By Grant Warkentin
School District 72 is facing a hole in next year’s budget worth nearly $1 million, because of declining student enrolment.
“For anyone out there who hasn’t registered their student for kindergarten we encourage you to do so. we’re sitting at 290 right now and we’re forecasting 360. So we need to pick up 70 students,” said school superintendent Geoff Manning at the March 17 public board meeting.
The school board got its first look at preliminary numbers for next year’s budget, and there are nearly 94 fewer students (referred to as “full time equivalents,” FTEs, in financial documents) expected. The province allocates funding based on a per-student formula, set at $9,015 per FTE.
The school district is also facing a tighter budget because of collective agreements for teachers and educators.
“There are some recent general wage increase settlements. When this was issued, we weren’t asked to account for that, so the funding does not reflect that,” said the district’s secretary treasurer Kevin Patrick, pointing out that inflation wasn’t covered by provincial funding, either. “Now that we’re entering this era of decline, it’s going to put a lot more pressure on, because not only are we not getting funded for inflation, but now you’re starting to look at reductions.”
Patrick said in the past inflation costs could be covered by growth, more students in the school system.
“Now we’re looking at the exact opposite,” he said.
According to the latest budget documents for 2025-2026, the single largest expenditure for the school district is for “instruction,” i.e. salaries and benefits for educators, which accounts for nearly 77% of the entire budget at nearly $72.5 million. The district has little control over those costs.
The numbers also show the school district is already sitting in a deficit position of nearly $381,000, as of the end of June this year.
Meanwhile the international student program is doing well, and is already fully booked up for next year, with 95 students equivalent to 75 FTEs expected.
Trustee David Harper said it’s good to see how well the local program is performing.
“Other Lower Mainland districts have used this as a budget building tool and they’re jamming four to six international students into every classroom and of course their budget comes crashing down when the numbers don’t show up,” he said. “We’re not in that position, this thing is always running on its own, which is terrific.”
Tuition fees for international students vary by district. In Campbell River, fees are nearly $15,000 for a full year. The province does not contribute funding per FTE for international students.
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