Budget cuts coming to Kamloops schools

Rising costs means cuts to the Kamloops school district’s budget.

Where those cuts will come from is expected to be central to School District 73’s board meeting this evening, April 9. The school board is facing more than $5 million in spending increases largely due to salaries and inflation.

In a recent news release, the school district invited people within the Kamloops-Thompson school district to follow along as trustees and staff go over next year’s budget “set out for us by the government and by our school community, with the realities of inflationary pressures and reduced funding.”

The district is one of many around BC facing the same challenge. The province’s largest school district in Surrey, for example, is facing a $16 million shortfall, with blame pointed at the provincial budget for not keeping up with the need.

Despite a growing population, especially in Kamloops, student enrolment has stagnated and it’s expected to fall over the next decade.

Just where funding cuts may be targeted isn’t clear for Kamloops-Thompson schools yet, but the board has already reduced spending and expects a nearly $400,000 surplus by June.

In total, the district accrued a $1.8 million surplus over the past few years, which is less than one per cent of the annual budget and should ideally be at least tripled, interim secretary-treasurer Harold Cull told the board, April 8.

It’s expected to take another 10 years to build district savings to roughly 3% of the annual budget.

The budget meeting, starting at 5 p.m. today, will be livestreamed here.