BROCKVILLE – The region’s largest school board has passed its largest budget to date, with a combined operations and capital spending plan worth over half a billion dollars.
Trustees approved the spending plan at their June 18 meeting. The budget includes nearly $478 million for operations, and $72 million for capital projects.
Capital project spending includes $55.7 million for upgrades in UCDSB schools for the 2025-25 school year. The balance ($16.2 million) is spending relating to the new secondary school in Cornwall and the expansion of Cambridge Public School in Embrun.
No details were released on specific projects, however the board has been adding air conditioning and HVAC improvements to many of its schools in recent years.
On the operations side, revenues increased by five per cent due to enrolment increases in the board.
Overall spending is up 5.1 per cent, including a 6.7 per cent increase for instructional staff due to higher enrolment.
Special Education spending is up 8.3 per cent to $67.2 million for the coming year. This is due to increased provincial funding.
Allotted with operational funds is the Rural and Northern Education Allocation, a fund for schools meeting certain criteria as being in more rural areas needing top up funding.
The UCDSB receives the highest amount of RNEA funding in Ontario with 73 of 77 schools qualifying. The $2.1 million in funding will be used for the board’s new “All-In-Sports” program, and to fund digital learning, and programs to help improve access and outcomes for students. No further details on this were provided.
The board is posting a $400,000 surplus for compliance purposes for the school year. School boards are allowed a one per cent of their budget variance as a surplus or deficit and are not allowed to borrow funds for school operations. Most revenue for boards comes from provincial per-student funding based on enrolment.
Year-over-year surpluses have built a large accumulated surplus of $31.4 million, of which one-third has been allocated to specific reserves for future use, and $21 million is unallocated.
Staff acknowledged that transportation funding in the future may be a budget issue. Changes are in store for the 2027-28 to the provincial funding model, details of which have not been announced by the province. Provincial transportation funding decreased for the new school year to $37.8 million, down 2.4 per cent from last year.
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