SCHOOL boards have been quick to dig into their surpluses this week to try avoiding "unreasonable tax increases," Education Minister Peter Bjornson said Thursday.
Bjornson has seen no unwillingness from trustees to obey his last-minute edict to chop surpluses, or else face caps on school-tax increases.
"I've been very encouraged by what I see, that there's willingness to take another look," Bjornson said.
Thursday was the deadline for school boards to set their budgets.
Bjornson's staff gave school boards verbal orders last Friday to keep surpluses to four per cent of revenues or less, or else face having education property taxes capped at 3.3 per cent -- the same amount by which Bjornson has increased the province's share of education funding.
Bjornson later decided that he would be satisfied with significant progress this week: Monday, he gave school boards until next year to comply completely.
He acknowledged with a laugh that he expects the subject to come up this morning at his closed-door bearpit session with school board chairmen at the Manitoba Association of School Trustees convention.
Prudent
Pembina Trails trustees reopened a budget Tuesday night that they'd already passed and spent $1.8 million of surplus, cutting reserves to 3.53 per cent of revenue.
With the huge Waverley West subdivision looming and bringing with it increased busing needs, and with the possibility of a new high school, Pembina Trails had thought it prudent to have five per cent in reserve, superintendent Paul Moreau said.
The division will buy out some bus leases with surplus, he said. "We were able to really accelerate a number of one-time projects," such as new gym bleachers.
Seine River superintendent Roy Seidler said from Lorette that trustees spent a lot of time this week planning how to spend big chunks of their surplus by June 2008 to reduce it to four per cent of revenue.
Seine River school board used $100,000 of surplus to reduce taxes this year and had approved spending another $532,000 for one-time projects. By Bjornson's deadline, "they will spend down on $1.1 million of project money they've identified" for a wide range of projects, Seidler said.
Louis Riel superintendent Terry Borys said trustees had already planned to spend $2 million of surplus in this year's budget. This week, the board decided "to use $1.87 million of its surplus for one-time expenses" to get down within the province's demands, he said.
Seven Oaks superintendent Brian O'Leary said the division will have its surplus down to 2.5 per cent after pouring $1.5 million into additions to the new West Kildonan Collegiate beyond what the province is willing to fund.
"We purchased an additional four acres to the site," O'Leary said. "We've increased the gym by 30 per cent."
And there will be a 4,000-square-foot Randy Bachman Student Commons: "It'll be almost like a central open area in the school -- almost like a central square."
River East Transcona and Winnipeg divisions both believe they're under Bjornson's limit.
St. James-Assiniboia's surplus will be down to 1.25 per cent by June, when much of its reserves will have paid for structural changes to accommodate the merger of Silver Heights and Sturgeon Creek collegiates at Sturgeon Creek, board chairman Bruce Alexander said.
nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca
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