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RATETO RISE 25 PER CENT The Barrie Examiner Saturday April 17 197613 Province cutbacks mean big jump in school tax 1976 for most school board trustees will be remembered in much the same way as stockbrokers remember 1929 After years of functioning in relative obscurity given free hand in spending and planning and being placed in much the same category as motherhood school boards their administration teachers and trustees have become the centre of con lroversy Outspoken critics pointing to the constantly increasmg costs of education university professors saying the studen is of the expensive education system cannot read or write and numerous teacher strikes have all shaken the publics faith in the education system Then came 1976 with its financial restraints at all levels of government and cut back in the flow of provin cial money into local school boards The cutbacks in money and change in government policy have placed greater burden of the costs of education on the local tax payer at time when many school boards are already on shaky ground In Simcoe County the school board has not been subjected to heavy criticism There has never been teacher strike in the county and the relationship between the board and the teacher federations has remained good However the board has felt the effects of 38day secon dary school teacher strike in Toronto and the criticisms voiced through the media GRANT CUTBACKS Most important the local board has not escaped the rovincial governments cut cks Wednesday night the Sim coe County Board of Education introduced preliminary budget that will result in 25 per cent in crease in education taxes On house assessed at $20000 this translates to $5445 more bringing the education taxes to $26979 from $21534 in 1975 According to the preliminary budget the Sim coe County Board of Education will spend $63290631 in 1976 to educate 44188 fulltime students in 96 schools The $63 million figure represents an 115 per cent in crease in expenditures over 1975s total of $57433383 In 1976 each elementary school student in Simcoe County will cost the board $1148 which is $141 or 14 per cent more than in the year before Each secondary school student will cost $1829 which is $209 or 13 per cent more Past performance by the Simcoe County board in dicates those figures will likely fall below the provin cial average According to Ministr of Education reports the ocal boards 1975 budget figures fall $96 below the provincial average in elementary schools and $88 below in secondary schools But what turned an 115 per cent increase in expenditures into 25 per cent increase in taxes was the change in provincial policy BOARD HIT HARD The county board was hit hard by cutbacks in extraor dinary expenditures and all boards of education and tax payers will feel the effects of reductions in secondary school grant ceilings Bill Straughan chairman of the boards budget com mittee said The eighth an nual budget of the Simcoe County Board of Education has been one of the most dif ficult to prepare since the in ception of the board primarily due to the shifting of significantly large share of the tax load from the province to local municipalities The provincial cutbacks were first heard of late in 1975 at which time school board trustees and officials of the local board raised an out cry against the governments method of cutting back In yearend interview Frank Prothero former chairman of the board said 1976 will be about as grim as anyone could possibly forecast Mr Prothero trustee for Tottenham argued the province had been unfair in making its cuts by choosing extraordinary expenditures which include transportation and debentures as the area to be reduced Officials from both boards in Simcoe County voiced their position to the move when provincial cabinet visited Barrie early in January saying this method would only hurt rural boards which must bus students UNFORTUNATE The ministry indicated this was unfortunate At the same time trustees asked if it would be possible to reduce the number of op tions required under the credit system in high schools and to ask students to buy their own textbooks Again the answer was no Later that month the board brought forward preliminary budget calling for tax rate increase of 389 per cent Mr Straughan indicated the budget was of stand pat nature and included only increases over which the board had no control While trustees engaged in the task of reducing the budget public outcry con tinued to mount Municipal officials voiced their ob jections loudly and asked for the right to see the final budget before it is set Those meetings will take place next week The 25 per cent increase and the latest preliminary BILL STRAUGHAN budget chairman budget show in dollars and cents what the board has managed to cut from its budget and exactly how provincial grant cutbacks will affect taxpayers As consequence of the shift of much greater proportion of the tax load from the province to the municipalities the boards preliminary stand pat budget would have resulted in 40 per cent increase in average county mill rates Mr Straughan said UNACCEPTABLE The board recognizing that this would be completely FRANK PROTHERO grim year unacceptable to all con cerned has given serious consideration to every prac tical means of decreasing its expenditures in order to minimize theeffect on local ratepayers and yet maintain as far as possible the stan dard of educational services that has been developed in recent years Unlike many other boards Simcoe County had not become involved in expensive programs involving large numbers of high paid con sultants and included such things as sports equipment and field trips in the in dividual school budgets So the board has cut those school