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Prince George school board begins year with millions of dollars in surplus

School District 57 started the year with $17 million in accumulated operating surplus
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School District 57 held their financial statement announcement in their boardroom on Sept. 25 (via Hanna Petersen).

School District 57 is starting off the school year with a lot of extra change in the bank.  

The board of trustees announced before their Sept. 25 board meeting that they are starting the school year in a healthy financial position with a total accumulated surplus of $48.5 million.

However, this doesn’t mean the school district has access to $48.5 million for their day-to-day needs.

The biggest portion of that balance is the capital fund, which as an accumulated surplus of $31.5 million and that’s not available for general use by the school district as it’s a reflection of their net assets.

But the accumulated operating surplus did increase to approximately $17 million at the end of the 2017-18 school year.

“The district is in a really healthy financial position,” says board of education chair Tim Bennett. “We did end the year in a surplus position and that will give the opportunity to the new board to invest some initial dollars into student learning.”

School District 57 operates using a very decentralized model. That means unspent funding that was previously designated for specific purposes is typically returned to those purposes as appropriated surpluses at the end of each school year.      

“The $17 million that is surplus in our operating fund right now, part of it is for our schools,” says trustee Sharel Warrington. “It’s unspent school funds and those are rolled over every year so schools can use those unspent funds for resources and items that they need.”  

She says the board has specific policies about how those funds can be spent, noting that surplus dollars can’t be used for any expense that needs to be sustained year after year.

This is not the first time the school district has begun the year with a surplus. It began last year with a surplus as well, allowing them to invest $800,000 of additional money in the budget that was approved in May.

“It is a great news story because a few years ago we were in a position where we had to utilize the little surplus we had just to balance a budget,” says Warrington. “Decisions made by this board, previous boards, and staff, as well as the fact that we are a growing district, has led to the ability to generate a small surplus and invest that surplus back into our classrooms.”

The school district says it was also able to be in full compliance with the restored language to the teacher’s collective agreement last year due to the funding provided by the provincial government from the Classroom Enhancement Fund.

To get the full breakdown of the school district’s finances, check out their financial statements in the Sept. 25 regular public meeting agenda.