School districts across the province are going to have to get more creative with their numbers, after Tuesday's provincial budget required them to drop spending by $29-million for the next school year.
The B.C. School Trustees Association slammed the move Tuesday, which includes a further $25-million cut the following year.
"It is unacceptable that the dollars saved by school districts will not be retained to address needs in our schools," said Teresa Rezansoff, BCSTA's president of the money expected to be pulled from administration and other related services.
In District 57, which covers Prince George and north-central B.C., it means finding money it doesn't have after it already projected a $1-million deficit in January's amended budget.
"It's going to be another bit of a hit to our budget," said chair Tony Cable. "It's definitely going to cause some problems."
Cable said trustees were already looking to lobby for more funding.
"We were basically at the stage where we were looking to talk to our MLAs and other groups about the need for additional funding and now we're learning via the budget (Tuesday) that we're going to have to find some more money in different areas."
Last year when the school board passed the current budget, it took a third of its reserves - $3.2 million - to balance its accounts. Now, there is just $6.6 million left.
The provincial budget, which posts a surplus of $284 million for 2015-2016, included an additional $564 million over three years to meet its collective agreement commitments that ended the teachers' strike in September.
After spring break, Cable plans to meet with the finance department, and in early March the district will also be speaking to partner groups to consult on next year's budget.
Cable said it's not clear how much District 57 will be expected to cut, but that $29-million will likely be divided across the province based on student enrolment.
Cable said his biggest concern is that there has already been a freeze on wages for administrators.
"They have not had any wage boost or increase since 2009 and if they're looking at some ways to reduce admin cost, then we're going to be in real big trouble because our poor administrators haven't had any sort of increase in a number of years now."
This group includes superintendents, secretary-treasurers, senior school district managers, principals and vice-principals.
"We have cases now where some of your vice-principals working alongside teachers, their pay package could be lower," Cable said.
The BCSTA, which represents boards like District 57, signed a co-governance agreement with the province in early December.
In previous meetings trustees have raised concerns over lack of consultation with the association - in the case of cuts to adult education upgrades, for example.
"The BC Trustee Association, they should be lobbying for school boards," Cable said. "When we have things like this in the budget, it definitely will strain relationships."