budgets by 23 per cent saving $518478 and leaving it up to the princi als and teachers to deci which areas of their programs field trips library books music programs and so on will be reduced Because Simcoe County is one of few boards still ex periencing an increasing enrolment it has been in volved in costly building program This program also involves the grading of smaller schoos inherited when the county board was formed in 1969 The program has ground to halt Projects alread star ted will be complete This would involve the new Brad ford high school and an ad dition to Nottawasaga and keemore public school All other projects have been postponed including the renovations to Orillia District Collegiate and Vocational In stitute and Barries fourth hi school The new high SC 001 will now be opened one year later than originally planned POSIION COST Half the construction cost of the Bradford high school will be put over until next year taking $557073 out of this years bud et There will very little painting or groundskeeping done as result of $113000 cut in that area and $651926 worth of nonrecurring main tenance projects has been cancelled There will be no furniture or equipment purchased in any department to save $91575 and the $72746 county fund for replacing in structional furniture and equi ment has been scrat che Teachers will have ton her time this year as wel They will receive $70280 for professional develop ment half as much as last year noon hour supervisors will be phased out by September saving $15000 and the use of supply teachers will be reduced to an absolute minimum The unique needed budget for elementary schools will be cut in half and the secon dary schools will lose theirs entirely saving $36148 There will be reduction in the services staff and the number of hours they work saving $257424 There were no other reductions in staff or salaries The board has also em barked on an energy con servation project which it hopes will cut energy costs by $50000 This has already star ted and includes the removal of large number of the bulbs in the fluorescent lights These and other cuts result in total reduction of $2900000 but the reductions are somewhat offset by other expenses which the board cannot control These included salary in creases already promised $5161000 transportation in creases $598592 fringe benefits and OHIP up $542155 insurance up $27000 and utilities up $314000 So when these increases are coupled with an increased enrolment and compared with the boards reductions the boards budget is still 115 cent greater than it was st year Then come the cutbacks in provincial grants RATE DROPS The grant rate for extraor dinary expenditures has been reduced to 75 per cent from 95 per cent This means Simcoe County will receive 65 per cent or $3200000 less than it would have if the 1975 grant rate had been used The next area involved is the grant ceilings on ordinary expenditures in the elemen tary and secondary levels The board will be receiving more money in these areas but says it is not enough to cover the increase in costs which are about 16 to 17 per cent At the elementary level the ministry has given 17 per cent increase but the county board has always remained below the ceiling figures and this area wont be affected much however at the secondary level the board had been wavering on the border of overexpenditure and here the ministry has only increas ed grants by eight per cent This will put the board slightly over $1 million above the grant ceiling and this money can only be recovered through taxation This board is acutely aware of the severe impact of its budget on local tax rates Mr Straughan said but It believes that its reductions are as drastic as can be ap plied without seriously har ming the school system for many years ahead REVENUE Ri Provincial Assistance 5454 345I9426 R2 Municipal Taxes 4li7 260538i4 R3 OtherFeesRentelsetc 429 27l739 too 63290631 87208 °o E2782 °o E6245°o 7208 °o RI 5454 °o EXPENDITUR El instructional Student Services 456I568 E2 Debenture Payments and other Capitol Charges E3L23 E5I42 782 4950425 E3 Plant Maintenance Operations 54500 °° 1123 709936 E4 Transportation 600 3798752 55 Other 427 266528 E6 Administration 245 549372 1007 63290631 THE ABOVE illustration taken from the Simcoe County Board of Education 1976 Preliminary Current Operating Budget il lustrates main areas from which the board draws its money and how itis spent Record good says trustee While the education tax rate to increase considerably this year trustee John McCullough of Midland says the board has done well in keeping the rate down Mr McCullough has done comparison of the increases in the general levy and education levy in his home town of Midland from 1969 to 1975 The trustee has found the average year ly increase in the general levy has been 503 per cent while the yearly the education levy has been 105 per cent In 1969 the general municipal levy for School costs have multiplied by 37 since In 1949 the government of Upper Canada introduced the Baldwin Act allowing municipalities the right to collect taxes to support com mon schools In 1850 taxpayers were given the right to decide how schonl money would be spent and three years later school boards were permitted to levy and collect their own taxes In 1976 motions passed by Simcoe County Council and various other councils in the area have sought to repeal or at least alter these provi sions County council has insisted the board contain its taxrate increase to eight per cent and Alliston Town Council has asked that all municipalities have the right to review the boards budget beforeitis set However local politicians will argue their actions were not intended to alter the con ventions of history rather to reflect concern over the skyrocketing costs of educating