Catholic School Board projects deficit

Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board (H-SCDSB) trustees approved revisions to the board’s 2018-2019 budget, as recommended by staff, at their first meeting of the New Year Wednesday.

The board’s revised estimate comes with a projected deficit of $544,499.

The deficit is the result in the way Special Incidence Portion (SIP) grants are funded.

“It’s a grant that we apply for," said Chris Spina, H-SCDSB superintendent, speaking to reporters after Wednesday's meeting.

"It’s a special ed grant for students with special needs. It’s an allotment per incident, or per pupil. The max is $27,000 per pupil. That grant was increased in June 2018 and then after we had done our budget the Ministry of Education came back and had decreased it back to $27,000,” Spina said, estimating the original increase was approximately $36,000 per pupil.

The board learned of the decrease in the summer after it passed its budget in June.

The reduction is not due to a decrease in the number of students with special needs, Spina said.

“The revenue was reduced and with the deficit it’ll be reducing our surplus,” Spina said, adding there was no reduction in H-SCDSB staffing.

“We’ll have to go back to the drawing board,” Spina said when asked what the board will do when preparing its 2019-2020 budget.

“We’ll wait until the grants come out and we’ll balance the budget going forward.”

“This year we’re dipping into our reserve, our surplus (as a result of the change in SIP grants).”

The board’s surplus, at the end of Aug. 2018, was $3.4 million “so with this we’re expecting to go under $3 million,” Spina said.

Spina would not comment as to whether the board feels the development is a major or relatively modest setback, or due to a change in government at Queen’s Park.

“It’s a reduction in grants...we will find a way to balance our budget next year once the grants come out. It may mean doing things differently, I’m not sure what the grants are going to be like next year, but we will balance,” Spina said.

“If, for next year, we have to make changes to balance, we’ll balance. We won’t find out until the spring, the end of March, so until we know what the grants are (for next year) we have no way of knowing.”