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News Item

Chinook Receives Provincial Budget

March 21, 2019

Budget 2019-2020.PNG

On March 20, the 2019-2020 provincial budget was announced in the legislature with a 1.4% increase in operating funds for PreK-12 Education. Chinook will again face a shortfall as the budget is developed for the upcoming school year. The division’s recognized grant of $75.44M is approximately $140,000 more than the previous year, which is a 0.18% increase in total budget for Chinook.

“Sufficient funds are necessary in order for us to continue to provide quality education in rural Saskatchewan. At this point, our Board and administration have found as many efficiencies as possible, while maintaining core services for our students and trying to minimize the impact on the classrooms,” said Board Chair Kim Pridmore, “Our students are entitled to the same opportunities as every other student in the province to become healthy, thriving citizens with a promising future. The Chinook Board and school communities will keep advocating for the needs of rural schools so we can ensure our children and youth receive the education and supports needed to be successful.”  

Chinook has not experienced any significant enrolment increase over the past few years, and much of the $26.2M increase in provincial education funding will go elsewhere in the province where there was population growth. Director of Education, Kyle McIntyre, clarified that Chinook still has a high degree of fixed costs that are not connected to enrolment. “On top of the remaining fixed costs, we must also manage increased costs such as inflation, salary increments for teachers and support staff, the rising cost of utilities and the carbon tax. These are all additional costs that we have to adjust for every year, whether we are funded for them or not,” said McIntyre, “Providing quality education in a vast geographic area such as ours requires sufficient resources. This is becoming more and more challenging. We will continue to focus on our division initiatives of writing, student engagement and attendance, and work hard to make sure Chinook remains a great place to go to school and go to work.”

As the Board works to finalize their budget for 2019-20, they will continue to align the Division strategic plan with the Education sector plan. The Chinook Board is also looking forward to hearing the results of the engagement sessions for the new Provincial Education Plan that the Ministry of Education is currently developing. They hope feedback from Saskatchewan communities will result in both urban and rural Saskatchewan students receiving the resources and support to experience success. 

© Chinook School Division 2014

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