More teachers, EAs and fees for parents as SPSD passes budget

The Saskatoon Public School Division has passed its 2023-2024 operating budget, as required by the Ministry of Education, and it includes up to $8 million in additional funding from the province to address class sizes and additional enrolment.

Board chair Colleen MacPherson said the exact amount depends on how many new students there are in the fall.

“We’re anticipating that in September, Saskatoon Public will have just over 1,000 more students than we had in September of this school year,” she said.

The majority of growth will be at the elementary school level, she added.

The division’s new budget will also include the addition of 22 elementary and 13 secondary teachers, 13 full-time-equivalent (FTE) educational assistants, five FTE elementary resource teachers, and 3.5 FTE teachers to instruct English as an additional language.

Parents at the secondary school level will also have to fork out more money in fees, with the introduction of a lunch supervision fee of $50 per student per year, similar to the fees already in place in elementary schools.

“It’s important to understand that supervising students at lunch is not in the collective agreement for teachers,” MacPherson explained.

“We compensate teachers for providing that service, and that costs us about $1.3 million every year.”

She added that even though the students are older and more independent at the collegiate level, adults still need to be around. Families that can not afford to pay the additional fee won’t be required to do so.

“We do appreciate that this is putting … significant pressure on some families, which we will acknowledge and deal with. We won’t make anyone pay this fee if it’s a particular hardship,” she said.

Even with the additional funding from the province, MacPherson said the division still isn’t getting the level of funding that allows the school division to keep up the status quo, so other options had to be explored, including the lunch supervision fees.

Other reductions in the budget include cutting the number of teacher librarians from 6.75 FTE positions to just 3 positions across both elementary and secondary schools. A new, centralized model will be used to run the school libraries.

Post-pandemic outreach workers and learning supports will be eliminated as well, as the one-time funding for those positions has been spent.

MacPherson also said after-hour school gym rental fees will also increase.