Deadline for filing this amended budget to the Ministry Education is February 28th but trustees decided more time was not needed.

This latest budget for the 2015/2016 year anticipates total revenue of $23.919 million with expenses more than that at 24.202 million dollars.

The increase in spending over the previous budget for the same education year: $85024

The province recently approved increase for principals and vice principals. The budget includes a 3% increase in that category – BUT – the ministry did not fund this expecting the money to come from surpluses or creating operational deficits.

All the district teachers not including substitutes earn $9.78 million, support staff $2.33 million with total salaries of all employees: $16.46 million – benefits extra about 25 percent.

School District finance staff anticipate that about $618 thousand in expenses are not funded and will come from accumulated surpluses.

Figures indicate this cannot be sustained for long which gets us to school closures as the only way of saving money.

Four people attended the meeting Wednesday night from Osoyoos, two media and one union rep.

Other highlights:

Enrollment continues to fall

District received a $500 grant from 100 Women Who Care – to celebrate the arts

Pro D Day February 19th – to find ways to improve student learning – rich workshops “Infusing Aboriginal Content”,  Social Media, Poverty as a classroom issue, Breaking the Silence on LGBT issues in Schools.