Province orders Windsor-Essex school board to balance budget by 2026-2027, superintendent says

The provincial government has given the Greater Essex County District School Board two years to reduce its spending and eliminate its deficit, according to a presentation at Tuesday night's board meeting by Supt. Shelley Armstrong.

The Ministry of Education on Sept. 6 approved the board's 2024-2025 budget with a deficit of approximately $6.4 million, but it did so with conditions, Armstrong said.

• The board is now required to file a multi-year financial recovery plan no later than Nov. 30, and administrators must meet with ministry officials to discuss the plan.
• The board has to balance its budget by 2026-2027.
• The board must achieve an accumulated surplus of at least two per cent of its operating allocation, which Armstrong estimated to be approximately $9 million.
• The board must file quarterly financial reports to the ministry.

Possible cuts to staffing and student programming

"The ministry has made it very clear to administration that the board's deficit is structural in nature, and that it must adjust its cost structures and work within the current funding framework," Armstrong told trustees.  

"Further cost reductions to achieve a balanced budget will be required, and we will have to examine staffing and student programming as part of that process."

The board unanimously approved the budget in June after rejecting a proposal from staff to eliminate the equivalent of 20 staff positions to reduce the deficit. 

Trustee Cathy Cooke said at the time that the cuts would affect the district's most vulnerable children. 

The province's response follows a July 3 letter sent to former Education Minister Todd Smith by board Chair Gale Simko-Hatfield calling for urgent action to address budget shortfalls.

Letter to minister calls for increased funding

The five-page document identifies five areas that she said needed immediate action.

• Special education funding.
• Statutory benefits.
• Staff absences and supply costs.
• Supply chain and commodity pricing.
• Student transportation.

"It is unacceptable to expect school boards to maintain necessary services to students without substantive changes to the funding formula to recognize the realities faced by school boards," Simko-Hatfield told Smith.

Ontario has only increased its non-staff core education funding benchmarks by two per cent despite exploding costs, Simko-Hatfield said.

That's led to cuts to supplies, services and school budgets.

Benchmarks for funding teachers' benefits and covering absenteeism fall far short of actual spending, she added.

And funding for students with special needs has never kept up with the demand.

Greater Essex County had a projected enrolment of approximately 6,000 special needs students for the 2024-25 school year — a disproportionate number, Simko-Hatfield said.

Insufficient funding for students with special needs, board chair says

The underfunding of community services and agencies has left parents relying on schools to fill the gap.

The board tries to meet those needs through its fully self-contained classrooms, where staff provide extra support to small numbers of students, she explained.

But last year, there wasn't enough funding, so 50 students with disabilities ended up in regular classroom settings. 

"In conjunction with the above, the board only receives funding for 32.0 (full-time equivalent) support staff based on the formula in Core Education Funding," she said.

"When examining budget deficit elimination measures in order to comply with the Education Act, special education is the first area examined for cost reductions due to the number of unfunded positions, and yet it supports our most vulnerable learners."

When it comes to student transportation, bus operator costs exceed the funding benchmarks provided by the ministry, Sinko-Hatfield told the minister.

That's made it much harder to negotiate agreements with operators who are concerned about their own costs.

Without action, the board will have to consider service reductions to students who qualify for bus service, she said.

"If the ministry is unwilling to adequately fund student transportation, perhaps the ministry would be willing to negotiate student transportation services on behalf of all school boards in the province," Simko-Hatfield wrote.

"Alternatively, perhaps the minister would like to speak with families to deny their transportation requests or advise them that a bus route has been cancelled due to bus driver shortages and /or failed equipment."

The spokesperson for Minister of Education Jill Dunlop told CBC that Ontario has provided the Greater Essex County District School Board with over $483 million, representing an increase of 20 per cent since 2018, despite relatively stable enrolment.

"Since coming into government, we have increased special education funding year over year to over $3.5 billion this school year across Ontario and supported the hiring of 9,000 additional education staff," Edyta McKay said.

"We will continue to support student achievement and get students back to basics on building foundational reading, writing and math skills that prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow."