Seven Oaks division considers cuts

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This article was published 27/02/2023 (955 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The future of free instrument rentals, after-school programs and bussing for grade 7-12 students is uncertain in the Seven Oaks School Division as trustees contemplate cuts to address financial constraints in 2023-24.

During a public meeting Monday night, division leaders released the details of their $16.8-million budget and shared challenges related to maintaining status-quo operations.

“The budget challenges us to keep Seven Oaks ‘Seven Oaks,’” said superintendent Brian O’Leary, in reference to the division’s parent-friendly reputation for footing the bill for everything from lunch fees to field trips.

“We wish we were in a budget discussion where we were talking about how to improve nutrition programming or how to improve graduation rates or how to improve arts programming, rather than just ‘What are we going to hang on to?’” he told a crowd of roughly 100 people who packed into an auditorium for the presentation.

Education Minister Wayne Ewasko recently announced all 37 boards were guaranteed to receive a minimum increase of 2.5 per cent in annual funding next year.

School leaders have welcomed the change, following a half-dozen years during which many received consecutive decreases despite stagnant student populations, although the rising cost of operating schools did not render the sums as windfalls.

Seven Oaks’ share for the 2023-24 school year is 3.8 per cent higher, according to Ewasko’s office. The board’s calculations, however, suggest provincial grants are only rising 2.1 per cent in comparison to 2022-23 figures.

O’Leary told the Free Press the constraints mean the division has to decide whether to cut staff or programs now to save for salary settlements (teachers are currently without a contract) or postpone reductions and hope the province will fork up extra cash later for wages.

Among the offerings on the chopping block are as many as 50 staff positions, programs including learn-to-swim, skate or bike programs, and school transportation for senior year students.

Grade 11 student Megh Modha, who serves on Maples Collegiate’s student council, showed up Monday to be an ambassador for his peers and learn about the state of Seven Oaks’ finances.

The prospect of reductions to bussing for city high schoolers like himself troubled the teenager, who relies on school transportation if he cannot get an alternative ride, because he said it could affect attendance rates.

“After-school programs are a really big deal for me. I’m basically in everything — I’m in theatre, tech, choir programs, and if those programs get cut, that’s a big part of my life that I would miss,” the 16-year-old said.

During his presentation, O’Leary shared the division’s math — which takes into account wage assistance, student presence and inflationary support — on what hikes Winnipeg-area boards can expect for 2023-24.

The data show Pembina Trails, River East Transcona, Louis Riel, St. James-Assiniboia, and Winnipeg are receiving increases of 9.5, 7.6, 6.1, 5.0 and 3.9 per cent, respectively.

Mother Charlene Eckert said she does not understand why Seven Oaks — in which she teaches and her family, including a current high schooler, lives — is not receiving equal funding to its counterparts.

The veteran teacher said she has felt cuts in her classroom, but the level of urgency that leaders voiced about budget constraints in the division, where she has worked for more than 20 years, reached a new level Monday.

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“Class sizes are going up, class composition demands are going up. I can’t spend nearly enough time with kids that need help and there’s lots of them that need help for a lot of different reasons,” Eckert said, adding the existing educational assistant roster is insufficient and it’s waning.

O’Leary said it appears the education funding formula resulted in Seven Oaks suffering because the value of properties across the division went up this year due to new developments, although its ability to raise local taxes has been frozen since 2018, and its equalization amount decreased in response.

Manitoba was anticipated to implement a new K-12 funding model for next year to address long standing concerns about equity, but its implementation has been delayed until 2024-25.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie

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.