Board members with the Horizon School Division got a closer look at its financials at its August meeting for the period up to June 30.
Horizon School Division is staring a $996,285 operating deficit in the face as of June 30. Original operating deficits were being forecasted as high as $1.3 million before the July announcement by Minister of Education Dave Hancock in July to fulfill a commitment to school boards by providing funding for a 2.92 per cent increase in teachers’ salaries.
“The primary reason for our deficit this year is because the province reduced our funding for this year. In August of last year, they looked at the reserve balances the school division had and they assessed the school division would receive $848,183 less funding as a result of the reserves that we had,” said Philip Johansen, a certified accountant and finance director for the Horizon School Division at the August Horizon meeting. “There was also some additional funding that was cut by the province.”
The clawbacks were once again a hot-button topic in board chambers, as trustee Sharon Holtman inquired if there was a way to highlight it when the province receives the division’s audited financial statements.
“I just didn’t want them to forget the boards that were actually entrusted with dollars were effectively using them,” said Holtman of the division’s reserves before the announced clawbacks. “Once before as a Taber school division we paid off all our unsupported debt and then they came along (this past year) and they wrote off everyone else’s debt. We were one of the divisions that were very good stewards with our dollars.”
“I’m sure that there has already been enough noise this year that they won’t forget,” replied Johansen, who previously added there are no places in regular reporting packages for finances to enter comments.
There was $1.3 million spent on buildings within the division for the year. The money was primarily funneled into the Vauxhall high school and elementary modernization projects. There was also $193,000 spent on various equipment including accounting systems, new servers and photocopiers. For vehicles, a couple of buses were added to capital assets along with a maintenance trailer for $198,000.
“Total asset additions to June were just over $1.7 million dollars,” said Johansen. “There is a bus being purchased by the Warner Hockey School ($121,939) that is in a partnership with the Horizon School Division. That bus is property of the school division. We have funded the purchase of it. However, the society for the hockey school will be paying for it over the next five years.”
The cash and temporary investments from Aug. 31, 2009 to June 30, 2010 jumped $6,690,104 to $13,175,183, but there is a big caveat that accounts for the increase for the Vauxhall schools.
“Primarily, that increase was due to the receiving of funding for the Vauxhall (school) projects. That money is specifically slated for those modernization projects for the Vauxhall elementary and Vauxhall high schools. It is not for general operating use,” said Johansen. “We have received about 50 per cent of that funding for those projects.”
Statement of adjusted operating income is more analysis and is not according to generally accepted accounting principles according to Johansen.