Riel division passes $209-M budget

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This article was published 11/03/2022 (1470 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE Louis Riel School Division has solidified plans to expand full-day kindergarten, maintain class sizes, and make modest investments in equity initiatives next year.

Trustees in the southeast Winnipeg board officially approved a $209.3-million budget for the upcoming school year this week.

“Our focus aligned closely with what we heard from our community, including maintaining or reducing class size and continuing our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion while also navigating a number of cost pressures,” said Louise Johnston, chairwoman of the board, in a release.

The division, which includes nearly 15,600 students and 2,100 staff members, estimates its average 2022-23 class sizes for elementary, middle and senior years to be 18.9, 22.6, and 22.8, respectively.

French-immersion high school courses will have, on average, a teacher-to-student ratio of one-to-19.8.

The division said it will reassign nearly seven full-time-equivalent divisional co-ordinators and consultants in order to add more staff to frontline classrooms.

LRSD superintendent Christian Michalik noted in the release that provincial funding does not keep up with inflation or fully address recent staff wage settlements. “Difficult decisions to reassign dedicated and valued staff were made to reallocate dollars for smaller class sizes, additions to the full-day kindergarten and investments in (diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism services),” Michalik said.

The 2022-23 plan includes scaling-up full-day kindergarten to nine schools — up from five, and the launch of a community kitchen that will allow culinary students to cook for families in the division.