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UGDSB approves the 2022-23 school year budget

For Immediate Release
June 29, 2022

GUELPH, Ontario – The Upper Grand District School Board has passed the 2022-2023 school year budget.

The budget is balanced and compliant with Ministry requirements. Trustees approved an Operating Budget of $432,285,649. The 2022-23 Capital Budget was approved at $52,485,533.

Provincial Context

In February, Ontario’s Ministry of Education provide information related to Grants for Student Needs (GSN) and Priorities and Partnership Funding (PPF), which are the primary funding sources for school boards in Ontario.

The Ontario government is providing additional COVID-19 related funding to support resources to address the following priorities: learning recovery, the implementation of the first year of a fully de-streamed Grade 9, the delivery of remote learning, supports for special education and enhanced cleaning standards.

The benchmark for the non-staff portion of School Operations will increase by 5.45% to recognize the increasing commodity prices (e.g. electricity, natural gas, facility insurance and other costs) and the increased costs related to the need to run ventilation systems longer and replace filters more frequently.

Accountability and Limitations

The Ministry will impose cash flow constraints on boards that do not comply with Class Size requirements. The Ministry requires that boards submit a balanced budget or a budget where the deficit does not exceed the lesser of accumulated surplus or one per cent of operating allocations. The Ministry also provides limitations on how expenditures are allocated.

In the Upper Grand District School Board

The total 2022-23 UGDSB budget includes $422,328,295 in GSN revenue and $9,957,354 in Other Revenue sources.

The UGDSB’s 2022-2023 GSN amount is $12.5 million higher than 2021-2022 Budget. The GSN amount includes adjustments for enrolment and benchmark changes, additional COVID Learning Recovery funding and transfers of amounts previously in Priorities and Partnerships Funds.

The board allocations of the PPF reflects a decrease of $2.6 million. This decrease is primarily driven by COVID-19 supports transferring to the GSN. Other funding sources were essentially flat year over year.

Enrolment projections for 2022-2023 indicates growth in the Elementary Panel and slight increase in the Secondary Panel. The 27.5 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) increase in Elementary Teachers is primarily due to an additional 25 FTE to provide Learning Recovery Support. The 13.69 FTE increase in Secondary Teachers is primarily due to an additional 13.33 FTE to provide Learning Recovery Support.

Teacher Assistants provide a variety of supports to students in the classroom, in particular students with special needs. There are additional expenditures in the Teacher Assistants line, which reflects anticipated extra support required for the upcoming school year.

In the category of Professionals, Paraprofessionals and Technicians, there is an FTE increase of 9.7 FTE, which is primarily driven by the 6 FTE increase in Mental Health supports including Social Workers, Mental Health Professionals and Child & Youth Counsellors. The balance of the change includes 2.2 FTE increase in Speech and Language supports and additional Digital Support Services (IT) of 1.5 FTE.

The budget process began in January and referred to the UGDSB’s Guiding Principles for Budget. These principles focused on the allocation of human and financial resources on the success and well-being of every child, with an emphasis on the Board Improvement Plan for Student Needs, equity principles to ensure the well-being and achievement of all students and staff, accountability, high quality teaching, strong leadership in all areas of the organization, and consideration for the impact of climate change as it relates to the future well-being of our students, community and planet. The Guiding Principles for Budget will be reviewed as part of the Board’s development of the Multi-Year Plan (MYP) that will set the board’s priorities for the next four years.

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