English school board told to save $500,000

The superintendent of P.E.I.'s English Language School Board says the government asked the school board to save money.

"We were asked to save as close to a half million dollars as possible, but I understand and I've been told that we have to look for more," said Cynthia Fleet. 

The school board has not received all the details on its budget for this year, because the provincial budget has not been presented. 

While Fleet acknowledges she has been given some information about the budget, she says she hasn't been able to move forward with certain planning. Fleet says she knows how many teachers she has money to hire for next year, but she has not been given permission to share the information.

"When it comes to teacher allocation, there was a number shared with me for us to work with, but there are a number of parts to that," said Fleet.

Fleet said she has to present a full picture to her senior management team for them to be able to do complete planning.

"I would have to share the full allocation with them and I needed permission from the premier's office to do that and up to today I have not been given permission to do that."

Until she has permission to share the full financial picture, Fleet said, the board can't begin to move teachers or fill positions.

The exact figures will be contained in the provincial budget. The budget is usually tabled in early April, but was delayed first by the May 4 provincial election, and is now waiting for the Opposition to finish its response to the throne speech.

The Opposition response has run longer than usual, more than seven hours as of Tuesday morning, but Opposition leader Steven Myers denies it is a filibuster.