THUNDER BAY -- At least one local school board will see a slight reduction in funding in the upcoming school year because of declining enrolment.
Ontario’s Minister of Education Liz Sandals announced funding of $22.5 billion for the province’s 72 school boards in the 2015-16 school year; that number is the same as last year.
But because of a decrease in enrolment, the Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board will see a small dip in the amount of funding it receives.
“”We are in the fortunate position that the grants haven’t really affected us too much,” said the board’s superintendent of business and corporate services Sheila Chiodo.
Schools not operating at capacity will feel a hit when it comes to the amount of money they receive. The local Catholic board’s elementary enrolment is at 82 per cent capacity and secondary enrolment is at 94 per cent.
The exact grant calculations won’t be coming for about a month, but Chiodo said it won’t affect their budget for next year.
“We look at it every year as part of our budget deliberations. We take a look at what we’re offering now and if there are better ways we can service our students but at this point, we don’t see any reductions,” she said.
Declining enrolment has been an issue for the past five years, but Chiodo noted they are expected it to stabilize in the next few years and the board is already starting to see that happen. This year they have the same number of children in junior kindergarten they do graduating Grade 12.
The minister’s announcement came with a message for boards to shift the focus from maintaining underused facilities to student programming and updating schools.
The province is also urging boards to look at where they can consolidate schools.
The Catholic board is working on a capital plan for the next five to 10 years and consolidation may eventually be part of that process.
However, Chiodo said they’re not looking at closing any schools right now.
