River East-Transcona School Division offers residents base-model budget or, for a few bucks more, one with a few options

The River East Transcona School Division is asking residents if they want more clinical and student learning support services or lower taxes.

Senior administration presented two scenarios — status quo or “enhanced” — at a budget meeting on Thursday.

The first option, which totals $276.7 million, maintains programming and staffing at current levels.

The second involves spending up to $2 million more to hire three clinicians and four additional staff for resource-teacher and school-counsellor teams.

“We really try to stick to needs. There are always things we want (but) we know this directly hits the pocketbooks of taxpayers,” secretary-treasurer Elise Downey said in an interview Friday.

Depending on community members’ feedback and trustees’ final deliberations, the mill rate, which is currently 12.460, will be raised between 6.6 per cent and 7.3 per cent, Downey said.

For the average homeowner, with a property valued at $361,700, the lower increase would amount to roughly $40 more in annual taxes, and the higher would increase the amount to $54.

Both figures take into account the province’s $1,600 property tax rebate.

“The board of trustees does not want to cut classrooms, staffing or resources,” finance chair Brianne Goertzen told Thursday’s budget meeting, which drew about 30 participants.

Goertzen gave an impassioned speech about “the increasing strain” on public schools she’s witnessed as a trustee over the last 10 years.

The Ward 3 representative pleaded for attendees to contact their local MLAs to share how the province’s “inadequate” funding model has affected their families.

Manitoba announced last month that it was topping up operating funding for public schools by nearly $80 million — or 3.5 per cent, overall — in 2026-27.

River East Transcona is receiving $3.9 million in new operating dollars. That sum amounts to a year-over-year increase of 2.9 per cent, including about $720,000 to address cost pressures associated with a new teacher contract.

Downey said the province’s latest commitment represents just under half of what’s needed to maintain programs next year.

Salaries and benefits are growing by $5.8 million. Information-technology related expenses are rising $750,000. Building insurance is up $125,000.

The increased cost of running culinary arts, woodworking and related programs is also rising significantly, Downey said.

The division currently employs the full-time equivalent of about 1,304 teachers, 589 educational assistants and 78 principals.

There are 40 clinician positions, including physiotherapists, social workers and occupational therapists.

Supt. Sandra Herbst said the board is considering hiring more clinicians to address lengthy wait times for support.

There’s no plan to add classroom teachers, because enrolment should be “flat,” Herbst said.

The division is expected to welcome 100 new students next year, bringing its total population to 18,865. The majority of the growth is projected to be in the Devonshire Park development.

Herbst said class sizes are expected to mirror this year’s ratios, if all goes according to plan.

As of Oct. 1, average class sizes ranged from a low of 17 in kindergarten to a high of 24 in Grade 8.

“We feel like we have a little bit of a chance to breathe,” Downey said, noting enrolment is calming down after several years of “skyrocketing” statistics.

The division’s 63 schools welcomed more than 1,000 new students between September 2022 and 2024.

Downey said the “enhanced” budget could include $250,000 extra for school security upgrades and $500,000 to prepare for the opening of a new elementary school in Devonshire Park.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca