Toronto Catholic District School Board trustees have voted in favour of a host of motions that will trim an additional $2.7 million from their budget.
Among the items approved by trustees during their meeting Tuesday night is a plan to slash $1.7 million from the textbook budget, $350,000 from the computer technology budget and 5 per cent from the budgets of 19 different departments, including human resources, communications, special education and the safe school team.
Trustees also voted to reduce non-classroom spending across the board by $435,770 and eliminate the $50,000 discretionary budget given to Director of Education Angela Gauthie.
With the latest cuts, trustees have now eliminated roughly $29.7 million of a $34.3-million budget deficit.
“We’re on the home stretch,” John Yan, TCDSB director of communications, said Tuesday afternoon.“We’ve come a long way trying to reach the $34.3-million to balance the budget”
Last week, trustees found approximately $7.9 million is savings through staff position eliminations, including 14 central principals, four high school vice principals, and four elementary school vice principals.
Yan defended the cuts as a reality of the board’s financial position.
“If you talk to the students and the community, they do understand the fiscal situation that we are in,” he said.
The board’s final budget must be submitted to the Ministry of Education by the end of June.
