River East trustees monitor inflation pressure

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This article was published 26/02/2022 (1510 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ELECTED officials in the River East Transcona School Division are sorting out budget details for the next school year with the goal of mirroring their 2021-22 plan.

“We’re attempting to ensure that it’s a status-quo budget to ensure that we’re maintaining our existing programs and services for the entirety of the division,” said Brianne Goertzen, chairwoman of the board of trustees’ finance committee.

Goertzen, who represents Ward 3, said trustees continue to deliberate how to do just that and hire more staff to meet growing enrolment — particularly in Transcona, despite funding constraints.

The division’s allotment of provincial operating funding for 2022-23 is nearly $212.7 million, but Goertzen said that sum does not address skyrocketing inflation rates.

COVID-19 related expenses and staff salary settlements are proving to be financial pressures for boards across the province as they plan budgets.

Meantime, RETSD administration is projecting upwards of 270 new pupils to enrol in 42 public schools and two learning centres across northeast Winnipeg next year, increasing the student population to more than 17,000.

The current draft budget aims to expand the teaching roster, which includes 1,096 educators, by 10 positions.

One month ago, the division held a virtual public consultation session to provide an update on budget deliberations and present the findings of an autumn survey that collected responses from upwards of 1,000 community members about their priorities for local education.

Key themes in the results include the importance of hiring more educational assistants to support students; offering music, art, inquiry and language learning opportunities; and teaching financial literacy and critical thinking in elementary schools.

Goertzen said investments in mental health and well-being will become increasingly important.

“It’s important for folks to understand that when we do exit out of the pandemic, there will be needs within all school divisions as it relates to additional resources for student support, as well as mental health and well-being for our staff and students alike. We’ve all just experienced a traumatic event and continue to do,” she said.

RETSD estimates it will spend just shy of $3.7 million on COVID-19 expenses by the end of this year alone.

In addition to providing divisions with grants to cover certain pandemic expenses and back-pay for staff, owing to arbitration decisions that overruled the Public Services Sustainability Act (Bill 28), the provincial government will provide boards with funding to offset the ongoing freeze in property education taxes.

The division in northeast Winnipeg will receive a grant that equals the sum of what it could have raised by increasing local property education taxes by two per cent for 2022-23.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie