WEYBURN — Marilyn Yurkiw, the manager of finance and payroll for the South East Cornerstone Public School Division provided a quarterly report to the division’s board members on Dec. 18, during their public meeting.
Yurkiw focused most of her remarks on the variances found in the financial records moving forward in the period from Sept. 1 to Nov. 30.
She spoke about conditions within the revenue and expense side of the ledger that explained the variances within the school division that carries a current revenue expectation of approximately $125.6 million which is about $672,000 under budget with expenditures currently listed at just over $122 million.
As noted in earlier reports, the cost of instruction (i.e. teachers teaching students) continues as the main factor on the expense side with 65 per cent of the budget being taken up by this sector.
Plant operations and transportation are also significant factors within the budget.
Grants are a major source of revenue and mostly involve the money received from the provincial government that gains the income from the provincial tax base.
The provincial grant is based on enrolment and the changes in SECPSD this academic year and that led to a decrease in the budget of just over $851,000, she reported.
Tuition fees received, however, showed an increase of slightly more than $166,000 and other related fees to the division are also over the expected budget by $13,000. This revenue reflects fees associated with a partnership agreement to provide professional services to Pheasant Rump First Nation she said.
Tuition fees paid to other school systems, however, as well as for students under the age of 22 attending the Basic Education Program at Southeast College, come in at just under $34,000.
There are also school generated funds and funds received from other agencies for complementary services such as pre-Kindergarten and early learning programs as well as First Nations programs.
External services also tweak the revenue side on the upward scale on occasion, as will such things as user fees, reimbursements, interest and royalties received on a regular basis throughout the year.
The overall picture to date indicates there are no major alarm bells to be heard within the financial and corporate structure of the public school division.
