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School Board windfall: $480,000 in Ministry funding for rural and Northern schools

'To some degree the Education Minister listened to us, but there's still a long way to go to provide equal funding for all school boards in Northern Ontario' -David Thompson Near North District School Board Chair

The Near North District School Board passed its 2017-2018 budget Wednesday night, but not before learning the Ministry of Education is providing the board with over $480,000 in funding for its remote and rural schools.

Superintendent of Business, Liz Therrien told the board during her budget presentation, that she had not anticipated receiving any extra funding from the Ministry. So when the memo came through Wednesday morning, she was caught off guard, calling it a "good news announcement." 

"It appears the Ministry has established a new Rural and Northern Education Fund to enhance the annual grant for student needs, but it is difficult at this point in time to properly decipher the memo's contents," said Therrien.

Minister of Education, Mitzie Hunter followed up with a news conference Wednesday in Peterborough County, announcing that the province is taking steps to "strengthen the quality and delivery of education in rural and Northern communities, to provide students with the best possible start in life and build a foundation for their future success."

Based on feedback from a recent public consultation process, the Education Ministry has developed a new plan to support students and communities. One step in that plan is "overhauling the process that school boards use to review schools for potential closure."

It also made a commitment to provide a new "Rural and Northern Education Fund for this September to further enhance student's learning experience with better programming, such as French Immersion."

The ministry will also increase funding to help school boards "work together when it comes to planning and building joint-use schools." There is also a promise to continue investing in broadband speed, special education supports and experimental learning opportunities for rural and Northern students.

Near North District School Board chair David Thompson said during the consultation process, Northern Ontario School Board Chairs, strongly voiced their displeasure over funding inadequacies.  

"To some degree she's listened to us. There's still a long way to go to provide equal funding for all school boards in Northern Ontario, and to address real rural school issues," said Thompson. "We have a number of rural schools that have challenges, we're one of the few school boards that are not closing those schools."  

Decisions must now be made of how and where the money is to be spent. 

"We have to do our due diligence. We have to dig deep into the contents of the memo and we have to bring it back to our senior administrative team, because for all intents and purposes, it is to be used to enhance and support our rural schools," explained the board's Superintendent of Business.

The School Board currently has a budget of $149 million, larger than that of the city of North Bay, in addition to having the highest number of employees in the area. During budget deliberations, the board was able to trim $3 million in costs to get the planned deficit down to $640,000.

Following the funding announcement, trustees got down to the business at hand, voting on the 2017-2018 budget. They learned more about the numerous challenges and concerns facing the board. It is currently dealing with the issue of excess capacity, declining enrolment and financial reforms which go into effect this September, as well as the loss of top-up money.

It's biggest expenditures are salaries and benefits.

Other major costs include transportation, and school operations, facilities and maintenance. Sick leave costs have risen by 29 percent over a five year period, which is still below the provincial average. 

"What happens in times of difficult financial constraint, there is a requirement that you have to revisit every expenditure category of the Near North District School Board," said Therrien. "So what it made us do is really look at our business practices and ask ourselves the question 'Are there ways we can improve our business practices to find efficiencies?' And we have quite a few that we have identified that will be moving forward into the 2017-2018 year.  I think without those significant financial challenges, we might not have done so. "

The budget passed unanimously.

"Tonight the NNDSB public school trustees unanimously passed the 2017/18 school budget of $149 million," said Thompson via Facebook. "This budget clear identifies the severe challenges of declining enrollment and surplus student space in our system. However, we still managed to keep our staffing unchanged from last year which builds on our strong relationship with our federation partners. Still, we will manage a $640k planned deficit even after $3 million in cuts that hopefully can be reduced next year even now that the govt funding reforms are now in place. "