(File photo/northeastNOW Staff).

By Aaron Schulze

NESD Finances

NESD sees smaller deficit than budgeted for 2018-19

Nov 26, 2019 | 5:30 PM

The North East School Division (NESD) prepared for a deficit in the 2018-19 academic year, but the punch was softer than expected.

A draft of the audited financial statement presented during the Nov. 26 NESD Board of Education meeting showed a $2,466,997 operating deficit, nearly a million and a half less than the projected $4,055,267 loss.

Key differences for the NESD’s revenue during 2018-19 was nearly $170,000 more in grants, nearly $300,000 more in school generated funds, and nearly $100,000 from other sources.

Expenses varied when comparing the budget and the financial statement. Less was spent on instruction by nearly $900,000 and on complimentary services by nearly $100,000 while spending more on transportation (nearly $70,000) and school generated funds (nearly $150,000).

By the NESD’s year end as of Aug. 31, its accumulated surplus fell to $79,105,880 instead of the $77,517,610 projection. The NESD’s net financial assets fell by just over $400,000, going from $7.1 million in 2018 to $6.7 million in 2019. The projection for year’s end was around $5 million.

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Luke Perkins, chair of the NESD, said the board doesn’t see any red flags with the financial statement.

“Our administration does a wonderful job of preparing for worst case scenario,” Perkins said. “Quite consistently since the years I’ve been on we end up having to dip in a little bit into surplus, which we have lately, but we haven’t been dipping in as much as what we budget for. We try to do things that we can to keep far away from the classroom as possible and at the end of the day you live with a budget each year.”

The NESD approved to take out over $4 million of its near $7 million in reserves to balance the 2019-20 budget back in June.

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow