By Nancy Kelly
The school board is telling school administrators and parent groups to brace themselves for potential budget cuts in the year ahead.
A Jan. 23 letter co-signed by Annapolis Valley Regional School Board superintendent Margo Tait and chairwoman Lavinia Parrish Zwicker updated schools and communicated the school board’s approach to managing potential budget cuts for the 2012/13 academic year.
Last year a $1.8 million reduction in funding, coupled with the requirement to absorb operational costs for rising fuel and electricity cost, translated into a loss of nearly $3 million for the Valley board.
Last year’s reductions were achieved by cutting 16 regional positions and trimming regional administrative costs. By doing so, the board was “able to achieve the reductions required by the province without directly impacting classrooms and schools,” the letter said.
Over the past few years, the school board has been in the habit of communicating its budget progress to all parents, Tait wrote.
“But this year we chose to share the message just with administrators and school groups, knowing they would keep the school communities up-to-date.”
With two tentative deadlines to receive budget details from the province now come and gone, Tait wrote she is hopeful the budget package will be announced soon.
The board has begun its preliminary budget work, but all it can do in the absence of revenue information is prepare expense details.
Electricity costs, which went up 10 per cent in January, fuel and wages can be estimated; the province’s contribution is missing piece of the budget puzzle, Tait pointed out.
While the board is committed to “doing what it can to protect classrooms to the greatest extent,” Tait said, “it will be tricky” given the board made significant cuts at the regional level last year to trim its budget.
She added the board will have to look elsewhere for cost efficiencies if further reductions are needed.
