The Northwest Catholic District School Board isn’t looking at any cutbacks for 2001-02 after a budget update at its regular meeting Saturday morning in Sioux Lookout indicated the board in good shape.
“We’re striving for a balanced budget and we don’t think there will be problems,” Education Director Carol-Lynne Oldale said Tuesday, adding a finalized budget will be up for approval at a special meeting here July 10.
“We’re one of the few boards fortunate enough not to have to make any staffing cuts,” she said. “Because of the large geography we cover [Fort Frances, Stratton, Dryden, and Sioux Lookout], there’s been enough funding there.
“We don’t anticipate any cuts at this point in time.”
The board is projecting a balanced budget of $11,418,657, with a funding increase of $743,000 over last year. This “flexibility funding” can be spent however the board wishes.
Oldale noted the board is placing a greater emphasis on technology, allocating $221,883 to classroom computer initiatives.
“We’re looking at getting in place a mobile computer lab [at St. Francis] like Walker has,” she said, adding a second one could be added to St. Joseph’s in Dryden.
“We will also continue to replace other computer equipment in order to have the latest technology in our schools,” she stressed.
The remaining “flexibility funding” will be divided up to cover deficits in teacher preparation time, co-ordinator and school operations funding ($171,785), and school renewal ($350,000) in anticipation that future renewal projects will require more funding than that year’s normal funding may allow.
Staffing is expected to increase by 3.5 full-time teachers as the board is adding classrooms at St. Francis here, St. Joseph’s in Dryden, and Sacred Heart in Sioux Lookout.
But overall, teacher costs will only rise three percent despite this increase as retirements and changes to the OECTA collective agreement have helped offset the cost associated with more staff.
In other business at Saturday’s meeting, the board approved six recommendations made by the student achievement committee.
Headed by curriculum co-ordinator Ron Fryer, Oldale had formed the committee back in October following the release of grade three and six testing results.
Since then, Fryer–who presented the recommendations to the board via teleconference–and a committee of teachers and principals have worked to pinpoint what reading, writing, and math strategies were being used in the classroom, how effective they’ve been, and what can be done to improve student achievement.
The five recommendations approved include:
•the board should direct school and board administration to develop activities to improve communication between partners;
•the board should investigate supplemental programs/activities to enhance students achievement;
•the board should investigate the feasibility of eliminating core French in primary grades;
•the board should monitor and review French Immersion programs; and
•the board should maintain the student achievement committee and revise the structure to include the curriculum co-ordinator, two principals, and two teachers per division for a total of nine members.
In other business, the board:
•approved of the May cash disbursement report, which noted an expenditure of $948,771.50;
•gave the nod to Seaboard Life Insurance Company as the board’s carrier of student insurance for 2001-02;
•approved of revised policy G-12 (Principal Designate);
•received the June personnel report, which included the appointment of part-time teachers Artina Gurski (St. Michael’s) and Cheryl Johnson (Sacred Heart), and the change in status from probationary to permanent for teachers Jacqueline Fenez, Lisa George, Richard Hamilton, Carla Harris, and Shelley Taylor;
•received an annual report from Deanna Pacheco, chair of the special education advisory committee;
•approved a list of early dismissal dates scheduled for 2001-02 for the purposes of professional development (Sept. 19, 2001, Nov. 28, 2001, Feb. 27, 2002, and April 10, 2002); and
•approved a request the acquisition of 35 new textbooks as per Policy B-01 (Textbook Approval).
Fort Frances Times
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