Schools « could be short $250,000 in buda School District 88 may have to trim its expenditures this year by § as much as $250,000 or find an | equivalent amount in revenue. The board was told at its first meeting of the school year Sept. 11 that # enrolment is the equivalent of 100 & students less than the number Bigs estimated last spring when the [image budget was drawn up. Under the Ministry of Educa- tion’s block funding system intro- duced early this year, that means the province will reduce its contri- | butions to the district’s operating costs by a fixed amount for each | student below the spring estimate. The district estimated an enrolment _ Of 5,227 (full-time equivalent students) o base their operating budget on; when school opened the - count came in at 5,103.5. . Assistant superintendent Skip ' Bergsma, who has become legen- "dary for the accuracy of his enrol-. ment estimates, was at a loss to . explain the situation to the board. i "They (the missing students) were on the books in June. I don’t know ‘where they are." Bergsma said he and other administrative staff are continuing to hunt for pupils who . may be on extended holidays or who for some other reason have’ — failed to appear‘in school. Bergsma noted that every year there are a number of students who enrol late, but indicated it would be unrealistic to expect as many as 100 to return, In response to super- intendent Frank Hamilton’s ques- tion of what it would cost the district if enrolment ultimately falls 50 students short of the estimate, secretary-treasurer Barry Piersdortf ‘Said. a rough guess would be $250,000. . There is. ‘very little room to manocuvre in the district’s budget. Hamilton said, "There are no reserves, it’s a very basic budget." When it submitted the final budget to the ministry in the spring, the board had already trimmed about $250,000 off the . draft budget by reducing the scope _ Of several programs, with learning assistant and classroom aide time taking the brunt of the cuts. The reductions were made to keep the district within the ministry’s fund- ing block, allowing the board to avoid calling a referendum, It used to be light blue. Police are looking for whcever stole this 198 11. It was found Sept. 12 on Ferry Island, the thieves havin who had the use of the truck owned by Lily Pad Coniracting, to contact Cst. Swanson at the Terrace RCMP detachment. Terrace Review — — Wednesday, September Is 19, 1990 AS 7 Ford crew cab between 11 p.m. ‘Sept. 10 and 6 am. Sept. 9 apparently doused it with gasoline and set fire to it. John Bourgoin, was not impressed. Anyone having information on the incident is asked Piersdorff explained in an. inter- view that the reduction in student numbers will. not result in any significant savings. Although the shortfall is the equivalent of four or five classes, the drop is spread evenly throughout schools in the | district. Bergsma said there will be no. teaching staff reductions... , It appears certain that the district won’t get as much operating money from the province as its budget called for, but the exact scope of the reduction won’t be known for several weeks. The final enrolment figures don’t have to be filed with the ministry until Oct, | 15, and in the mean time the dis- trict will have to wait and see how many students retum late to school. In a situation that Piers- dorff termed "a double-whammy’", the ministry won’t know the total enrolment for the province for several weeks, and with that figure - they will have to calculate the amount per student that goes with the district funding block. If the total provincial enrolment is up, then the amount allocated per ‘Two trustees say they'll run again | student through the block will go this. point. "There are too many down; ifthe reverse happens, then . unknowns," he said. the amount will go up. Piersdorff cautioned that any than the spring estimates, however; ‘conclusions would be premature at it's also about 100 students lower The enrolment is not only lower than the actual enrolment at this ~~ time last year. It’s the first time in several years the district has ex-- petienced a net drop in student. numbers. hear your views on; oo e Jobs, © Housing, ¢ Education, ° , Health Care, @ Taxation, ¢ The Environment, or t other i issues and concerns you want to talk about. Please j join us for these Town Hall meetings. _ Tuesday, September 25th 4:00 p.m. Veritas Elementary School, _ Terrace 7:00 p.m. School, Kitimat - An invitation from the Hon. William N. Vander Zalm ; et’s Tal ; My Cabinet colleagues and I will be in your community to Wednesday, September 26th Mt. Elizabeth Sr. Secondary In addition cabinet ministers will be available - for meetings on specific issues. In Terrace contact 638-3207 In Kitimat contact: 632-6188 TERRACE — Two members of the School District 88 board of "trustees last week declared their intention to ‘seek office again in the: '. @lection Nov. 17. Board chairman Edna Cooper and Stewart trustee Kirsten Chapman; who is bead of the negotiations committee, both say they'll be running - again. “I’ve been thinking about running —- as fast as I can‘in the opposite direction," Cooper joked at the board’s first Public meeting of the school year.- - - Terrace trustee Eva Daniels said retirement. and the temptation of |. spending the winter "down south" have persuaded her to forego secking office again. _ The other trustees. ‘present at the meeting — ‘Terrace trustees Wayne - Braid, John Pousette and Lavem Hislop and Hazelton trustee Duncan’ Etchés —- gave no indication of their intentions. Hazelton trustee Val Napoleon and Kitwanga trustee Delbert Morgan. did not attend the meeting. Under civic clection reforms enacted by the provincial governmient two years ago, all nine seats on the board will be up for election this year, and trustees who elected will serve three-year terms.. ‘The board appointed Elaine Johnson as retuming officer, We want to hear — from you. :