Proposed Seven Oaks School Division budget would hike taxes by 4.5 per cent

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The Seven Oaks School Division has tabled a draft budget for 2025-26 that addresses its $1.8-million deficit and keeps all existing programs intact by raising taxes by 4.5 per cent.

“We’re aiming to maintain our strong staffing ratios, our class sizes and all of our existing programming. In order to do so, that equates to a 7.15 per cent increase in the total expenditure budget,” secretary-treasurer Jennifer West told a crowd Monday night at Seven Oaks Performing Arts Centre.

Class sizes for kindergarten to Grade 3 students is 20, on average. It is 21 across Grade 4 to 8 classrooms in Garden City, the Maples and surrounding communities in north Winnipeg.

The $200-million budget proposal includes five new full-time equivalent teacher hires and 15 additional educational assistants to maintain those ratios and address ballooning enrolment in new developments.

Senior administration indicated busing expenses — in particular, transporting children to and from Aurora at North Point and other up-and-coming suburbs that do not have neighbourhood schools — are to blame for the division’s $1.8-million deficit.

The latest provincial funding allotment, which includes provincial school nutrition program funding, amounts to a three per cent hike, West noted. The chief financial officer said a mill rate increase of approximately 4.5 per cent will be necessary to address the budgeting shortfall.

Superintendent Tony Kreml said the plan, which carries on the tradition of free instrument rentals, learn to skate, bike and swim lessons and operating a land-based learning site in West St. Paul, reflects the division’s values.

Kreml said Seven Oaks officials have made commitments historically to keep school fees as low as possible and understand their roles and responsibilities as it relates to truth and reconciliation.

“It is much more than a lesson plan on residential schools. Rather, it’s an understanding of Indigenous worldviews. It’s an understanding of Indigenous resurgence. It’s a recognition of that strength,” he said.

The Aki Centre — short for Ozhaawashkwaa Animikii-Bineshi Aki Onji Kinimaagae’ Inun (Blue Thunderbird Land-Based Teachings Learning Centre) — opened in 2019.

The grounds have hosted numerous field trips and ceremonial events in the six years since Seven Oaks began using the degraded land, which spans about 35 acres, as a teaching tool.

“What we’re noticing is that students experience a profound understanding of what the land can provide and our collective responsibility for it (when they visit and take part in restoration efforts),” Kreml said.

The plan also sets aside funding for every school in Seven Oaks to cover the cost of professional development around climate change education.

Along with funding Seven Oaks staples, such as specialty immersion programs and no-fee lunch supervision, Kreml said the draft budget takes into account the rising cost of utilities, bus parts, technology, substitute teachers and overall wages.

He noted that transportation expenses have been a particularly challenging line item in recent years, owing to young families moving into Aurora at North Point, Meadowlands, Highland Pointe and Parkview Pointe.

École Mino Pimatisiwin School is slated to serve families living near the intersection of McPhillips Street and Murray Avenue and alleviate some of those pressures when it opens in September 2026.

The provincial government recently pledged to build another elementary school in the nearby Meadowlands development, but construction is not anticipated to begin until 2026.

The education minister indicated her office’s understanding is that Seven Oaks is managing a “one-off” deficit and there are no structural issues.

The division “has an exceptional record of staying in the black,” Education Minister Tracy Schmidt said Tuesday.

Seven Oaks’ board of trustees is scheduled to vote on its final budget March 10.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca