REGINA – The Saskatchewan School Boards Association (SSBA) is recognizing the small increase in funding for the school system in today’s provincial budget, while also emphasizing that the increase falls short of covering operating and inflationary costs.
“The operating increase announced in the 2022-23 budget does not cover operating expenses for school divisions,” said Dr. Shawn Davidson, president of the SSBA. “School boards may have difficult decisions to make, once again.”
Boards have worked very hard to find efficiencies with buildings, transportation and office procedures – but when the operational funding doesn’t cover inflationary costs, the dollars aren’t there to pay for any investment or additional services that students need.
“We have been advocating for adequate, sustainable and predictable operational funding for quite some time and we have noticed that the ability of boards to deliver services to students has been eroded over the last several years,” Davidson said.
As school divisions receive their operational budget details through the education funding distribution model, they will have a better sense of the local budget response and circumstances, which might vary among regions, he noted.
School boards recognize ongoing investment in capital projects. They also continue to advocate for strategic co-ordination with the Ministry of Health on mental health and wellness initiatives and are encouraged by some additional dollars for that.