One year after being released from a multi-year recovery plan, the Hastings Prince Edward District School Board has a surplus.
Superintendent of Business Services Nick Pfeiffer told the Hastings Prince Edward Public School Board on Monday night during their regular council meeting, the school board finished the 2019-2020 year with an accumulated surplus of $10.3 million.
He told the board that school board staff met with the auditor on November 4, and the audited financial statements result in an in-year surplus of $5,108,161 and a corresponding in-year surplus for Ministry compliance reporting purposes of $700,771.
This brings the total accumulated surplus available for compliance to $10,278,808.
The original budget plan for 2019-2020 was forecast to have essentially a balanced budget with a surplus for compliance purposes of $20,007.
Overall, the revenues decreased from that projected in the budget by $2.6 million and the expenses decreased by $5.8 million.
The 2019-20 year had two significant events that impacted both the revenues and the expenses of the board according to Pfeiffer.
Events impacting the final surplus included labour disruptions including strikes by elementary and secondary teachers and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pfeiffer said the strikes resulted in reductions in both revenues and expenses; and the pandemic, which saw schools close in March and students and staff complete the year using remote learning technology, resulted in net savings for the operation of school buildings, staff absence replacement costs, and student transportation costs, but expense increases in other areas.
The significant factors affecting revenues and expenses were:
- Enrolment was above budget projection by four elementary students and below budget projection by 22 secondary students
- Labour disruption resulted in six strike days for elementary teachers and five strike days for secondary teachers with a reduction for both revenue and expenses of $2.8 million
- The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in staff and students working remotely for the last three and a half months of the 2019-20 school year
- A reduction in staff absence replacement costs due to a decline in sick leave requests and due to reduced professional development supply coverage requirements resulted in a savings of $2.9 million
- Reduced professional development activities resulted in a savings of $800,000.
- Increased staffing for education assistants, professionals and paraprofessionals, and coordinators resulted in an expense increase of $1.4 million
- A reduction in student transportation grant partially attributed to reduced transportation during the COVID-19 pandemic and reduced transportation expenses during the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in net savings of $400,000.
- School fundraising revenues and expenses were both reduced by $1.6 million due to the COVID-19 pandemic
During the year, the board expended $14,164,112 on capital asset acquisition/construction. These expenditures are funded through a variety of sources including capital priorities, school condition improvement, and school renewal grants.
