NEWPORT secondary schools could face a combined deficit totalling millions of pounds if Newport City Council’s draft budget is given the go-ahead, it has been claimed.

In a letter seen by the South Wales Argus, school business managers estimated a projected deficit of more than £2.5m facing the city’s eight secondary schools.

Criticising the draft budget, the source of the letter - who asked not to be named - pointed out that the data shows each school would need to pay additional costs to meet demands.

These would include exam fees, LSU funding and salary costs.

Furthermore, when the need to fund the new Ysgol Gyfyn Gwent Is Coed school is taken into account, the predicted overall total rises to more than £2.8m.

Lliswerry High School is facing a projected shortfall of £611,859 in the next financial year.

Elsewhere, it would be £402,247 at The John Frost School; £266,121 at St Julian’s; £335,192 at Newport High School, £281,872 at St Joseph’s RC School; £279,132 at Caerleon School; £396,727 at Llanwern, and £238,794 at Bassaleg School.

Although Newport council’s draft budget for the 2017-18 financial year does not include a cut, teaching staff warned the fact it does not take the new school into account and there is no increase - which in fact represents a real-terms drop of £3 million, or six per cent, when inflation and other costs are considered.

The source of the leaked letter said: “How can a school run on a deficit of hundreds of thousands of pounds? I fear for the future of Newport youngsters. All of the schools had bad deficits before but with the ninth school added it will be horrendous.

“I can see things like sport, music and drama disappearing.”

They added: “I hear there’s an extra £1.1m in funding, but between nine schools that could help a little, but not much. More funding is needed to get us out of this situation.”

Jon Wilson, head teacher of The John Frost School, echoed the concerns.

He said: “We are facing a budget crisis which means all secondary schools will be in a deficit with possibly no reserves. Having already made recent cuts, head teachers are at their wits’ end to manage this situation.

“A large number of redundancies will only be the start. I can see class sizes of 40.

“I understand the difficulty but I just hope more funding is made available.”

John Parfitt, chairman of governors for Caerleon school, added: “If the budget goes through it will have a devastating impact on the school. The deficit would undo all the hard work that we’ve done.”

Councillor David Williams, chairman of governors of Bassaleg School, said he had “grave concerns” and said there would be “long term damage” to the school.

Council leader Councillor Debbie Wilcox said the council has no option but to deliver a balanced budget.

“This is proving harder and harder each year as the demand for services grows, yet our funding from Westminster continues to reduce,” she added.

“An additional £1.1million has been allocated for Newport’s schools. Although additional funding has been consistently given to schools over the last few years – either meeting or exceeding the level of the Welsh Government pledge – it was recognised that education in Newport could be affected without this support.

“Providing excellent education for all our students is a major priority for the council. We will continue to work with schools to help them best manage the funds available and to plan for the challenges and inevitable savings in future years.

“Education is an area we all agree is worthy of such investment.”