durhamregion.com | This Week | Thursday, July 7, 2022 | | 18 111 Taunton Rd. E. 905-432-6912 255 Simcoe St. N. 905-728-4966 745 Stevenson Rd. N. 905-723-1009 GREAT RATES UTILITIES INCLUDED Onsite Laundry Facilities, Enclosed & Surface Parking & more 1, 2 & 3 BEDROOM UNITS AVAILABLE NORTH OSHAWA Call us today at 1-866-601-3083 to tour these properties Available paper routes in your neighborhood! Earn your own money Call or email us now to start delivering 1-855-853-5613 OR customersupport@metroland.com E X P L O R E R U R A L O N T A R I O CATCH 2 0 2 2 V I S I T O R G U I D E SPECIALDIGITALISSUE Scan to Download and read your FREE copy today! Inside are all the ingredients for planning a one-of-a-kind adventure. The Durham District School Board is facing several pressure points and unpredictable scenarios as work continues on the 2022-23 budget. A draft was presented to the board's finance committee on June 1. The budget is balanced and totals about $1 billion -- $880,291,132 in operating expenses and $132,932,109 for capital spending. Associate director David Wright described it as a "recovery and growth" budget and says "significant resources are being dedicated toward supporting not only the academic needs of students for the coming year and learning recovery -- but also their mental health needs." One of the challenges ahead for 2022-23 is maintenance and construction costs. "In addition to supply chain pressures and labour constraints, inflation will continue to prove challenging to manage over the short and mid-term," the budget document noted. Combine that with the cost of commodities and an overall shortage of skilled tradespeople and you have what Wright described as a "volatile" construction market. Special education continues to be pressure point, as in past years with the DDSB noting, "funding for special education is not increasing at the same rate as the demand for services." For 2022-23, the board is expected to spend $6.6 million beyond what the province has allocated for special education, a situation that "places financial pressure on the rest of the board." The amount the DDSB contributes over and above the provincial allotment has climbed in recent years. In 2018-19 and 2019-20, it was just over $3 million. That jumped to $4.6 million in 2020-21 and then $6.7 million for 2021-22. Tara Culley, a member of the DDSB's special education advisory committee, highlighted several areas of concern at a recent finance committee meeting, including the need to reduce wait times for students to be assessed for special education needs. The trajectory of the pandemic and upcoming labour negotiations also create some financial unpredictability. Agreements for all DDSB staff who collectively bargain will expire on Aug. 31, while the fall could prove rocky if there is a COVID resurgence that creates high levels of staff absence. "Uncertainties about the prevalence of the virus and ongoing impact on staff illness rates make budgeting for operations less certain than it has been historically. In order to compensate for this uncertainty, our approach is to be as conservative but realistic as possible," the budget document noted. FINANCIAL PRESSURES, UNPREDICTABILITY AS DDSB WORKS ON 2022-23 BUDGET JILLIAN FOLLERT jfoller t@durhamregion.com NEWS DDSB EXPECTED TO SPEND $6.6M BEYOND WHAT PROVINCE PROVIDES FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION