The core reason for a serious new budget shortfall at Lester B. Pearson School Board is changes to accounting regulations imposed on school boards by the provincial government.
According to a recent story in the Montreal Gazette, LBPSB is scrambling to find an additional $500,000 just to keep services for special needs kids in their schools at roughly the same level as in past years. This, after the board already injected $750,000 over and above the allocation made last June.
LBPSB Director General Bob Mills said new provincial regulations, prohibiting the board from dipping into its surplus by more than 10%, are largely responsible for the board being unable to make up its special needs shortfall in the usual manner. As described in the article by Brenda Branswell, the Quebec Ministry of Education & Leisure typically provides the board with $10-11 million for special needs, which the board tops up with about $4 million which it gets from its surplus and other sources.
This situation plays out in other school districts across the province to varying degrees, depending on local situations.
Now that the new accounting is putting the spotlight on the situation, perhaps the shortfall of government funding for special needs will get more attention as well.
The fact is that the provincial funding, which is based on a system that "codes" students according to conditions they have or have been evaluated with, only provides significant funding for the most severe cases. Many of the less serious cases generate no additional provincial funding whatsoever - even though most if not all of these students require special attention from teachers both in the classroom and administratively.
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