GECDSB approves $557-million budget

Greater Essex County District School Board office shown in this file photo in Windsor, Ont., Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013. (Christie Bezaire / CTV Windsor)

The Greater Essex County District School Board approved a $557-million budget for 2022-2023.

Board members voted on the budget at a meeting on Monday night.

The board says projected operating costs for the school year are $486,614,595 with capital project costs at around $72 million.

The budget includes changes that are in place following the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We're still doing more cleaning, we're still providing PPE to staff and students when they need it, there are still all of these absolute realities, these physical realities, let alone the emotional and mental realities and the cognitive realities that we still have," GECDSB chair Alicia Higgison told AM800.

She says over $1 million in COVID-19 funding was taken away.

The Ministry of Education approves amounts based on each item put forward by school boards, but Higgison says there have been cuts to funding.

She says it’s challenging to include all of the items necessary.

The board says the budget includes investments in diversity, equity and inclusion as well as mental health and well-bring and special education resources.

"I'm grateful that even with the reduction in some of the funding that we have seen, that mental health is a priority of our board, and we are spending in those areas,” she says.