The Bluewater public school board is still staring at a 2.8 million dollar gap standing in the way of a balanced budget.
When the budget was last discussed in May, the gap was over four million dollars.
That since has been reduced to just over 2.8 million after cuts to consultant expenses and corrections were made to salary calculations.
There is a proposed list of cuts totalling 2.2 million dollars.
It includes lowering the per kilometre mileage rate from 42 to 40 cents, decommissioning three outdated portables at a savings of 45 thousand dollars, and reducing the number of specific contact teachers in math and literacy.
Vice Chair Jan Johnstone says the contact teachers should be re-assigned to regular classroom work, based on their seniority.
Johnstone and Trustee John Chapman both say no more money should be spent on consultants.
One of the boards Tech Centres is also set to be eliminated.
Director of Education Mary Anne Alton says declining enrolment is leading to less demand for the facilities.
But Johnstone, and Trustee Ross King aren’t keen on the idea of reducing the number of tech centres.
The items receiving the most discussion is cutting 450 thousand dollars for staff development — the content of PD days that take place throughout the school year.
The Ministry of Education has said it will not be funding staff development this year, so Johnstone says they shouldn’t be spending money on it.
Johnstone thinks it’s time to let teachers have more classroom time instead.
Chapman says he’d prefer to see cuts made to areas that do not have a direct impact on student learning.
Alton says even if cuts are made, she wants to be sure enough structure is still in place to properly support students using the knowledge and skills teachers have received through staff development training over the years.
The proposed 2.2 million dollars in cuts still leaves a gap of nearly 600 thousand dollars.
Budget Chair Trustee Margaret Gaviller says so much depends on where staff are able to cut further and more suggestions are needed from them.
Chapman says he isn’t comfortable with passing the 138 million dollar budget with the list of suggested cuts just yet.
He asked for one more special budget meeting to be held so that representatives from the board’s unions can offer their input.
A decision was made to hold another budget meeting on the morning of June 16th at the board office in Chesley.
Alton says there are huge complexities in passing a budget and staff always face the challenge of providing enough of the proper information for trustees.