Inflation has taken a bite out of the spending power in the Calgary Board of Education’s (CBE) 2024/25 budget, as the public school deals with ongoing enrolment pressures.

Board administration delivered the 2024/2025 budget report on Tuesday at a regularly scheduled meeting, the last step before final approval May 28 and delivery to Alberta Education by May 31.

According to the CBE cover report, the 2024-2025 budget has projected revenues of $1.621 billion with expenditures at $1.6245 billion. That requires the CBE to draw $2.663 million from its operating reserves.   They also plan to spend $30.1 million on capital projects in 2024-25.

CBE Chief Superintendent Joanne Pitman said they’ve added more than 25,000 additional students over the past five years, and they have a system-wide school utilization rate of nearly 100 per cent.  She also said that there’s an increase in the number of students with complex learning needs.

“Increasing labour costs that place downward pressure on the number of school-based staff that can be hired and persistent inflation that erodes the purchasing power of dollars received,” she told board trustees.

“In this context, I am confident that the budget is designed in a way that clearly demonstrates our prioritization of student learning and supports and ensures our system can run effectively.

She said that staffing levels were adjusted for growth similar to 2023-24.

“This budget also maintains the services and supports for students, albeit not at a rate that is consistent with the expected enrollment growth,” Pitman said.

CBE Chief Financial Officer Brad Grundy said they expect 9,000 additional students to attend Calgary public schools this year.

Inflationary impact

Grundy said the sustained enrolment growth and the cumulative impact of inflation is taking a toll on finances.  He said over the past five years, CBE purchasing power has eroded by more than 20 per cent.

“The $9,000 of operational funding per student in 2018-19, bought significantly more than the $9,000 to be received for the 24-25 school year,” he said.

“Like many CBE families, the necessary cost of everyday things is growing rapidly from energy and insurance to supplies and services. The combined cost of everything is growing faster than funding. As a result, each dollar of funding must stretch further to achieve similar outcomes.”

Grundy said that the funding required for 100 teachers back in 2018-2019 can only fund 92 teachers for this year.

Further, school utilization rates reaching a system-wide 100 per cent means that more schools will move into overflow status. Right now, 34 schools are overflowing to 50 other schools. That means students unable to attend their local school must travel further to get their education, according to Superintendent of Facilities and Environmental Services, Dany Breton.

As a result, common areas are being converted into learning spaces. Other classrooms – like art rooms, music rooms – are also turning into classrooms.  They’re making do with the space, for now, he said.

“That being said, it, of course, comes with a bill and that bill that we’ve got to pay is potentially reduced programming richness and variety within those schools, because now those spaces are no longer available to dedicate to those kinds of activities as they might have been before,” he said.

“As the school then continues to fill up, and we get to that point where educationally it just doesn’t make sense to put any more students there because then… we will be risking an impact on student outcomes.”

Transportation and noon-hour supervision rates will remain the same as the prior school year, according to the budget report.

The budget must be approved and submitted to Alberta Education by May 31.