Committee of the Whole – Budget: February 20, 2024

Written By Cathryne Milburn

The Committee of the Whole Budget meeting for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board took place on February 20, 2024. Staff brought forward three reports for discussion.

Budget Process and Needs Analysis

Staff brought forward Report 24-039 on the Budget Process for 2024 to 2025 for discussion. The first commitment in the annual budget process is the approval of the Academic Staffing plan for 2024 to 2025. The District is bound by collective bargaining agreements timelines which means that we need to commit over 60% of our budget before the Ministry releases the technical papers for the budget. This commitment is not unique to the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. Staff currently estimate that the Ministry will release the technical papers for the budget in mid to late April, and there has still been no indication of additional funding.

Looking at the District’s current financial health, there are no accumulated reserves that can be used for operations and rising corporate costs continue to add pressure to deliver the current programs. We ran two deficit budgets in a row for the 2021 to 2022 school year and the 2022 to 2023 school year which used up all surplus funding. Therefore, last year, we had to run a balanced budget to ensure we did not get taken over by the Ministry. However, with the reduction in pandemic funding from the Ministry and the overall decrease in funding from the Ministry, we could not grow our surpluses without making service cuts. Due to the lack of surplus, we are still under Ministry supervision. Therefore, it is strongly recommended for this budgetary year that we pass a balanced balance or budget a small surplus to bring the board back into financial health following Ministry guidelines. During the discussion, I asked the following to staff (timestamp 21:59):

  • Question: Do we have the estimated timeframe for bringing forward the remaining needs analysis?
    Answer: The budget process in the presentation outlines the mandated timelines but the meetings could include more. As we work through the needs analysis we are looking to bring the analysis forward to the committee.

  • Question: I heard that we are under supervision, but I thought we used the words that we are under scrutiny in the report. Can you please clarify if we are under supervision or scrutiny and what being under supervision or scrutiny entails?
    Answer: We are 100% under supervision. This entails a bunch of things, including additional staff work monthly and reporting to the Ministry on our expenditures. It puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the finance staff to comply with the ministry requirements while we are under supervision. It does take away our finance staff’s ability to do other things.

With no material provided in advance, staff provided an oral update on the progress of the needs analysis for transportation. The projected estimate for 2024 to 2025 in Transportation is a deficit of over $6 million. Inflation with contracts and the funding formula were identified as major pressures through the needs analysis. We need to increase our capacity to service our students and to stabilize vendor reliability to provide reliable and effective transportation. Opportunities to explore to reduce the deficit include bell time reviews, student eligibility for transportation, transportation delivery models through the Ottawa Student Transportation Authority, outcomes from the Elementary program review, and findings from the Deloitte Report. Transporting students to school is a priority and savings will need to be found elsewhere in the budget to ensure students are transported.

With no material provided in advance, staff provided an oral update on the progress of the needs analysis for replacement cost. The projected estimate for Replacement costs is a deficit of over $20 million. The District is seeing a need for increased release time to support strategic initiatives and an increased need for employee support tied directly to Employee Wellness initiatives. Opportunities to explore to reduce the deficit include wellness programs for staff and professional development opportunities to reduce the risk of injury or burnout.

As staff work on the needs analysis throughout the budget process, I would like to see estimates on how much we could reduce the deficit by exploring the opportunities identified.

Academic Staffing

Staff brought forward Report 24-018 on Academic Staff for 2024 to 2025 for discussion. The academic staffing plan is the first step of the annual budgetary process and represents over 60% of the total operating budget. The plan includes school-based and centrally assigned positions. The staffing timelines are established in collective agreements and are based on timelines necessary to plan timetables and assign teachers for the upcoming school year.

The total proposed budget for academic staffing is $621 million which provides for 5,025.66 full-time equivalent (FTE) teacher positions. This includes the estimated number of teaching staff in elementary and secondary schools which can be found in the below table:

This proposed budget for the academic staffing includes increases due to a projected modest enrolment growth, and new school openings. This accounts for an addition of 16.06 discretionary academic staff positions outlined in the below table. The increases in the academic staffing plan are not a significant change from previous years.

During the academic staffing discussion, I asked the following to staff (timestamp 1:18:41):

  • Question: You previously mentioned that there will be two additional secondary Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) classes opened, do you know where are these two classes being opened?
    Answer: Not at this point the analysis is still underway.

  • Question: This chart outlines all the Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) positions that are dedicated to special education support but do we have numbers regarding the number of classrooms or students being served and the numbers that may still be on the waitlist for special education support?
    Answer: Yes, we have access to some of those numbers. For example, we know the number of classes, and we know the number of pupil spots that are in each of those classes. It could be included in the Frequently Asked Questions document that is currently being worked on.

Please note, that once the Frequently Asked Questions are publicly available, I will share the link on my website.

1: Teaching staffing is shown as Full-Time Equivalents (FTE)

Please note, that the opinions expressed here are entirely my own and do not reflect an official position of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board or the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board of Trustees. Please note answers from staff are paraphrased, the recording can be found here if you would like to watch the entire meeting. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me using my contact form here.

Key links

Cathryne Milburn

By day I am passionate about diversity, inclusion, and communications. By night I am passionate about education, student well-being, and student achievement.

https://cathrynemilburn.com/
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