Catholic School Division waiting on contingency funding update from province

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After the recent funding announced by the province for contingencies in spending for school divisions the Prince Albert Catholic School Division is preparing for the next steps. The board of education received an update during their regular meeting on Monday and the division is expecting to receive about  $700,000.

According to director of education Lorel Trumier, they have made their application  to the Ministry of Education.

“We did report to the board that our application was sent. We do have a sense that we will be receiving some contingency funding dollars — both federal and provincial,” Trumier said.

She explained that the Ministry is working to provide more details for the division to begin planning.

“We do know we are scheduled for meetings in the next week to two weeks to get the details and some further clarification on elements that are involved in those applications that we put forward. So it is promising.

The division’s application was for between $600,000 and $700,000. According to the Ministry of Education, the division is set to receive $699,880. Trumier explained that they are waiting on the details.

Chief Financial Officer Greg McEwen explained that they received a letter on August 18. According to the letter, school divisions can apply for eligible expenditures to implement the return to school plans.

“At that time we also received an application template that we can utilize to apply for funding for pandemic related costs to be submitted to the ministry prior to the August 27 deadline,” he explained.

The letter also explained that new funding will not be available until all savings from the previous school year are either spent or allocated. Applications can also be made throughout the year for eligible staffing increases, once the actual costs exceed those of Provincially, $19.1 million was available to school divisions for sanitation, $6.0 million was available for equipment and furniture, $13 million was available for supports, $5 million was available  for additional distance learning capacity and $4 million was available for technology upgrades.

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