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MERRITT HERALD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2012 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
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TASTE OF INDIA The Sada Virsa Sada Gaurav dancers from Abbotsford perform at the Taste of India on Saturday at the Merritt Civic Centre. The event was organized by Merritt’s Rotary groups, the Merritt Sikh Society and the Punjabi Canadian Roots Club as a fundraiser. Proceeds go towards fighting polio and other charities. Phillip Woolgar/Herald
School district reports $564,000 surplus SD 58 in a healthy state to handle anticipated enrolment declines, says secretary treasurer By Phillip Woolgar THE HERALD
reporter@merrittherald.com
The local school district posted a $564,000 surplus last year, according to the auditor’s report released on Sept. 12. The surplus means the NicolaSimilkameen School District 58 is better able to handle enrolment declines, which it anticipates for at least the next three years. The cumulative surplus is now $5.7 mil-
lion. “We are in a healthy state,” SD 58 Secretary Treasurer Kevin Black said. “As enrolment starts to increase, we aren’t going to get any additional dollars... If we experience a surge in enrolment, this provides us with a bit of a cushion.” Without that surplus, SD 58 would have to eliminate expenses — and with 85 per cent spent on teachers’ salaries, job cuts would be a likely outcome, he said.
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Administration originally predicted a $500,000 shortfall in February and the variance in the audit is due to lower salaries and more grants than expected. “Some additional sources of revenue come in and, at the same time, some activities that you expect to occur didn’t occur,” he said. Among the additional grants was funding to support updated student counts in May, which contributed a portion of the $1.5 million increase.
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Also, salaries and benefits are about $1.1 million lower than expected. “We budget on a conservative basis,” Black said. “If we don’t know who we are going to hire, we put them in at a certain scale and I budget for higher than the average [salary].” For example, savings can occur when an older, higher-paid teacher leaves and a new teacher arrives. The Ministry of Education’s decision last year to limit funding
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protection to 98.5 per cent from the previous 100 per cent means a steady decrease in the amount of funding. The Ministry said SD 58 is already overfunded by nearly 500 students, Black said. “So until we get 500 more students, we’d pay for additional enrolment without getting additional dollars.”
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