Achi news desk-
With rising costs and growing enrolment, the Calgary Catholic School District (CCSD) Board of Trustees will use $21.5 million from district reserves to cover a shortfall in provincial funding.
“This level of funding provided by the state falls significantly short of meeting the needs of our students,” board chair Shannon Cook told reporters.
On Thursday, the board approved the CCSD operating budget for 2024-2025, with $688.5 million in revenue, up 5.8 percent from last year, and $710 million in expenditures, a 6.3 percent increase from the previous budget.
“The amount of funding we receive is problematic. First of all, it hasn’t changed since 2018-2019, so we got about $9,608 per student donated… it’s at $9,618, so no significant change since the 2018-2019 school year,” Cook said.
“Our utilities have increased by more than 50 percent, everything is up, desk costs are up, software costs are up, Wi-Fi costs are up. All those things that you need to have in a classroom, they’re all on their feet, so we haven’t had progress to deal with that.”
CCSD officials noted that funding from Alberta Education raised $20.5 million over 2023-2024, but due to the funding model used by the province, 1,562 students will be left unfunded in September. This cost is partially offset by supplemental enrollment growth grants, but overall, there is a $9.6 million shortfall.
In its 2024 budget, the Alberta government announced $9.3 billion in funding for K-12 education, an increase of 4.4 percent.
The email you need for the day’s top news stories from Canada and around the world.
In a statement to Global News, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said Calgary is experiencing the largest population growth ever, and the province will increase its funding for education.
“Over the next three years, we have planned to invest more than $1.2 billion, which will go directly to hiring more teachers and other educational staff. We are stepping up and investing more in education to help accommodate this historic growth.
“School divisions in Calgary have received over $100 million in new funding this year alone and 18 new schools are on the way for the Calgary metropolitan region, which will add 16,000 needed spaces.”
Medeana Moussa, executive director of Supporting our Students, says schools across the province are being asked to do more with less funding.
“We are running out of physical space, we are running out of enough teachers because we have classrooms with over 40 children. We are running out of technology access.
“We are at a breaking point and the government needs to adequately fund education or children will not get the high quality education that I believe all Albertans are strong in for our society.”
Cook said the school district is currently facing difficult financial decisions. “The problem is you can only stretch resources so far, and at the moment we’ve stretched the resources so far the quality of the resources may not be the same as they once were.”
The CCSD anticipates that more than 2,000 new students will be registered by the end of September.
“The problem is that next year could be more difficult. So, things like classroom size – we haven’t touched on class size. Will we have to look at that next year if we don’t get additional funding? We may have to look at that if we don’t get extra money.”
The CCSD is the largest Catholic school district in the province, serving approximately 63,000 students in 118 schools in Calgary, Airdrie, Cochrane, Chestermere and Rocky View County.
Former CCSD Superintendentndent Rehired
In a letter sent to parents on Friday, the CCSD Board of Trustees announced that Dr. Bryan Szumlas returns as chief superintendent and will begin a new two-year contract effective May 27.
In March, Szumlas resigned from the position, with the board citing personal reasons for his decision.
The board wrote that they will not disclose any further details about these matters to respect Szumlas’ privacy.
“The acceptance of the resignation of Chief Superintendent Szumlas and the subsequent re-employment was thoroughly reviewed and considered. We are always working to make decisions that we believe are in the best interests of our students, staff and families.”
