The Abbotsford board of education must approve a balanced budget by June 30 and recently shared results from a budget consultation process that ran for six weeks for the public to share their input.
The process was launched after a public budget information meeting on March 13 and feedback was accepted online until April 30.
A total of 594 people participated in this year's consultation, an increase of 54 per cent from last year's 384. Parents or guardians of students were the most active in the consultation, with 46.1 per cent being connected to the Abbotsford School District in that way. District employees were second with 33 per cent.
The majority of respondents said that the proposed budget adequately supports the board's primary goal of student success, with 49 per cent agreeing with that statement. However, 41.6 said the budget does not support the primary goal and 9.4 per cent said other.
With a projected surplus of just under $5 million at the end of 2026, participants were asked if they support the board’s position in maintaining reasonable surplus and reserve balances to respond to emergent needs. Nearly 75 per cent of those responding said they either fully supported (37.5 per cent) or somewhat supported (36.7 per cent) maintaining that surplus. More than 80 per cent also said that the board should set reserves aside for future expenditures, like computers and other school equipment.
Areas that needed more funding were also identified in the feedback, but results were more split. More educational assistant received the most support at 29.2 per cent, followed by more teachers in classrooms (26.2), special education services (20.3) and then improvements to school buildings (9.2). Other receiving support included: technology (8.8) and transportation (6.1).
The top two ways that respondents said to further engage the community in budget discussions was keep building on what's working and using better visuals and more clear language. Supporting green initiatives was also ranked as either important (22.9) or somewhat important (37.2). Nearly 70 per cent also said that they support the board's strategic priorities of literacy, parent and community engagement, student participation in extra-curricular activities, early learning and employee engagement.
The presentation also revealed that Abbotsford ranks comparably to other similar school districts in instruction costs, operations and maintenance and transportation. However, Abbotsford is above average in admin costs. It was stated by school officials that the higher number is due to the implementation of an enterprise resource planning system and those costs will go down once that system is finalized. That work began with Sparkrock 365 in 2023.
"This modern technology will streamline several operations within our organization and enable us to make more informed decisions as we manage a multi-million dollar budget," stated Ray Velestuk, former secretary-treasurer for the Abbotsford School District at the time the ERP was announced. "With its implementation, we will not only improve our overall efficiency but expand our strategic efforts of continuing to develop a progressive workforce through the ethical and innovative use of technology."
Other interesting tidbits from the budget include a decrease in tuition due to the lower number of international students and a high cost for substitute teachers, but school officials said the substitute costs are a province-wide issue.
Trustee Stan Petersen said he disagreed with some of the comments from respondents that Abbotsford was admin heavy.
"When I see the graph it looks like we are above others," he said. "And of course a big chunk of that is the new program that we've installed that will actually save us money overall. Probably next year we will see a real drop in that admin."
He said that admin costs have historically been around three per cent, which is comparable but the four per cent is due to the ERP system.
"I appreciate your observation on that," said superintendent Sean Nosek of Petersen's comment. "Even in my time here we've reorganized our senior team and actually are down an assistant superintendent structurally. If it weren't for the ERP costs those would be down. It is sometimes a perception and I think that's a testament to wanting make sure resources are as close to the classroom as possible."
Next on the agenda is to finalize school-based staffing estimates and the final day for schools/departments to complete spending estimates on May 30. The budget will be discussed further and have the opportunity to be approved by the board at the next meeting on June 17 and the deadline to submit the budget to the ministry is June 30.
