At the Special Regular Meeting of the Board held on April 28th, 2021, the Board of Education passed the 2021-22 Budget By-law in the amount of $11,173,040.
The Board and District are happy in this 2021-2022 budget to be able to maintain the high quality teaching and learning that our parents and students depend on. Our budget allows us to continue strong outdoor learning and environmental education programs, invest in success for Indigenous learners, support for students with diverse learning needs, deepen mental health supports and continue universal food programs at our schools. Likewise, rich fine arts and applied skills learning for all students K-12 is supported in this budget.
We are also investing in this budget in maintaining secondary elective choices and further reimagining secondary learning in our three secondary programs at Nakusp Secondary, Lucerne Elementary Secondary and Arrow Lakes Distributed Learning School. In this way, we continue to ensure that our secondary programs are relevant, responsive and offer rich learning for high school learners. For elementary students, continuing with the successful music program in this budget will further strengthen arts integration as well as build elementary classroom teacher capacity in arts education linked to all areas of the curriculum.
In sum, by using regular operating grants provided by the Ministry of Education, and also investing operating surplus funds, the Board keeps SD 10’s focus on deep learning for all our kids. The 2021-22 budget sustains the biggest budget area in our learning organization: the amazing people who staff our schools and district. Through the 2021-22 budget, the Board has invested well in our human capital, while continuing our strong track record of capacity-building and professional learning for our talented and committed SD 10 staff. Across the six schools and many communities of SD 10, this significant investment in our people supports high quality teaching and learning.
Clearly, the Board has made a wise financial investment in what matters most: our children and youth.
For the past three months, CUPE, ALTA, DPAC and ALELA representatives have sat with the Board and senior staff on the Finance Committee connecting Strategic Plan Goals and Priorities. The Committee also carefully considered input and feedback gathered from school-based budget consultation meetings with parents and staff held in February.
The Board and SD 10 want to thank all of our partner groups for their thoughtful contribution to budget consultation this year and look forward to another great year in SD 10 with financial resources aligned with the Strategic Plan and informed by rich consultation.
