North Vancouver calculates the cost of all-day kindergarten
Vancouver Sun
By Janet Steffenhagen
13 Dec 2009

North Vancouver indicated recently that it doesn't believe the Education Ministry's funding for full-day kindergarten will cover all costs. Indeed, it anticipates that it will have to draw $150,000 a year from its operating budget to "subsidize" all-day K….

I asked North Van to explain how it reached its figure and here is the reply:

"Instructional costs are based on the average teacher salary within the school district.

Kindergarten requires smaller class sizes at <19 on average.

Per pupil funding is constant at $5,851 pre Full Time Equivalent student, regardless of Grade level.

The instructional costs for each Kindergarten class are 10% greater than Primary classes <21 on average

The instructional costs for each Kindergarten class are 30% greater than Intermediate (Gr. 4 - 7) classes <28 on average, and

The Instructional costs for each Kindergarten class are approximately 30% greater than Secondary classes (Gr. 8 - 12).

With higher average instructional costs per child at Kindergarten, the School District will incur greater costs with an increase in the number of Kindergarten students.  A larger proportion of Kindergarten students in the total complement of students will require an increased proportion of funding being directed to this group.  An estimated cost of $7,500 has been identified for each classroom and applied to the expected increase of 20 Kindergarten classes in the coming year.

In addition to higher instructional costs per pupil at the Kindergarten level, the School District has tracked costs associated with the implementation of the StrongStart program and has determined that the funding provided by the Ministry to address equipment and operational costs are insufficient.  The School District is subsidizing each StrongStart centre at an estimated cost of $5,000 per year.  ….