It will be two more months before Langley school trustees vote on a proposed budget that will begin paying down a $13.5 million dollar deficit.School districts in B.C. submit preliminary budgets in April of each year, then a final budget by the end of February.On Tuesday, Feb. 22, the trustees unanimously approved the budget for the current school year.That budget was incorrectly identified in a Times report as the one that begins making payments on the deficit.In fact, that process will begin during the next July-to-June school year and the budget for that term is still being prepared.Plans by the district call for more consultation with affected groups before that budget is set.The current school year budget, which was just approved, lays the groundwork for paying down the deficit in the next budget by saving a expected surplus of more than $1.6 million to be used in the deficit repayment plan.As approved last week, the budget for the current school year is $155.1 million. That includes total revenues of $158.1 million and the surplus of $1,667,234. Salaries and benefits account for $141.6 million or 90.5 per cent.$103.5 million goes to teachers, $8.9 million to operations and maintenance, $2.7 million to administrators and $1.1 million to transportation. The remaining $14.8 million covers services and supplies.
For more information about the budget process, log on to the Langley School District website at http://www.sd35.bc.ca and click on the "2011-2012 Budget" link on the right-hand side.