Schools seeing major funding changes

By Kaitlyn Clark

The Haldimand Press

HALDIMAND—Multiple funding changes to this year’s budget from the province, totalling in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, has set the Grand Erie District School Board (GEDSB) scrambling to plan how to best allocate funds.

A GEDSB report noted that a Ministry of Education email in December 2018 “referenced that Ontario needs to modernize the way education is funded and make sure that tax dollars are having the greatest impact in the classroom.” A month later, the Board received a consolidated summary report showing approximately $211,000 in reductions, “of which $108,000 was negated by reduced spending”. GEDSB then received a new transfer payment agreement from the province that saw further updates to funding.

“In one announcement, the Board’s EPO’s (Education Programs – Other) were reduced by $211,000. In the second group of announcements, the Board identified $326,610 in new initiatives,” said Raf Wyszynski, Superintendent of Business & Treasurer at GEDSB. While overall there is technically more funding coming in, he continued, “This will not be surplus as the Board will likely need to develop plans to allocate this funding on specific outcomes.”