The Greater Victoria school district has some financial breathing room, now that the Ministry of Education has given it access to an extra $3.85 million.

"What it does mean is that in an emergent issue, we have the money," said Greater Victoria board of education chairman Tom Ferris. "We need contingency money for emergencies."

The board requested the money in late September after losing $4 million when the ministry cancelled the annual facilities grant for school districts. The Saanich district lost $1.5 million and the Sooke district lost $1.9 million in the process, which saw $110 million in grants cut as part of government cost-saving efforts.

Annual facilities grants are used for maintenance and upgrades at schools.

The financial help for Greater Victoria district comes from a $6-million pool of money known as re-stricted capital funds. While the funds are held by the district, they can be re-leased for use only by the Ministry of Education, which has largely directed the money to seismic projects.

Ferris said the $3.85 million now at the district's disposal might be used for earthquake-preparedness work, such as adding to the seismic project underway at Willows Elementary, but it could also be used for other needs that may akrise during the school year.

"If we want to do something at Willows over and above what the earthquake funding allows us to do, then we have some discretion. And there will be furnace upgrades, that type of thing, as they come up."

Other items the funding could help with include $150,000 for energy-efficient condensing boilers at three schools where solar-wall projects have been approved, and window improvements at three other schools.

"We'll just get right back on track to where we were," Ferris said.

Greater Victoria was among the first school districts to request use of its restricted capital funding. Sooke has since done the same, but has yet to hear from the ministry.

Meanwhile, Ferris said the Greater Victoria district is still waiting to hear from the ministry after re-questing funds to offset the cost of bringing in H1N1-prevention measures. The district's basic H1N1-related costs were estimated at over $40,000 in a letter to Minister of Education Margaret MacDiarmid.

Installation of hand sanitizers in classrooms without sinks was cited as one of the major expenses, while the costs of more cleaning supplies and the anticipated need for more teachers on call to replace sick staff members were not included in the tally.

The Sooke and Saanich districts have also been tracking their H1N1-related expenses.

Saanich has factored additional cleaning, staff training and absenteeism into its H1N1-related costs and estimates the total bill to be $250,000.

jwbell@tc.canwest.com