“We couldn’t be quiet this time around”: Facing a $6.1 million deficit, Peterborough’s public school board calls for more provincial funding

Peterborough’s public school board is calling for a boost to provincial education funding as it contends with a $6.1 million budget deficit for next school year.

“We couldn’t be quiet this time around,” said Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board chair Jaine Klassen Jeninga. “It was time for us to say… what we believe in for public education, and where we are short.”

Klassen Jeninga told Education Minister Todd Smith in a letter in late June that the board needs additional funds for essential school services like special education and student transportation.

KPRDSB’s 2024/2025 operating budget, approved last month, includes almost $520 million in spending, an increase of more than $36 million from 2023/2024. The board also passed a capital budget of $49.5 million, about half of which will go toward building a new elementary school in Bowmanville.

Several Ontario school boards are also facing deficits, with some eliminating staff and cutting services to rein in spending. Boards say their financial challenges are the result of education funding that has not kept pace with inflation. 

Klassen Jeninga, who is also a board member for the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association (OPSBA), said the province is seeing an “onslaught” of deficit budgets from school boards.

The province plans to spend $29 billion on operational funding for education next school year, an increase of $745 million from 2023/2024. 

But despite increases to education spending by the Ford government, an analysis by the OPSBA found that, when adjusted for inflation, per-student funding has actually decreased by $776 since the Progressive Conservatives took office in 2018.

KPRDSB trustees opted to use the board’s accumulated surplus to make up for its $6.1 million budget shortfall, and instead of cutting back, the board will add 36 positions next school year, according to the budget.

“Cutting resources… is not our answer, at least at this point,” Klassen Jeninga said. “If this continues, we’re going to have to make some hard, hard choices going into the next budget year.”

KPRDSB had an accumulated surplus of $31.7 million in 2023, some of which is earmarked for things like future employee benefits, according to its 2022/2023 financial statement. 

Board says it needs millions of dollars more for student transportation and special education

One financial challenge the board faces is a $2.7 million funding gap for student transportation, according to the budget. The province has allocated $27.4 million to bus students next school year, but according to KPRDSB it will actually cost $30.1 million, and it has to cover the difference.

Klassen Jeninga said many boards are struggling with rising transportation costs, but that the situation is particularly challenging for those, like KPRDSB, that serve large rural areas.

“Where we see it dramatically affecting us is because of the square kilometers that KPR covers. We are such a vast territory,” she said. KPRDSB serves the City of Peterborough, Peterborough County, Northumberland County and the Municipality of Clarington.

Some schools have stopped accepting out-of-boundary students to limit busing costs, as well as to deal with overcrowding, according to Klassen Jeninga. “We’ve had to put hard boundaries into where students are able to attend,” she said. 

Another area where KPRDSB says it is short on funding is special education.

According to Greg Kidd, executive officer of corporate affairs, the board has budgeted over $75 million for special education next year, some of which will go toward hiring 31 new special education support staff. But provincial funding is $6.55 million shy of what the board says it needs.

That is concerning because “we need to ensure that we give [special needs students] the opportunity to be just as successful as anybody else in our school buildings,” said Klassen Jeninga.

The board also wants the province to invest in equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives, something she said is a priority as the student population becomes more diverse. 

For example, KPRDSB plans to hire a graduation coach to support Black and racialized students next school year. But the province doesn’t provide dedicated funding for equity, diversity and inclusion, so the board has to pull resources from other areas to pay for such initiatives.

“We’re looking to increase things like graduation coaches [and to be] more cognizant of the changing demographics of our board as we receive more and more students from the GTA,” Klassen Jeninga said. “We talk about inclusion at our board… we have to practise what we preach.”

Increases to Canada Pension Plan contribution rates are another strain on KPRDSB’s budget, according to Klassen Jeninga.

“There’s no accompanying funding from the ministry to account for those increases,” she said. “That’s hitting us hard.”

Minister Smith’s office did not respond to questions Peterborough Currents submitted by email.