By Charles Lefebvre

Catholic Board releases preliminary budget for Fall 2019

Jun 25, 2019 | 5:31 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — The Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education is tabling its budget for approval Tuesday evening.

However, with provincial government funding not known until the fall, the division is hoping to ensure funding remains stable for students and staff.

Trustees will meet to discuss and approve the budget at 6 p.m. at the Catholic Board of Education office.

“We’re using a status-quo budget to develop this year’s budget, modified for increases to our enrolment,” said Greg MacPherson, secretary-treasurer with the Catholic board.

The budget for the division is just over $32 million, and the board is projecting a small surplus of $209,000, which MacPherson says will be placed in reserve funding.

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The division is 20 more students this fall compared to last year, bringing full-time enrolment to 2,470 students, according to the budget. MacPherson says programming offered by the division, such as sports academies and French immersion, could be a reason for the increase.

However, the budget is also projecting five fewer teachers for students, which MacPherson says is primarily due to retirements and attrition.

With the provincial budget not being released until the fall after a report on the province’s finances is released, school divisions are playing things safe, assuming funding levels will remains the same.

MacPherson notes once the provincial budget is tabled in the fall, and divisions have final enrolment numbers, there will be a clearer idea of what schools can expect.

“We’re quite frankly uncertain what the future holds,” he said. “We are developing this budget based on , as i said, a status quo model. The government gets to do what it get to do coming out of those reports, so we’ll have to wait and see what the future holds.”