Calgary Catholic schools pushed into red, forced to shed 85 jobs

$5M deficit expected despite job cuts and tapping reserves

By Sarah McGinnis, Calgary Herald

Job cuts and raiding savings won't be enough to prevent the Calgary Catholic School District from running its first deficit budget in its 125-year history.

The district confirmed Wednesday it would cut 85.8 full-time equivalent positions through attrition and drain the last of its operating reserves in an effort to make up for an expected funding shortfall.

But Calgary Catholic trustees were warned a deficit of up to $5 million would still be required to meet more than $420 million worth of expenses for the 2010-11 school year.

"In 125 years, this is the first time we've ever been in a position where we are planning to bring to you an unfunded deficit budget," chief superintendent Lucy Miller said at Wednesday's board meeting.

Miller said her district has always been "very conservative" in budgeting.

But when the province clawed back $44 million in funding from school boards across Alberta -- including $2.8 million from Calgary Catholic -- the district's fiscal management strategy was "taken away."

A provincial decision not to fund the 2.92 per cent teacher salary increase due to all teachers this fall -- which will cost the Calgary Catholic district $9.3 million -- and years of frozen special needs funding were also cited as pushing the board into the red.

The final financial straw appears to be recent changes to government grants to reduce class sizes.

While the pot of money for the class size initiative in Alberta remains the same, how it is being awarded to school boards will change next year.

Under the new method, the Calgary Catholic School District has lost $6.4 million in funding.

"We're looking at between a $3-to $5-million deficit. If our class size funding remained the same, we would not find ourselves in a position requiring an unfunded deficit," said superintendent of finance John Deausy.

"Class sizes will be larger in the Calgary Catholic School District next year," he added.

The district's financial woes frustrated several trustees at the board meeting.

"It's amazing the wizardry with which the government can come to the rescue of a failed private industry who declares bankruptcy, and manages to bail them out and not even miss a step," said trustee Lois Burke-Gaffney.

She was referring to the $2 million that Alberta Health Services will spend to keep a private health-care firm operating for the rest of the year after it was facing bankruptcy.

"They must have some magic we in education miss," she said.

The 85.8 lost positions announced on Wednesday represented around half of the 150 full-time jobs the district thought it might be forced to eliminate earlier this year.

Last week, the Calgary Board of Education acknowledged it is looking at cutting up to 165 full-time jobs in an effort to reduce its budget by $29.5 million.

With a budget more than double that of Calgary Catholic, the CBE is also considering a $10-million deficit next year.

Job cuts within the separate board won't translate into layoffs for current employees, given the number of staff members who plan on retiring or leaving the district this year, said Deausy.

It is a relief to learn no one will be losing their job in this economy, which would have been devastating for those families, said Felice Lemanne, vice-president of CUPE Local 520, which represents Calgary Catholic custodians and maintenance workers.

"It's an unfortunate thing, but with the economy the way it is right now, we've got to go with the flow," said Lemanne.

Even without layoffs, the job cuts will resonate in all schools, said David Cracknell, president of Calgary Separate Teachers.

He estimated classes could see three or four more students than they have today depending on a school's population.

"The fear for teachers is that we will be see teaching and learning conditions worsen due to more split classes and higher class size. Ultimately, teachers are always striving for teaching and learning conditions that allow for more individual attention to student needs and the kind of enrichment opportunities that come with smaller groupings," said Cracknell.

The school board's final budget isn't expected to be approved until June.

The Catholic district also announced it is going to raise busing fees by $20 for the next school year.

All students travelling by school bus will be required to pay $195 per year for transportation starting in the fall.

smcginnis@theherald.canwest.com

This article was published in the Calgary Herald on May 13, 2010. Read the full article on the CalgaryHearald.com website.