Trustees must tackle deficit budget

Trustees must tackle deficit budgetIt's difficult because the London District Catholic school board is bursting at the seams with kids.
Trustees must tackle deficit budget
Kate Dubinski, Education Reporter
The London Free Press
November 9, 2006

Although the London District Catholic school board avoided major cuts to programs this budget year, newly elected trustees are going into a deficit budget next year.


BUSES LINE UP: Buses line up to wait for students leaving St. John French immersion school on Hill Street in London. (KEN WIGHTMAN/The London Free Press)


And they're going to have to brace themselves.

Unlike its public counterpart, hit by falling enrolment, many Catholic programs are bursting at the seams, with kids in portables and enrolment in optional programs such as French immersion exceeding capacity.

Add to that a cut in a local-priorities grant from the government that's been used to fund Catholic projects in schools -- so-called Catholicity -- and the new trustees are dealing with a host of issues.

"All of the schools on the edges of London need to be supported too," said current trustee John Ferris, who is running in the new Wards 8, 9, and 10.

School closings don't seem to be on the horizon. There's a new high school being planned in the city's southwest, to the tune of $25 million.

And the southeast subdivision of Summerside desperately needs a new elementary school, despite lower-than-expected enrolments at the elementary school level.

"We need to plan for middle immersion, and we need to find a place for it, and a high school for the future for it," said Paul Whitehead, the current board of trustees chairperson who is running in the new Wards 5, 6, and 7.

Trustees can no longer lobby boards for money the way they used to -- it's a matter of taking enveloped cash and sticking it in places where government priorities lie. And trustees know it.

"What we need now is administrators to know every grant, every pocket of money so we can optimize the money we get from the province," said Frank Colozza, a trustee candidate for Wards 5, 6, and 7.

Catholic trustees also will have to deal with something many haven't thought about before -- replacing the current director of education, Joe Rapai, whose contract expires in 2007 and whose contract the current board of trustees say they won't renew.

Rapai isn't happy with the decision, and reasons for it haven't been made public, and candidates at meetings weren't allowed to answer questions on the issue because of "personnel" issues.

The other big issue, tied into others like French immersion and other optional programs, have to do with boundary changes. Kids, parents feel, are shifted around from school to school when enrolment or capacity problems come up, with little long-term planning.

Despite the problems, the Catholic board is still taking in as many eligible Catholic kids into its schools as it did in the past, a board meeting was told this month.

That brings with it program delivery, accommodation and transportation hurdles trustees will have to overcome.