News
Grand Forks Gazette: SD51 looking to chop $609K from budget
April 27, 2011
Arne Petryshen – Grand Forks Gazette
School District 51 (SD51) announced that it will have to cut more than a half million dollars to balance the 2011/2012 budget, this despite funding levels staying the same as last year.
The announcement was made at a school board finance meeting last week where the budget was proposed.
Funding protection has kept funding the same as last year but other cost pressures have led to the proposed cuts of $609,822.
Secretary-Treasurer Jeanette Hanlon said that the pressures were items such as an increase in salary costs for teachers, benefits, supply costs and other services, such as special needs.
Hanlon asked for ideas to solve the budget issues that will likely lead to staff and teacher cuts if the budget can’t be balanced any other way.
“We have less kids at GFSS so that was the main cut there,” Hanlon said of the reduction of teaching staff there.
In the proposal, the budget for teaching staff was reduced by $229,000 and $93,500 for non-teaching. Substitute teaching would see a $35,000 decrease.
“This last year’s been a bad year for substitute policy,” Hanlon said, since the budget for them had to be cut by the $35,000. Read more
