They aren鈥檛 popping the champagne corks just yet, but the 91原创 School District has paid off its deficit, two years ahead of schedule.

The announcement came at Tuesday鈥檚 Board of Education meeting, while secretary treasurer David Green outlined the district鈥檚 $182 million 2012/13 budget.

鈥淲e will have retired the deficit and balanced the budget, but we have to wait until June 30th鈥檚 financials to ,鈥� said Green.

鈥淭hat is hugely commendable,鈥漵aid trustee Alison McVeigh.

Board chair Wendy Johnson thanked students, staff and teachers for going through these challenging times.

鈥淚t鈥檚 been tough on the system, our schools have felt it,鈥� said Johnson. 鈥淭hank you to our teachers, our support staff, our administration. The good news is we paid it off two years ahead of time.鈥�

Through accounting errors, the district was challenged with an unexpected $13.5 million deficit that forced the government to step in and the Auditor General set up a repayment plan that the district would have to abide by.

The payments were to go until 2014.

But all this good news should be met with caution, said Green to trustees.

鈥淭here are significant cost pressures coming,鈥� he said.

An increase of $1.2 million for teachers鈥� pensions with bargaining for teachers to start next week on top of that.

In the recently announced provincial budget, MSP premiums were going up. There was also no new funding for education.

鈥淯tilities are also going up on April 1,鈥� Green said. The impact on the provincially mandated co-operative gains program is yet to be determined, said Green.

All school districts are required to pay for wage increases for teachers but with no help from the province and they aren鈥檛 allowed to cut any services. This could potentially mean $7 million chunk out of 91原创鈥檚 budget without cutting services.

The budget means the school system will have the same level of services it did last year, with no extras.

Trustee Megan Dykeman was the only one to vote against the amended budget, saying it isn鈥檛 good enough to stay with the 鈥渟tatus quo.鈥�

鈥淲e have to work with the money we get. There isn鈥檛 going to be a lot of extras,鈥� said McVeigh.