Rocky View Schools', Board of Trustees, voted in favour of the audited 2017/18 financial statement (AFS) presented late last week.

Although the Board feels pressure from increased growth year after year, the AFS shows RVS finances to be in a good, strong state.

With revenue rising to $277 million, up 7.6% from the year before, Todd Brand, Rocky View School Board Chair, shares they were pleased with the process of how the budget was handled over the course of the last year as well as the information presented at last week's board meeting. "There is a good surplus; most of the surplus has to do with the fact that we moved some money from reserves to capital so that we could purchase a high school site in Airdrie but we also had a surplus in our operational budget as well. We feel our staff did a really effective job and that is pretty typical for our Rocky View staff, we have a high level of confidence in what they do."

Increased enrolment, the classroom investment fund, and stable provincial funding have all contributed to the board's positive financial statement but that doesn't mean they will take an apathetic approach especially with the provincial election fast approaching "Whenever you go into an election cycle it always leads to a little bit of uncertainty, but we are thinking things through, planning, and being ready for any contingencies that should come up." 

On said area, the board seeks to improve is the transportation portion of the budget. Taking the reserves down to zero, Brand shares they continue to look for efficiencies and out of the box ideas to help. "As many people are aware we have publicly put our reserves down to zero when it comes to transportation and that is certainly not something we are comfortable with, even though, we feel it was the best decision given the time. We want to start and try to rebuild the transportation reserve to a more prudent level but we still have a lot of transportation budget challenges and that is one area we are still working with the provincial government on."

Looking for creative ways to alleviate some of the transportation financial pressure, Brand, says the staff was in the process of meeting with workers from the City of Airdrie in regards to Airdrie transit. While not sure what will result from the talks, Brand did say with the expansion of transit service into the various municipalities in the RVS division they will continue to explore future possibilities. "We will, for sure, continue to explore out-of-the-box thinking and if there are any other partnerships that we can explore and build we would be happy to do so if they can work out."

Although there is uncertainty looming, Brand applauds the staff for their fiscal management and continuing to provide a high-quality education for students in their care. With the revised 2018/19 budget reflecting a 3.7% enrolment increase, the board will continue to advocate provincially for areas that are 'pinch points'. "Whether it be special need student funding, transportation or others, there will still be areas that we need to address with the government to have headway. When it comes to capital we are certainly falling behind. When it comes to school builds we really do need to see some announcements as soon as possible because schools are getting very, very full and without more space, there is not a lot we can do to solve that."

Going forward the board will continue to do its diligence of monitoring the division budget, says Brand, and hopes to report a strong, solid report for the 2018/19 AFS in a year's time.