LRSD’s tax hike would add full-day kindergarten to 21 schools

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This article was published 28/02/2024 (589 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Louis Riel School Division trustees want to roll out universal full-day kindergarten in the fall and they are appealing to residents to support a 7.5 per cent hike in local property taxes to make it happen.

Administrators and elected officials presented two options on Tuesday evening when they revealed the discussions that underpinned their budget planning for 2024-25.

The first, which secretary treasurer Jamie Rudnicki called the “break even” draft, seeks to maintain operations and target deferred maintenance projects with a 6.5 per cent increase in taxes.

The second proposal includes an additional percentage increase to make full-time kindergarten available across the division’s 30 elementary schools.

“LRSD likes to go big. We like to be bold and audacious,” Ward 4 trustee Pamela Kolochuk told a packed room inside the board office at 900 St Mary’s Rd.

“We look to our community and how we can support (members) in our community in order to make our community better. How can we support the economy? How can we support mothers? How can we support early learners?”

While endorsing the latter option, Kolochuk noted it is the equivalent of $20 extra per year for the owner of an average residence in the division valued at $381,300.

Per the division’s calculations, a 7.5 per cent increase would cost the average homeowner an extra $150 versus a 6.5 per cent hike’s annual surcharge of $130.

LRSD began piloting full-day kindergarten in 2016. The initiative has since grown to include nine schools in total.

An expansion to 21 outstanding elementary buildings is projected to cost just shy of $2.6 million — the majority of which would be spent on hiring 22 full-time equivalent teachers and 12.5 FTE educational assistants.

“For public education to truly be universal, our youngest learners — the learners we welcome into the space we call LRSD for the very first time — should be with us the full day,” said Christian Michalik, superintendent of the division encompassing St. Boniface, River Park South and communities between.

Michalik, a vocal advocate for what is often dubbed “FDK,” spoke about his family’s positive experience with day-long programming offered via the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine. Both of his adult daughters graduated from FDK in the francophone division.

DSFM is the only one of its kind currently making entry-level instruction available all day, every day in the Manitoba capital — a stark contrast to universal programming in Ontario, B.C., Nova Scotia, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador and the Northwest Territories.

(Citing budget constraints, elected officials in the Winnipeg School Division and Pembina Trails School Division have scrapped their respective FDK offerings in their entirety in recent years.)

Michalik said an expansion in LRSD would set students up for early learning success while addressing family challenges when it comes to finding child care in the community.

The NDP government announced earlier this month that every school division would receive an increase in overall funding for 2024-25 and it was reinstating trustee powers to raise local levies without facing retribution.

LRSD’s baseline allotment is $112.9 million — an increase of 4.7 per cent compared to the previous year.

During this week’s public budget meeting, Kolochuk spoke about how inflationary pressures, future wage settlements and growing enrolment, as well as the number of students entering local schools with complex specialized needs, are informing planning.

Maintenance and infrastructure operating costs are up roughly 12 per cent while supplies and services are slated to increase by nine per cent next year.

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The overall student population, currently sitting around 16,800, is anticipated to grow by 925 more students, Kolochuk said.

Based on those projections, the draft budget includes the addition of, on an FTE basis, 27 classroom teachers, 5.25 student services teachers, 4.75 vice-principals, and two clinicians for next year.

It accounts for an extra 19 EAs, five more maintenance staff and the hiring of three other casual employees.

The board is considering a $241.8-million draft budget that would increase slightly if trustees vote to make full-day kindergarten universal. The board is anticipated to approve its official financial plan on March 12.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Maggie Macintosh
Education reporter

Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie.

Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative.

Every piece of reporting Maggie produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.