The Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) says it will have to run a $4.6 million deficit in the next school year.

The board says a $1.5 million portion of the deficit is related to receiving "late word" from the government about increased class sizes, according to a budget document released Monday.

Usually school boards receive information about grants for students in March. This year the information wasn't made available until May.

Staffing this fall will include 54 teaching positions that will not be funded by the Ministry of Education. The document says this represents a budget pressure of $5 million.

Earlier this year, the province announced that class sizes would increase to 28 students in high school and to 24 in all but the lowest elementary grades. This means the board will lose $10 million in grants for student funding next year.

Last month, the chair of Thames board, Arlene Morell, told the Minister of Education in a letter that the changes to class sizes will "significantly impact our programming and pathways for our secondary students, narrowing the scope of what schools can offer and providing few opportunities for students at each level of their secondary education."

Morell also told the minister the changes will impact courses in "technology, trades, family studies ... Native Languages and specialized programming."

The total preliminary expense budget for the board for 2019-20 is $967,379,535 with a projected deficit of $4.6 million deficit.

The board says there are several risk factors affecting the budget, including:

Enrolment variability. A decline in enrolment will reduce ministry grants.

Excess capacity of 13,500 empty pupil places. This number is expected to rise.

Special education expenses, budgeted to exceed grants by $4.2 million in 2019-20. Last year the figure was $3.4 million.

Transportation expenses – dependent on the outcome of arbitration expected in July.

Staff absence replacements, estimated to cost $20.6 million next year. There are concerns that the number and cost of replacement staff could increase.

In an executive summary attached to the budget, Jake Skinner, the chair of the board's planning and priorities committee, said trustees and staff realize that "challenging decisions may need to made."

"We recognize the impacts these choices may have on our employees, students, and the community; but our task remains to do what we can, with what we have, where we are – and so we will," he said in the document.

The board is seeking input from the public on the proposed budget via its website www.tvdsb.ca. Submissions can be made until June 10. Individuals can make presentations to trustees about the budget on the evening of June 11, but presenters must fill out a form online by June 6. The budget is scheduled to be approved by the board on June 18.