EDMONTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS FEELING THE FINANCIAL PINCH

Edmonton Public Schools are facing the possibility of having to did in their rainy day accumulated surplus, which is “not sustainable.” Superintendent Darrel Robertson said to combat inflationary pressures on utilities, insurances and increased staffing costs the division will need to take millions from accumulated operating surplus fund and lesser millions from their capital reserve funds leaving both funds dangerously low.

The greatest problem is growing student enrollments and all the personnel requirements of meeting this number.The challenge is that all of our costs are increasing, including our staffing costs. It’s getting tighter and tighter,” Robertson said. The largest expense for the division is salaries, wages and benefits for employees, resulting in an increased cost of $16 million, said Todd Burnstad, chief financial officer with Edmonton Public.

Like all school boards in Alberta, Edmonton Public Schools is dependent upon Edmonton taxpayers as well as the Provincial Government which also gets some of its financial base from Alberta taxpayers.