Jump in district enrolment boosts revenue and jobs

Oct 24, 2019 | 2:02 PM

A steady increase in enrolment at School District 22 is providing a boost to the district’s financial coffers.

At Wednesday’s board of education meeting, district staff revealed a projection of $1.4 million in additional revenue thanks to a rise in enrolment numbers.

Special needs students and students enrolled in alternate or distributed learning make up a portion of the demographic seeing a jump from last year.

Martiza Reilly, communications coordinator with School District 22 confirms the district saw a jump of 32 special needs students, and 62 distributed or alternate learning students compared to what they originally budgeted last year.

Earlier this month, the district revealed a grand total of 8,927 students enrolled at their schools.

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Higher numbers begets more resources.

The district hired two more full-time teachers this year along with 10 educational assistants to keep up with the increase.

While the jump in enrolment and additional revenue is a positive note compared previous years, Assistant Secretary Treasurer Adrian Johnson noted one financial downside.

“Absenteeism for the month of September is going to be greater than forecast, both long and short-term sick,” said Johnson.

Maternity leave is also up in the district with double the amount of staff on leave compared to this time last year.

“If these trends continue, we expect our absenteeism costs to be a few hundred thousand dollars more than budgeted,” Johnson said.

The collective agreement, which is still in the process of being finalized, the construction budget for BX Elementary, and the board office project were other key financial risks for this year identified at the board meeting.

by Tiffany Goodwein

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