Pembina Trails SD proposing 3% property tax hike in effort to balance budget

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This article was published 16/02/2024 (602 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Pembina Trails School Division is counting on a three per cent hike in local property taxes, increasing international student revenue and redeploying teacher-librarians to classrooms to balance its 2024-25 budget.

Secretary-treasurer Scott Carleton unveiled a financial plan totalling $221 million during a public meeting at the division’s Henlow Bay headquarters Thursday.

“When you consider enrolment is growing dramatically, it’s tough to keep pace, but the province has returned divisions’ ability to levy education property taxes,” Carleton told the meeting.

If the board approves the draft document, the owner of an average house valued at $436,889 in the division will pay $59 more in fees when taking into account the provincial education tax rebate.

Veteran trustee David Johnson said the board sought to “balance the needs of providing excellence in education and impacts to the local property owners.”

The blueprint proposes an increase of just over 58 full-time equivalent teachers and continuing summer programming for pre-kindergarten to Grade 6 students.

In order to cover those costs, as well as growing utility and staffing expenses overall, the board is considering slashing community education initiatives by $87,844 or 38 per cent.

A division spokesperson indicated changes to the community education budget reflect “a right-sizing of the Ignite3 (summer) program support to reflect actual costs” and revenue moving from that line item to transportation. Transportation funding is up 14 per cent.

Other noteworthy cutbacks include a 12 per cent reduction to its instructional and pupil support fund and a roughly six per cent decrease in overall dollars for supplies, materials and equipment.

Pembina Trails is also seeking to increase its international student program revenue by 12 per cent.

“Our expenses went up $14 million. Our funding from the province only went up about $4 million, so we’ve got about a $10-million shortfall,” Carleton said.

The division, which encompasses Waverley West, is projected to welcome 739 more students — an increase of about four per cent, next year.

Its baseline operating funding — a sum calculated based on population size, enrolment fluctuations and an equalization formula that redistributes property tax revenue from wealthy divisions to others with modest homes and smaller businesses — will increase by two per cent.

The province has earmarked an additional $2.9 million to expand its school nutrition programs.

Carleton noted the division has typically received some equalization support but that funding was reduced this year owing to its high property values.

Manitoba is in the process of transforming its long-time education funding formula with a focus on equity.

“Whatever the shortfall is between the expenses and the resources we need and the provincial funding we receive is what we need to collect from ratepayers across our division,” the secretary-treasurer said.

The province’s latest report on school finances suggests Pembina Trails spent $12,577 per pupil in 2021-22.

Carleton indicated that per capita expenditure was the lowest among all city boards and is consistently one of the leanest in all of Manitoba.

About 60 per cent of all expenses are related to regular instruction costs.

In a press release, superintendent Lisa Boles said Pembina Trails’ attention is focused on maintaining “and in many cases, decreasing” elementary class sizes, with a particular focus on K-3 lists.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca