School District 43's first quarterly financial report of the school year was presented with more questions than answers at Tuesday's school board meeting.
Superintendent Tom Grant said the district was on track towards a balanced budget but the trends were based on the last three months, including July and August, and some key information won't be coming from the province until December.
For example, the district doesn't know if it will get some or all of the $4 million in holdback grants it received last year, although only some of the amount was budgeted, and average teacher salary costs are rising with no certainty that the province will cover all of the difference.
There will also be costs to implementing the new student information system called ConnectEdBC. Staff will have to be re-trained to use the system, which could take time. "We're waiting for the specifics," Grant said.
ConnectEdBC replaces the eight-year-old BCeSIS online data system that tracks student attendance, grades, and medical records and was criticized for being costly and problem-plagued.
In an announcement this week, the province said it had entered into a 12-year contract with Fujitsu Consulting (Canada) to provide the system that is supposed to be easier to use, secure, and features flexibility to support personalized learning.
School districts will have to pay $10 per student per year to use it, the same as they pay now to use the BCeSIS system. Implementation will begin in April 2014 and run to early 2016, after which the current system, BCeSIS, will be decommissioned.
However, Trustee Brian Robinson said there will be "hidden costs" to implementing the system with no certainty the province will cover them.
"There is no provision (to cover the costs) this is a monumental change," Robinson said.
Meanwhile, the district expects to get more money -$919,000 - than budgeted to cover a small increase (77 students) in enrollment.
