School District 72 Board Approves 2022-2023 Annual Operating Budget

School District 72 has voted to approve an amended budget for 2022-23, coming in at about $81 million as of last year.

The board was left with an overall deficit of nearly $638,000.

However, the budget reflects updated costs for recent wage settlements with teachers, support staff and excluded staff, but doesn’t include the funding grant for the CUPE settlement because it hasn’t been received yet from the Ministry of Education and Child Care. With that funding, SD72 could see an operating surplus of $600,000 at the end of the year.

The district is expecting an increase of approximately 62 full-time equivalent students next school year after analyzing community trends and information from the schools, according to Secretary-Treasurer Kevin Patrick.

Patrick says forecasting for the 2023-2024 school year has been slightly more complex as automated enrollment numbers stated an increase of approximately 80 students whereas the Ministry of Education and Child Care has only forecasted an increase of nine students.

The district is usually more conservative than the automated demos in its forecasting and the numbers that are used to build the district’s preliminary operating budget.

The full list of budget recommendations, which was approved by the board, is posted on the district's budget development webpage.