Peggy Revell
The Ontario government has cut more than $250,000 in funding for the local public and separate school boards—money that normally would go towards school repairs and upgrades.
The cuts come as Queen’s Park searches for places to reduce expenses in the face of economic troubles and a projected deficit of about $500 million.
For the Rainy River District School Board, some $190,000 has been cut from its capital renewal funds.
“It’s a lot of money, absolutely,” said Education Director Jack McMaster, noting it’s about a 20 percent cut from the roughly $1 million given to the public board for capital and school renewal.
The cut will not affect plans for the building of the new Robert Moore School here, McMaster noted, saying the board has been given the go-ahead by the Ministry of Education and is moving forward with the design committee.
If anything, said McMaster, the funding cut will delay current and future projects and repairs.
“Our facilities are in reasonably good shape,” said Raymond Roy, manager of plant operations and maintenance for the public school board.
Substantial board funding a couple of years ago for an energy retrofit on buildings, and some capital upgrades, have gotten the buildings into good shape, Roy explained, but there’s always improvements and upgrades that need to be made.
“We have, obviously, a very lengthy list of repairs and capital work that needs to be done and we will just have to delay some of the non-urgent items.”
“Urgent” repairs include things such as heating system upgrades, explained Roy, because installing more energy-efficient equipment has some form of payback. Projects to be delayed haven’t been chosen yet, added Roy, but, as an example, they could include something like repaving a parking lot.
Building components and site needs are kept in a database so Roy can keep track of what needs to be done—as well as what’s considered an urgent, medium, or low need.
Like all school boards, the list of needs always has exceeded allotted funding, he noted. “So we’re just going to be doing less. We’ll prioritize and go down the list.”
“We had about $82,000 approximately reduced from our capital plan,” noted Mary-Catherine Kelly, director of education for the Northwest Catholic District School Board.
“It will just mean that for us, we will have to delay maybe some of the projects to a later time,” she explained. “So it might slow up a project, but at this point in time, our schools are in very good shape and we have done continuous upgrading.”
Each summer there are projects to upgrade schools, Kelly noted, adding the board just finished completing the projects from this past summer.
The announced funding cuts to the Catholic board’s capital plan is for money that was to be put aside for next summer.
“We haven’t done any specific analysis at this point in time. This is a little early for us,” said Kelly.
The local Catholic board begins its budget process in January and February, including enrolment and funding predictions, so by the spring it will have a better financial picture. Budget allocation, including the choosing of summer projects and putting them out to tender, also occurs in the spring.
“It will just mean that as projects continue over time, we will just have to put our money out according to what we have,” said Kelly. “So it’s just a case of looking at what we do in the summer of next year and what we can manage, and what can be put on hold a little longer.”
But it’s also a catch-22 since delaying a project now can mean a higher cost for it down the road.
“We know that the cost of doing business every year goes up,” said McMaster, “Some of the less urgent stuff can be handled by or own personnel, but again if you’re going out to buy materials, those materials are going to cost more in the future, too.”
“We only have so many dollars available to us. It’s a balancing act,” echoed Roy.
“Nobody likes to be in a position where you’re having a reduction of funds,” said McMaster. “But we recognize in our board where the economy is right now and we’ll be sitting down as a planning team when the budget comes out in the spring and we’ll adjust accordingly, as we’ve had to do in the past.”
