At a state of the board address the Education Director Paul Picard gave the news Tuesday evening.
The separate school board has turned a more than $2 million deficit into a $5.4 million surplus for the 2012-13 school year.
Picard expects the surplus to grow. "The prediction we are making this evening is an additional surplus of 5.2 million."
The amount means the board will have a reserve of more than $10,500,000 by the end of the school year.
However Picard says it’s unlikely the board will go on a spending spree as trustees continue to balance the capital deficit. "We still have a capital deficit of over 14 million, so we still have a ways to go to balance that."
Still the Unit President of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association is unimpressed as he says the success has come at the expense of his members.
Brian Hogan says the surplus has been made through cuts. “They cut staff which created cuts in services to the class room. EAs, special Education teachers, librarians a few years ago and social workers a year or two ago."
However the board says there was also job creation.
Picard says the province’s decision to eliminate post-retirement benefits for members represented by the former Canadian Auto Workers Union has had a big impact on the books for many boards across the province