outh The Committee on the Costs of Education in its In terim Report Number Seven notes that in 1942 the provincial governments total education bill amounted to $53 million By 1972 only 30 years later that bill had grown to $1956 is destined Midland was 3710 mills and by 1975 it had grown to 4830 mills The education mill rate in 1969 was 3435 but by 1975 it had dropped to 3384 Translating that into dollars and using taxes increase in million more than 37fold increase The 1942 cost figure is almost $4 million below what it cost Simcoe County alone to operate its public school system in 1975 and over $10 million less than the price of operating the countys public and separate school systems combined The total bill for the two boards according to their 1975 budgets is $63019922 INCREASED ENROLMENTS The committee cited in creased enrolments as one of the major factors responsible for higher costs In 1946 the total secondary and elementary enrolment for the province was 662858 In 1971 that figure rose to high of 2031360 and while it is dropping elsewhere in the province the local student population continues to grow In September of 1968 short ly before the county board takeover Jan 1969 total 36526 students were enroll ed in elementary and secon dary schools throughout the county By September of 1975 there were 43552 students However Sid Owens su rintendent of planning in icated the approximately 7000student increase is not due entirely to increased population his own home as an example Mr Mc Cullough says that in 1969 he paid $39272 in general taxes and $30824 in education But in 1975 he paid $50314 in general taxes and $29813 in education taxes These figures only apply to Midland he said but think you will find the situa tion is similar in the rest of the country At the time of takeover less than half the schools had kindergartens and Rama and Mara townships were not included But the major increases have appeared in the items that take up nearly 70 per cent of all school budgets salaries This includes the salaries of administrators teachers and staff who are not only becoming more expensive but also greater in number Based on 1946 figures there were 22721 teachers altogether with an expen diture for salaries of $41369139 or an average of $1821 per teacher In 1971 the comparable figures were 92798 teachers with an expenditure of $1077646000 for instruc tional salaries and fringe benefits or an average of $11613 per teacher The increase per teacher between 1946 and 1971 was $9792 or 538 per cent GREATER COMMITMENT The committee states The increase is attributable in part to the greater commit ment of society to education in the 19505 and 19608 reflec ting willingness to pay bet ter salaries to teachers But the shortage of teachers in period of rapid increase in enrolment created demand that forced YOUNGSTERS AT Codr ington Street School listen in on story at the schools resource centre Some 10 per cent of Simcoe County schools lack either resource centre pr general purpose rooni and cutbacks in provincial rants mean further lay before such facilities are provided From left are Tammy Jackson Wayne Canning and Shelly King Examiner Photo System meets more needs for more studentsRamsay The education system has become expen sive but it has to provide more than ever before accordinghto Jack Ramsay director of education for Education Simcoe County Board of This system tends to meet needs ina way the older system could not he said 1t meets the needs of more students Our society demands more services be ro vided he said but questioned whether ey should all fall on the back of the education system He also questioned whether the schools and teachers are pre ared for or capable of handling some of he problems forced upon them Children formerly handled by institutions are now in the schools and when the provin cial government officially repeals Section of the Training Schools Act these children will also be absored into the regular school system Mr Ramsay questioned whether man trained to teach science should also be asked to deal with students with social emotional and discipline problems JACK RAW 81 societys detnrnfi Canadian school cos 6370 second highest in Canada has the second most expensive education system in the world exceed ed only by Denmark and of all the provinces Ontario spends the most on schools Figures for 1972 the most recent available from Statistics Canada show the total cost of education in Canada as $5834247000 Of that amount Ontario spent $2224054000 little over 40 per cent The closest province to Ontario was Quebec with budget of $1673212000 and the least expensive system was operated by Prince Edward Island at cost of $22076000 In terms of dollars spent salaries upward At the same time stronger teacher organizations were able to achieve greater financial benefits But in fairness it is necessary to consider the rate of inflation during the sameperiod The interim re ort states inflation reduce the pur chasing power of the Cana dian dollar in 1971 to 4402 per cent of what it was in 1946 This would make the 1971 salary of $11613 equal to an average of $5112 in 1946 which would mean an in crease of 28 times the average of $1821 in 1946 The inflation factor must also be included when con per pupil the Canada average was $976 while On tario spent $1043 Quebec $1010 and Newfoundland spent the lest $576 The total 1976 Ontario budget is listed by the govern ment as $10142000000 Of that health tkes the biggest Chunk $2873000000 The Ministry of Education is in second place at $1722000000 closely follow ed by the Ministry of Col leges and Universities at $1026000000 The two school ministries combined account for 29 per cent of the entire budget Fourth and fifth place are held by the Ministry of But