A4

By Daniel Martins

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The past summer's rollercoaster fuel prices have taken their toll on School District 16, which is projecting a deficit in its December estimates.

District superintendent Laurie Keoughan said at Tuesday night's District Education Council (DEC) meeting that although the loss on student services has not yet been calculated, it is estimated that electricity will be down by around $50,000, garbage collection $11,000 and bus operations $100,000.

The total expected deficit, not counting student services, is around $161,000.

"That was ... based on high gas prices in October," he said.

DEC member Jody Holmes noted even though gas prices have dropped drastically in recent weeks, that would not translate into drastic relief for the city.

"While we're seeing a pretty good decline with cars, it's not the same with diesel," he said.

Keoughan said the district will have to compensate for the losses in other areas.

"That deficit will be covered by pinching and saving in other areas," he said, such as general operation funds, day-to-day saving on building rentals and possibly even raising tuition for foreign students, as well as other areas.

"The reality is, things like professional development, there's cutbacks there."

However, Keoughan expressed his hope the Education Department would consider stepping in to help cover at least some of the shortfall.

Education department spokeswoman Johanne LeBlanc said the department was aware that school districts around the province were facing this issue, and did receive funding in its 2008-2009 budget to help cope with the effects of higher fuel and electricity costs.

However, she said it would be some time before the level of aid, if any, can be properly calculated.

"Prices ... continued to rise higher than what was originally expected," she said. "Although Department of Finance prices are starting to drop, so it is difficult to know at this time what the final shortfall will be."