The public will have a chance to tell the Delta Board of Education what should be the school district’s priorities in the coming year at a budget input meeting next week.
The meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 25 will be an opportunity for people to have their say in advance of the district releasing its proposed budget in the next few weeks.
Last year’s operating budget saw no cuts to any department for the first time in many years, and also included a small surplus of about $63,000.
What’s not clear heading into this year is just how much Delta will be getting from the provincial funding pie as the province is about to change the funding formula for districts.
The province has undergone a review for nearly two years, a review that might end up with some districts receiving more at the expense of others.
Delta trustees recently lamented they have no idea what the new formula would look like heading into their annual budgeting process.
What also remains to be seen is how the district is dealing with being on the hook for millions due to an energy deal that went awry and a subsequent ruling against Delta.
In a decision last year handed down by the B.C. Utilities Commission, the district was ordered to pay FortisBC a more costly rate for an energy system originally intended to save Delta money.
Fortis two years ago applied to the utilities commission to not only switch the school district to a higher rate, which is now about $1 million more annually, but also get a back payment of almost $4 million.
FortisBC explained that while it sought the higher rate that works out to about $1 million more annually, the roughly $4 million in back payment would only have to be paid off over the next 15 years.
Appearing before the commission on behalf of the district, which was disputing the Fortis application, legal counsel Dionysios Rossi stated, “The impact on my client's financial position is going to be very significant… school boards are legislatively prohibited from running deficits year to year. So the estimated $1 million in additional costs that will result from a switch to the cost of service rate at this time is going to have to come out of the program budget by which the district operates its schools.”
Tuesday’s budget input meeting takes place at the school board’s offices (4585 Harvest Dr.) in Ladner at 7:30 p.m.