after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik Canadian governments were concerned over the lack of technical in struction and there was great push for technical pro grams Courses were initiated at all the large high schools in the county and now only two cf the boards 13 high schools Elmvale and Stayner do not have these programs Mr Ramsay said this in novation can be considered major cost factor Technical classes require large spaces meaning greater capital costs The equi ment required is very cost and the supplies are also expensive For safety reasons the Stories by SHEILA McGOVERN Examiner education reporter sidering the purchasing power of the board During the postwar years the education system ex perienced two costly booms the baby boom which resulted in the increas ed enrolments mentioned earlier and the building boom During the Depression of the 19305 and the war years of the 19405 there were no new schools constructed The construction of new faclities began in the late 19405 accelerated through the 19508 and levelled off in most parts of the province in the1960s COUNTY TYPICAL Ramsay director of education for Slmcoe County and one of the five staff members responsible for the provincial study said in this regard Simcoe County was typical of Ontario It is difficult to in down any costs to boar during this period the director said The schools were needed and they were being built with government rants He noted owever that it is possible man of the boards inherited ebentures were originated during this period In addition to outward in fluences the education system also underwent exten swe internal changes which resulted in high costs With the Roberts Commis sion in 1962 came the in troduction of technical and vocational programs in secondary schools Before 1962 few schools had these courses and in Simcoe Count the only school to offer programs was Orillia District Col legiate and Vocatimgal In stitute classes must be kept small which results in need for more teachers VOCATIONAL CLASSES Mr Ramsay said voca tional classes were introduc ed to accommodate students who were not benefiting from the regular school program or to give students an op portunity to take short pro gram that vould prepare them for the work force But these programs also re quire more space lower pu ilteacher ratio and more in ividuaiattention The director noted there has been little change in the size of academic and com mercial classes and the sup plies have remained cons tant only increasing in price with the rate of inflation Prior to 1969 the costs of schooling for mentally retarded children was assum ed by the community and not included under school boards Since then the education of retarded children has been integrated into the normal school systems and while boards still receive high grants from the province part of the cost must be recovered through local assessment With greater emphasis on individualization of pro grams and caterin to the special needs of chil ren the province began to promote special education In September 1975 the Sim coe County board added 25 special education teachers to its staff along with three con sultants and superinten dent of special services The board offers 18 special classes in various fields from classes for children with lear ning disabilities to classes Transportation and Cour of Community and 801i vices But while education is the second most expensive 50111 in the provincial Pill31 government figures 311 first place in mnnmirri budgets Government figures stat that in 1974 education counted for 47 per cent cf total municipal budgets Roads and transportation took the second largest amount well behind at 184 per cent Fire and poliltlty11=c ed third at 92 per Ct Im health and social art1v fourth at86 per co In addition the boar has special education teacher in every school on full or 113 time basis HOME INSTRU £11131 The board provides Low instruction for children who are confined and has placed greater emphasis on guidancein high schools And while academic classes are still as large they ever were Mr 11am said these special scrvnes are reducing the pupil teacher ratio in some cases to one to one and this is cost ly The interim report points tr the introduction of kindergarten as cost factor and Mr Ramsay indicated this holds true for Slingcc County When the county board oak over in 1969 less than half the schools had kindergartens All schools in the county not have kindergarten It should also be considered that kindergarten classroom is the most expat sive classroom to install in an elementary school Ihcy require special washroom geared towards little prople and separate entrance At the time of county takeover few schools laui resource centres or Llntllli purpose rooms and tlrcit was great variation in the quality of facilities and 171 grams from mut1ich2fiiiy municipality Mr Ramsay said the hoard embarked on CUUlliVII and costly upgrading pro gram It was necessary to me the best schotll the minimum to ensure equality and parity has not yet reached Ten per cent of the tcimtls are still minus income centre or general pllllnrtt room for school and 0111 munity use Provincial cut backs have forced the board to delay its building program TEACHERS QUAI Filiil Mr Ramsay ointed out however that al schools I11 the county now have Will qualified teachers This was not true in the past he said when the boards hir 1i ill qualified teachers at low cost To add the new facilities it school the Ministry of Education requires the scln mi have at least 10 roonn in many of the smaller rural areas aging schools worr closed and students blithli to larger centres This has left Simcoe =1111iy and other rural bomis of education with high transpmr for children witfi emotional station costs whim in problems tinually increasing