HWDSB to meet tonight to discuss declining enrolment and budget deficit
The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board will meet tonight to discuss a financial deficit that's prompted cuts to teaching staff and school budgets.
The board meeting, scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Monday evening, is expected to cover the financial shortfall and the latest re-organization of online and in-person classes across the school system.
Last week, the board reported that its financial deficit could be as much as $8.8 million by the end of the 2020-21 school year due to low student enrolment and a lack of government funding.
At a financial committee meeting Thursday evening, board administrator Stacey Zucker told trustees that the public board will not be receiving an anticipated $15.2 million in funding from the province after discovering there are 1,756 fewer students enrolled in the board than anticipated.
The enrolment numbers affect the amount of funding the board receives from the province's Grants for Student Needs (GSN) program, which typically offers money to boards for a variety of needs including special education, professional development, language programming, and more.
Zucker also noted the board will not be receiving an anticipated $700,000 typically drawn from school rental spaces, bringing the total reduction in revenue to roughly $15.9 million.
The board has planned to surplus roughly 33 teachers and curb spending across the board in an effort to reduce its deficit by the end of the fiscal year.
Board administrators are expected to address the shortfall tonight.
Alex Johnstone, chair of the board, told trustees on Thursday they might consider putting some of the board's reserve funds towards reducing the deficit.
Roughly $6 million of the board's reserve funds - typically saved for rainy day" expenses - were used this year to reduce classroom sizes in kindergarten and Grades 4 to 8 across the HWDSB.
Johnstone says the board could use some of its reserve funds again to reduce the deficit to roughly $2.8 million, though it requires approval from the trustees.
This is difficult work in an unprecedented time," Johnstone told trustees last Thursday.
School boards in Hamilton have been placed in the most difficult position. We have the province telling the school boards to use their own funding, which we've done, and yet it's still not enough."
The board also plans to discuss changes to online and in-person enrolment.
According to the meeting agenda, a net total of 300 students will move from in-person to remote learning for the remainder of the semester.
Earlier in October, conversely, Hamilton's Catholic board reported a modest increase in in-person enrolment.
Jacob Lorinc's reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. The funding allows him to report on stories about education.