Grand Erie District School Board

Grand Erie budget hits $280 million

The Grand Erie District School Board's committee of the whole is supporting a 2011-12 operating budget of $280 million, up about 2.6% over the previous year.

Superintendent of business Jamie Gunn said the balanced budget was the result of a "good rigorous process" that included priorities set out by the board, along with a multi-year plan it has in place.

Teacher and staff salaries account for about 80% of the operating budget.

While enrolment at Grand Erie schools continues to decline, Gunn, said the rate of decline is slowing.

Projected enrolment for next year at the board's 103 schools in Brant, Haldimand and Norfolk is 26,013 students. That includes 16,133 elementary students, down 111 from this year, and 9,880 secondary students, down about 60 from this year.

The year over year rate of decline for 2011-12 is projected to be at 0.65%, down from a high of 2.45% in 2007-08.

The budget includes $1.7 million in funding for Year 2 of the board's Educational Technology Initiative, a plan that will invest $14 million over five years in technology in classrooms.

The technology plan includes bringing pods of four to five computers into elementary classrooms, eight netbook computers into secondary classrooms, and providing a netbook and LCD projector for each teacher.

Two new itinerant teaching positions have been added to support the technology program.

The budget also includes $200,000 for investment in tech-n ology equipment renewal, and the extension of the French immersion program to three new sites.

French immersion will be offered to junior and senior kindergarten students at Burford District Elementary School, Walsh Public School and Caledonia Centennial.

The Early Learning Program, or full-day kindergarten, will be offered at four more schools in 2011-12, bringing the total to 13 schools providing programming to about 660 junior and senior kindergarten students.

The budget also includes the elimination of an accumulated deficit of $2.86 million.

At the committee meeting on Monday, trustee David Dean requested that $50,000 of $82,000 the board received from high school cafeteria income be transferred back to the schools.

Dean said there has been diminished revenue from cafeterias since the province mandated that they offer healthier foods. The school board receives about 8% of cafeteria revenue, which goes toward maintenance of the facilities and utility costs. All revenue from drink and snack machines goes to the schools.

Is It Too Late to Save Port Dover Composite? | CD989

It’s not for sure whether or not Port Dover Composite school will be closing, but many believe damage has already been done.

Last night at the second Accomodation Review Committee meeting, some community members claimed that a fear has been instilled in Port Dover.

The fear that their losing their local secondary school.

Enrollment numbers are already low – they’re at only 53% of capacity.

And now with the fear of it closing, some believe that even fewer students will choose to attend Port Dover composite.

Some other options were thrown around last night, including the idea of building a new school central to Simcoe, Waterford and Port Dover.

At the next meeting on October 13th, the committee will review profiles on each secondary school that weigh the value of the school to the students, community, school system, and local economy.

We hope to speak with the Grand Erie District School Board about this later today.

good morning .please dont take this the wrong way .but i feel that if you close this school people will be ok and change does us good . there is nothing wrong with this if it is needed to be done i went through this yrs ago when they wanted to close a school that i went to back 30 yrs ago and things went ok with it so we had to move to a new school parents where ok after it was done students where ok with it so all in hand things will be ok and we all do adjust to change so please stop this bitching over it . i feel if the school board wants this to be done support them stop fighting it your kids will be fine once they start going to new school . so everything is done for a reason and we all need to adjust and things will be fine .also your not teaching your kids how to be open to new things .so please adjust and then come to the next meeting with open eyes and you will be able to understand better what is happening .

Confused is an excellent name for you. Change isn’t always a good thing. The ‘ Not So Grand Erie District School Board’ has an agenda and DOES NOT have the BEST interests of the students of Port Dover in mind. Every community needs a high school, every student needs to be able to have an after school job, every student needs to be able to participate in extra curricular activities, and not be limited because of having to be bussed to another community that they are not a part of nor have any desire to be a part of. The Port Dover economy needs the students and teachers and other staff or PDCS! Open your eyes, your mind and your heart then maybe you won’t be so CONFUSED!!!!!

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