Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools planning for lunchtime supervision fees in Sept.

Another school division in the province will start charging parents for lunchtime supervision, something Saskatchewan's premier criticized last week, saying schools should draw instead from their "ample reserves." 

On Monday, the Greater Saskatoon Catholic School (GSCS) board passed the division's 2022-23 budget, announcing it would cut 19.5 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions in the fall and bring in a lunch supervision fee for elementary school students in the city.

"The education minister has mentioned that there are ample reserves in many, if not all, of the school divisions across the province," said Scott Moe on Friday, just days after Saskatoon Public Schools announced cuts to staffing and a new $100-per-child lunchtime supervision fee for kids not going home during the lunch hour. 

"Before a school division is going to charge parents additional dollars for noon hour recess … they most certainly should be looking at using some of the reserves that have been growing in the last few years."

GSCS will implement a $70 per year per student fee for lunch supervision, or $7 per month, the school division explained in a document to parents and staff.

Families of half-time kindergarten students will have to pay $35 per year, and fees will be capped at $140 per family.

Regina's Catholic schools are also adding new fees for lunchtime supervision, while the Regina Public School Division has been charging fees for six years.

While Moe said he was speaking about all divisions in general, not every school in the province might have cash reserves to dip into.

"Some of the boards that have had to make some of those more difficult decisions have already drawn down their reserves over the course of the last … five years of chronic underfunding of education," said Shawn Davidson, president of the Saskatchewan School Boards Association.

"Some of them did have some larger savings that they are able to draw on. And those divisions that do have those reserves are largely doing that."

Some school divisions in Saskatchewan not only have no reserve funds to tap into right now, they actually have to deal with debt, said Davidson 

"It is unfair to brand everyone with the same brush and say, 'Oh well, just spend your reserves,'" he said.

The association as well as school divisions across the province have expressed their concerns about the province's spending on education when it was announced in the Saskatchewan government's budget in March.

The province's education budget for the upcoming fiscal year was $3.8 billion, an increase of $47.2 million, or 1.3  per cent from the previous year.