The Hastings Prince Edward District School Board of Trustees has approved the 2025-26 budget, but it was not without a lengthy discussion.
In a 7-3 recorded vote, trustees agreed on the framework for the school year ahead.
Voting in favour were Trustees Robertson, Charlton, Maracle, Binder, Hambly, Vice-Chair Trustee Lewis, and Chair Trustee Kramp.
Voting against were Trustees Parsons, Speck, and Prinzen.
The main issue of discussion around the budget had to do with fewer educational assistants and an increase in the administrative line of the budget.
Trustee Ernie Parsons:
Audio Player“I can’t on principle vote for a budget that increases administration funding and decreases funding for services to students. I just can’t do it and I won’t be doing it.”
Trustee Rachel Prinzen put forward a motion to send the budget back to the Physical Planning, Finance and Building Committee, to find more money for frontline educations, while cutting executive compensation.
Prinzen told the meeting she believes the board would be in non-compliance with the Broader Public Sector Executive Compensation Act, if the budget were passed.
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Trustee Prinzen.
Audio Player“We need to decrease the amount we are paying our administrators. If we’re going to be cutting E.A.s, before we do that, I think it’s negligent. I think the public is not happy, they have spoken out.”
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Trustee Amanda Robertson indicated more advocacy was needed so the provincial government invests more in education.
Audio Player“The reality is if we want to be putting our efforts into improving our financial situation, it is imperative for all of us around this table to be advocating more strongly for what we need and not pointing fingers and nitpicking and tearing down the people who are providing us with a budget that can work.”
Trustee Erica Charlton spoke to executive compensation and the compliance of the board.
Audio Player“It was made clear that we are within compliance and we are within regulation of what is required for our senior team.”
Chair Kari Kramp referred to the Superintendent of Business Services and Treasurer Bryce Wilson for clarification on executive compensation and Ministry of Education compliance.
Wilson says the budget is in compliance.
Trustee Ron Speck made a motion for the board to send the budget back to find more money for frontline educators.
Audio Player” … and I would argue Jordan’s Principle is not enhanced, it is a core funding, because if we don’t get that 66 E.A.s, we’re in trouble. Our students are in trouble.”
A large number of the educational assistants that have been cut from last year’s budget revolved around an upper-tier government funding program called Jordan’s Principle
It provides support to First Nations students, including in the classroom.
There is still a chance the board may get government approval for that funding to rehire the educational assistants.
Trustee Speck’s motion was defeated, however, before it went to a vote, Director of Education Katherine MacIver spoke to the proposed motion.
She did not mince words about not approving the budget and where the money was going to come from.
Audio Player“I’m going to share that I’m surprised, actually floored, that with 255 less students and the decreased revenue, we have still found dollars to put 15 additional E.A.s (Educational Assistants) into classrooms, to increase school budgets by ten per cent, to hire an additional speech language pathologist, to hire an additional behaviour ABA (Applied Behaviour Analysis) support coordinator, to hire coaches who are providing direct support for student achievement.
“There is no change to executive compensation from last year to this year. There have been no increases in salary and this is not a surprise to any trustee. You have been a part of the decisions and the discussions. You have the documentation.”
“I am more than happy to take this back to PPFB (Physical Planning, Finance and Building Committee), but I can’t do it with this motion. I need to know where you expect us to find the dollars. Do we not have the increased special education software? Do we stop our ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) project, which is an audit requirement? Do we put less money into cyber security? Do we spend the dollars that we have set aside for teachers for September, for an anticipated increase in enrolment? I need the direction.”
Trustee Parsons says he feels the board does not have a good relationship with schools.
Audio Player“I don’t have the answers as to where the money will come from or how it will be moved. Part of that reason quite bluntly, is because this board aggressively discourages trustees from having any direct involvement with schools. The province says that trustees can go to schools, but this board doesn’t like that. In years past, I’ve found that when I visited a school, the teachers knew a lot about education and they knew a lot about the board and they knew a lot about our budget. I got great suggestions from the office staff, I got great suggestions from the custodians, and I got great suggestions from the students.
I don’t know the philosophy or the reason for the philosophy that there shouldn’t be intermingling between trustees and schools. So we’re isolated in this artificial little world called the board room. You know the majority of people aren’t stupid. The majority of people, if you present them with the facts, make the right decision. This board lives in isolation. Do we possess the knowledge to make the changes? No, we only know what we’re told. So the people who really own the system, the students, the teachers, the staff in the school, we have zero contact with them. If you look at any organization that is successful, the top doesn’t operate in isolation but we do and I think it’s wrong.”
It was pointed out by Trustee Kandis Hambly that the budget is an estimate and enrolment or revenue or expenditures could change.
HPEDSB Senior Manager of Finance and Superintendent of Business and Treasurer Bryce Wilson breaking down the 2025-26 budget (Photo: Tim Durkin/ Quinte News)
