It's going to be awfully difficult to blame this round on declining enrollment.
For more than a decade, senior staff and trustees in the Delta school district have undertaken a most unpleasant spring ritual: chopping staff and programs in order to balance the budget. These deficits have become such a normal occurrence that at this time each year the question isn't whether the school board has to wield an axe, but how big of a swing it must take and what bodies and services will roll as a result.
We've seen all manner of cuts through the years, from teachers and support staff to programs to the closure of a pair of elementary schools five years ago.
Dale Saip, the longest-serving trustee and someone who has lived through it all, is fond of saying the board got rid of the fat long ago and is now faced with cutting into the bone. I've always thought it's an apt description of the situation.
These financial woes have often been blamed on declining enrollment, and given funding from Victoria is doled out on a per pupil basis, losing roughly 3,000 students over the last 15 years has been, to understate the situation, a huge blow. There's been a corresponding decline in the number of teachers required, but suffice to say a bunch of half-full schools is not a terribly efficient way to run a district.
However, this year proves we can't lay all the blame on those disappearing students. For the first time in what seems like eons, the district is actually projecting an increase in enrollment for September, albeit a rather modest one of 25 to 50 kids.
Nonetheless, the stemming of this downward trend, even if it's only a temporary reprieve, means the $3 million deficit trustees are currently grappling with is due to other factors.
It's essentially status quo on the student front, so the deficit arises because the district doesn't have the wherewithal to meet certain financial commitments. What's got them in a pickle this time around are increases to salaries and benefits as well as higher utility costs, all of which are out of the district's control and should be covered by the lump sum that comes from the province.
Given that's not the case, and faced with yet another shortfall, trustees will decide next week what has to be cut in order to balance the books, resulting in yet another group of unhappy stakeholders.
This time, however, we've got to find a different culprit because those disappearing students can't be blamed.
