A late delivery of the Kamloops-Thompson School District’s operating budget for the next school year means trustees will wait a couple of days to hear the financial break down.

Secretary treasurer Kelvin Stretch told the school board during a meeting Monday night that he didn’t receive the budget information until 4:30 p.m. and needed time to assess the data.

“There’s been some significant changes,” he said, adding he would have a report ready Wednesday.

After the meeting: Stretch explained to the media that every penny of the $119.5 million budget appears to be accounted for, but the province has changed the way the monies are presented.

He needs to go through the document line by line before he is confident commenting on the details, he said.

At first glance, it seems like the province has provided less funding. But Stretch said the amount school districts get in the spring is less than the final budget total in the fall.

By the time Kamloops-Thompson receives all its grants for the year, the total should be on par with the $124 million received in 2009-2010, he said.

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A 20 per cent increase in the number of Grade 8 First Nations students who graduate high school is proof an education partnership with the school district works, school trustees heard Monday.

Renee Spence, an administrator with the First Nations Education Council, presented the latest overview on First Nations students during a school board meeting.

She said the second Aboriginal Education Enhancement Agreement came to an end with the report, which provides an overview of the 2008-2009 school year.

Each agreement lasts five years. Since the partnership began a decade ago the number of Grade 8 students who graduate Grade 12 jumped from 40 to 58 per cent, said Spence.

“Nobody’s satisfied with 58 per cent, but we’re going in the right direction,” she said. “It wasn’t that long ago when we had 30 students who were graduating. Now we’ve got more than 100.”

Spence said representatives from the school district and education council host a gathering at Henry Grube Education Centre Friday to review results of the last five-years and set goals for the next agreement.

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The Kamloops-Thompson School District may require high school students to pay a $50 textbook deposit come September in order to recoup an estimated $50,000 a year bill for lost textbooks.

The idea was turned over to the school district’s policy committee for review Monday night. Supt. Terry Sullivan said a tight school budget means the district can’t absorb the cost anymore.

Sullivan said it’s not uncommon for parents to return to a child’s school two years after graduation with several used, and presumed lost, textbooks.