Fees paid by foreign students are helping to bail School District 43 out of its difficult financial situation.
This year, the district's long-running international education program, will contribute $400,000 towards $5 million in deficit reduction this year and another $2 million towards reduction of a $12.1-million deficit for the 2013/'14 school year.
Raising fees, cutting 17 teachers, and reducing supplies and services, and not replacing a principal and a secretary is how the program will help out the district, said assistant principal Patricia Gartland. And she's not worried enrolment will drop off when foreign students are charged $13,000 a year for tuition instead of $12,000.
"Most of our students have already applied and 70% have already renewed and we've got our new applicants," Gartland said. "It's looking very, very good."
Her department expects to generate $15.8 million in revenue next year, most of which will be spent on teachers and grants at schools attended by foreign students. But $6 million will go into the district's general operating budget.
The cuts will mean there will be fewer teachers at the elementary and middle school level but Gartland said 80% of foreign student enrolment is now at secondary schools, a change from a few years ago that is creating opportunities for more efficient staffing.
Gartland also is stepping up marketing and paid $16,000 to sponsor two agent fairs in Berlin and Toronto to gain exposure and attract agencies interested in sending foreign students to Canada.
"You want them to choose B.C. and you want them to choose Coquitlam," she said, calling the International Consultants for Education and Fairs the world's premier such event.
Gartland also dismissed concerns raised Tuesday about a surcharge being placed on foreign students. She said the fee issue wasn't raised at a recent education ministry advisory group meeting even though it was on the agenda.
Meanwhile, the Coquitlam Teachers' Association is worried about the district's increasing reliance on foreign fees given the ups and downs of the global economy.
"To count on that in your general operating budget is very dangerous," CTA president Teresa Grandinetti said. "Now we've come to depend on it through our day-to-day business. It's sad but if it's not there, there goes another 100 teachers or something."
