Jun. 21, 2019
The Calgary Board of Education has taken a prudent approach to its 2019-20 school year budget in the absence of information from Alberta Education. In the Students Come First: Budget Report 2019-22, we are assuming we will receive the same amount of money in 2019-20 as in 2018-19.
We anticipate that our enrolment this fall will increase by 1,800 students or approximately 1.5 per cent from 2018-19 levels. To accommodate these additional students and address inflationary pressures, the CBE would need an additional $40 million to provide services and supports at levels consistent with the 2018-19 school year.
Again, our prudent approach to the 2019-20 budget is to assume funding will be held constant at 2018-19 levels and we will not receive any of this additional $40 million.
With funding held constant at 2018-19 levels and an additional 1,800 students, we anticipate that the average class size across all schools will increase by one student.
Holding staffing levels essentially constant at 2018-19 levels in our schools and areas for 2019-20 reduces our budget pressure by $22 million. The remainder of the budget pressure of $18 million will be addressed through a range of other strategies. Taken together, those strategies will see the CBE plan to spend the same amount in 2019-20 as in 2018-19.
The CBE expects that students will be greeted at our 246 schools in August and September of 2019 and receive the high quality public education that they and their families have come to expect.
