The York Catholic District School Board (YCDSB) has approved a Multi-Year Financial Recovery Plan as it looks to return to a balanced budget.

The board plans to eliminate its projected deficit of $10.5 million for the 2024-25 school year by the 2026-27 school year. School boards are by provincial mandate not supposed to run budget deficits. Under provincial regulations, boards are required to create a recovery plan when they approve two consecutive budgets with deficits greater than one per cent of their operating budget.

Elizabeth Crowe, the chair of the board, outlined some of the financial pressures the board has faced in recent years, including declining enrolment in elementary schools, inadequate funding for special education and rising costs in transportation and IT infrastructure.

“ As far as declining enrolment goes, from 2019 to 2024 our elementary panel dropped by nearly 4,500 students, and at 750 students per year, it is like losing an elementary school a year over a six-year period,” she said.

“York Region puts out a report, which says the percentage of Catholics in the region is decreasing as a percentage of the overall population. Recent immigration to Canada has just not been from historically Catholic countries and the other thing is the cost of living in York Region can be so expensive for young families to buy a house and to raise their families here.”

To bring its annual deficit to a zero position, trustees have implemented several measures to adjust spending in areas to better align with the Ministry of Education’s funding levels while increasing revenues. One of these changes will see the number of teachers working in the board’s STREAM Centres, designated spaces for linear tech-based learning, reduced from six to four. This change is expected to generate savings of $310,000.

Additional cuts will be seen across the general school budget, roughly $7.2 million across elementary and secondary schools during the 2023-24 school year. The board is eyeing a five-per-cent reduction to save an additional $350,000 toward the current deficit.

Crowe is confident the senior team and principals across the board will be able to reduce general spending without sacrificing students' quality of life and education.

“ The superintendents will be working with the principals, with them meeting monthly, and will likely put together a group to look at ways of finding some savings. One thing that I brought up that should be looked at is the amount of paper and photocopying that we are using,” she said, with the 2023/2024 spending showing a total of roughly $1.38 million for paper and Xerox.

“It’s still very important to have books and papers but a lot of the resources that are in the classroom now are all paperless, so even a little reduction in that usage could go a long way without major day-to-day impacts.”

Going back to the list of financial pressures the board faces, Crowe says some of them simply cannot be addressed, such as funding issues for special education and rising costs in transportation.

“ Currently out to tender are the contracts for our bus services and we are expecting that those costs will be going up. The government rolled out a new transportation funding model about two or three years ago and it is not fully funding our costs already. There is also a shortfall of $14 million in funding for special education.”

As enrolment drops, so too does the board's special education funding. Yet the board continues to attract students and the special education population is not declining at the same rate as the general elementary population, leading to further funding issues.

The YCDSB's goal for the 2025/2026 school year is to maintain the current levels before hitting zero the following year. With necessary changes in areas such as hospitality and home instruction set to get the budget back on track, Crowe said the board will never waiver on its commitment to Catholic education.

“There were certain aspects and programs  we were not willing to touch and those we have that differentiate us from the public board. We have chaplains, curriculum consultants and religious education. That is our number one priority in our strategic plan, to maintain the Catholicity of our system.”

Action items of the YCDSB’s financial recovery plan can be found at ycdsb.ca/wp-content/uploads/January-21-2025-Special-Board-Pkg.pdf.