Northern Lights Public Schools is happy with the budget for the 2018/19 school year. The board approved the budget at last weeks meeting. The budget will is not quite balanced, with a $1.5 million deficit from revenue to expenditures. Nicole Garner is with NLPS, She says the board is grateful for a couple of grants from the province that help with the plan.
“We were pretty pleased to hear that the government was continuing the classroom improvement fund. We had originally thought it would be a one-year thing.”
Garner says the NDP budget ties into how the school can operate. One example of that is the school nutrition program, which will help with programs Vera M Walsh and Aurora Middle school in Lac La Biche.
The province figures funding for school boards based on how many kids they have enrolled. Garner says it’s a pretty simple equation on how the schools get the money they need.
“So it’s completely based on our enrollment. The more students we have, the more money we get.”
The school board is hoping the recruitment numbers will continue to clime in the next few years. The budget does feature some cuts to help keep on track, including plant operations and maintenance at various schools.