are being affected.
Data revealed Monday, July 8 from YRDSB shows the number of science, technology, engineering and math classes (STEM) provided by one of the province’s largest boards is being cut drastically as a result of the Ford government slashing public education funding in the 2019 Budget.
YRDSB said it was forced to terminate 120 classes, of which 23 are STEM-related and 10 more are in business studies.
Budget prioritizes classes
So far, about 94.1 per cent of the new budget is allocated to classroom instruction and school operations, with the remaining 5.9 per cent will be spent on governance, administration and transportation.
“With recent changes in funding from the provincial government, our Board has focused on approving a budget that supports students and minimizes the effects of reductions on classroom spending,” McBain said.
The budget was also formulated after factoring in the loss of more than $12 million in funding since the Local Priorities Fund, Cost Adjustment Allocation and Human Resources Transition Supplement are all expected to end on Aug. 31.
Here are some quick facts:
- 94.1 per cent of the budget is allocated to classroom instruction and school operations, with the remaining 5.9 per cent allocated to governance, administration and transportation.
- York Region District School Board’s budget for 2019-2020 is $1,515,00,000-- an increase of 1.38 per cent from the approved 2018-2019 budget of $1,494,270,000.
- Budget revenues are derived from Grants for Student Needs from the Province of Ontario, which includes property taxes transferred from the municipalities, miscellaneous revenues comprised of tuition fees for international students, rental revenues and other revenues, including interest revenue.
- The budget will serve an enrolment of over 127,000 students (nominal numbers).
- Two new elementary schools are scheduled to open during the 2019-2020 school year.
- York Region District School Board is the largest employer in the region with over 15,000 staff members across nine municipalities.
