BY NANCY KELLY
Kings County Advertiser/Register
According to Superintendent Margo Tait, the AVRSB will need to trim spending further in order to achieve a balanced budget for 2012-13.
Despite an April 19 decision to reduce staffing costs by $1.6 million next year, savings close to that amount still need to be found to satisfy the Department of Education’s requirement for school board’s to reduce overall spending and absorb cost of living increases.
Staffing costs amount to between 80 and 85 per cent of the board’s total budget.
Tait said finding that money in the remaining 15 to 20 per cent of the overall budget is “beyond challenging.
“That means we have to find a great deal of savings in a much smaller portion of the budget,” explained Tait, adding “staff have their heads down going line-by-line” through every department to identify ways to save.
“The approach is to try and take a little bit from a lot of different areas,” she said, as opposed to cutting entire programs and services.
She cautioned there is no guarantee this piecemeal approach will help the board achieve its saving’s target.
Tait said she anticipates a draft budget will be ready to present to the board’s finance committee meeting May 24.
