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School District 23 is not flush with cash from savings realized during the current teachers strike.

District Secretary/Treasurer, Larry Paul, says there is no massive savings pot.

"Everyone seems to think we have a big sack of money in the middle of the board office that we are taking strike savings out of, but it's not quite as clear as that," says Paul.

While the district is not paying teachers' salaries, which works out to about $8.7M a month, it still has to pay CUPE workers, who cannot work, throughout the duration of the strike.

CUPE support workers include operations staff, clerical workers, custodians and bus drivers.

They make up a large portion of the remaining $43M in wages paid out annually by the district.

CUPE workers negotiated the wage continuance as part of its last contract.

"I have never heard of this before in my labour history, but it is something they negotiated with the government when they did their provincial bargaining in the spring," says Paul.

"That was part of them getting their deal. They (CUPE) didn't want their members to lose any money should another union cause them to be behind picket lines."

Despite the strike, school districts continue to receive funding as usual from the province, however, savings are clawed back by the government for any savings the district may realize as a result.

Up until now, Paul says that was mainly for teacher wages and benefits.

That, according to Paul, is about to change after districts received more clarification from the province.

"In addition to assigning teacher savings they also want us to include in that strike saving, teacher on call and support staff savings.

They are asking us to take a look at our utility savings, transportation costs, professional development cost savings, travel cost savings, supply savings, benefit utilization, dues and fees. We are obviously not incurring some costs we normally would because the system is not running."

Paul says the government is recapturing 80 per cent of calculated savings, clawing it back from the school districts, but has heard that number could increase to between 80 and 100 per cent.

"It is going to get closer to a cost neutral to us."

The district is also incurring additional costs and facing some revenue loss as a result of the strike.

While schools remain behind picket lines the district is losing out on approximately $25,000 a month in facility rental revenues.

The district has also realized additional costs such mailing out approximately 22,000 report cards at the conclusion of last year, operating the international education program with additional day trips and excursions and the additional mileage costs for management as they move from school to school.

Paul adds once the strike ends and the system re-opens the district could be faced with a further budget crunch based on the number of students returning to class.

He says the district has based staffing for the upcoming school year on an enrollment of approximately 21,500 students.

Paul expects some of those students will not return, choosing instead private schools, home schooling or moving out of province to continue or conclude their education.

"What happens if only 21,000 show up? We have lost the value of 500 students," says Paul.

"We have a risk of a huge adjustment later in the year but no ability to address our staffing costs because that has already been put in place for the year."

He says districts could find themselves scrambling to make their budgets work because they have lost kids to somewhere else.

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