By meadowlakeNOW

NWSD hoping for good news in Sask. provincial budget

Apr 9, 2018 | 6:00 PM

Staffing and planning for the 2018-2019 school year are a couple things on the minds of the senior administration and board of the Northwest School Division (NWSD).

During their regular monthly meeting today, officials chatted about the Saskatchewan provincial budget, set to drop tomorrow, April 10 at 2 p.m. 

Duane Hauk, NWSD Director of Education, said staff have been working on the division’s budget steadily for the last couple of months, and will have a draft copy ready by their May meeting.

“Staffing is such a big part of our budget and we’re trying to make sure we’re prepared for that,” Hauk said. “We’ve already been working on our budget for next year and we’re obviously awaiting the announcement of our budget tomorrow, but it’s our understanding that our budget should be fairly similar to this year’s.”

He said the division has continuously tried to stay as efficient as possible, to be prepared for any fluctuations in government funding.

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“We’re keeping the resources we have, and we have relatively small class sizes that we keep our pupil-teacher-ratio within our division,” Hauk said. “If the funding is similar this year, we think we can keep the services about the same within the classroom.”

He added strategic planning is coming up for the senior administration and board, and soon after the provincial budget announcement occurs, Hauk and Chief Financial Officer Charlie McCloud will immediately start working to finalize how the government’s funding formula will shape the upcoming NWSD school year.

“It’s a year-long process to work on these things,” Hauk said. “Obviously there’s so many fixed costs, obviously we need to heat our buildings, pay our power bills, and other costs that go along with running an organization.”

The board will finalize its budget in June, and then will be approved by the Ministry of Education over the summer months.

kathy.gallant@jpbg.ca

On Twitter @ReporterKath