July 14, 2011
Budget includes money
for St. Mary's
by Vance Gutzman
Full-day kindergarten will be back in full swing at St. Mary's School
this coming fall.
The Renfrew County Catholic District School Board (RCCDSB) announced
recently it will pump more than $240,000 into expanding its Early
Learning Kindergarten Program (ELKP) within its schools.
That was some of the good news coming out of the RCCDSB's most recent
meeting, where trustees approved the board's 2011-12 budget.
St. Mary's was one of the first schools in the board's jurisdiction to
undertake that program this past year.
The board funding means that full-day ELKP will be available again this
fall at St. Mary's School here in Deep River, as well as at Holy Name
Catholic School in Pembroke, St. John Bosco in Barry's Bay and Our Lady
of Fatima in Renfrew.
The RCCDSB is also planning to expend $270,000 to provide full-day,
every-day kindergarten at Our Lady of Lourdes in Pembroke, Our Lady of
Grace in Westmeath and St. Francis of Assisi in Petawawa.
The ELKP funding for St. Mary's and the other three schools will be
topped off by $209,000 in funding from the Ministry of Education.
Still, the $240,000 the school board is putting into the program comes
from its reserves, as does the $270,000 for the full-day, every-day
kindergarten classrooms.
For many years now, the RCCDSB has been forced to transfer funds from
its reserves in order to balance its budgets in the wake of reduced
funding from the province, and this year a total of $845,037 is being
transferred from reserves to cover off the 58.7 million in planned
expenditures for 2011-12.
"Our administrative staff and trustees will continue to review all
operations for efficiencies and effectiveness," school board chairman
Bob Schreader told trustees while presenting the budget.
"But I must note that finding new efficiencies in our small board is
becoming increasingly difficult."
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