The Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board trustees have approved a balanced budget for 2024-25.
The budget includes $322.2M in expenses with $319.9M of in-year grant revenues for a projected in-year deficit of $2.3M.
Trustees were presented with two options. The first was to approve the draft budget as it was presented at the board’s meeting on Jun. 11.
The second option, which was approved Tuesday night, was based on feedback received from trustees at the Jun. 11 meeting, called for adding back staff positions, whose duties were expected to be reassigned in the previous draft: two Child and Youth Workers, an itinerant teacher for the deaf, and an itinerant teacher for the blind.
Those changes, to be funded from the board’s operating surplus, resulted in a spending increase of approximately $340,000 more than what was proposed in the original draft budget, bringing the board’s in-year deficit to approximately $2.3M.
Although that represents an increase from the $1.97M in-year deficit proposed in the original draft budget, it still meets the Ministry of Education’s criteria for regulatory compliance because it’s less than one per cent of the board’s operating allocation.
“Every budget plan presents a different set of challenges, but administration has done an excellent job of considering community feedback, while balancing our spending commitments with eliminating the in-year deficit,” said board chair Fulvio Valentinis.
“I think this new budget plan offers some excellent solutions to continue meeting the needs of our most vulnerable students while maintaining our commitment to being fiscally responsible stewards of our resources,” Valentinis said.
The budget is based on enrollment projections of 22,145 pupils, an increase of 1,020 students from 2023-24 budget estimates. Adult student enrolment is expected to increase by 165 students to a total of 600. With about two thirds of education funding based on enrollment, this equates to an increase in grant revenue of about $11.9M.
The board says the largest expenses included in the budget are for increased staffing, mainly due to increased enrollment, forecasted wage adjustments associated with the Bill 124 resolution, and increases in salaries due to recent labour agreements.