Special Education Jobs Spared in Public Board’s $368.9M 2010-11 Budget (UT)

June 25, 2010

Special education programs will remain the same at the public school board despite a "drastic" and "unexpected" $1-million reduction in funding.

The Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board approved its $368,920,545 balanced budget for 2010-11 Thursday night. The budget includes no job losses.

"We’ve been able to adjust other areas of the budget to offer the same special education services to our students," said board chairwoman Diane Lloyd. "We don’t know how that will affect us next year.

"I’m confident we will find way around that too."

The budget includes more than $48 million for programs supporting children with special needs — more than the province allocates.

Cuts to special education funding comes back to declining enrolment, the board heard

The budget report predicts there will be a decrease of 493 elementary pupils and 333 high school students in 2010-11.

Enrolment at the board has declined by more than 7,000 students and pupils over the past 10 years.