St. James division proposes tax hike to cover new teachers, programs

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This article was published 28/02/2025 (215 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

St. James school trustees want to hike local property taxes 4.7 per cent to standardize school fees, hire more teachers — 10 of whom would strictly cover absences during peak respiratory-illness season — and run Michif language lessons.

The St. James-Assiniboia School Division hosted its annual draft budget town hall at its headquarters at 2575 Portage Ave. on Thursday night.

Starting in 2025-26, administration is proposing universal school supply fees of $50 for elementary students and $30 for middle years learners.

If the financial plan is approved as is, half-day kindergarten students would be charged $35 to cover the cost of pencils, crafts and related learning materials.

Superintendent Jenness Moffatt described the $142-million draft budget as “status quo — plus a little more.”

It accounts for the addition of 24 educational assistants and up to 10 teachers, should any site in the division be faced with unexpected enrolment growth over the course of the coming school year.

The blueprint reinstates an assistant superintendent role that was axed when the former PC government directed divisions to shrink management in 2020 to prepare for mass amalgamations that never came.

It also accounts for 10 supply teachers from December to April, a period during which “fail-to-fills” happen more frequently than the rest of the year, said Holly Hunter, chair of the board of trustees responsible for 26 schools in west Winnipeg.

Fail-to-fills occur when a teacher is absent and there is no substitute available to replace them.

Hunter said the smallest of area schools, which have fewer auxiliary staff than their counterparts, grapple with coverage when employees call in sick.

A community member proposed there be a team of floating teachers to address related challenges at a first-of-its-kind public budget consultation event held at Collège Sturgeon Heights Collegiate in October.

“Itinerant staff positions are a strong investment in the well-being of staff as it supports the daily operation in our schools,” added Hunter, a board member who has represented families in the east ward since 2018.

The school division’s provincial funding allotment, which includes money for meal programs, is increasing two per cent.

Trustees are considering a nearly five per cent hike in the local levy to offset the shortfall stemming from aging infrastructure costs and new hires and programs.

Under the proposal, a family that owns a typical house in the division valued at $330,300 would pay about $7 extra per month or $84 annually. That sum does not include the Manitoba government’s new $1,500 flat rate tax credit.

One of the new initiatives for next year involves partnering with the Manitoba Métis Federation to establish a group of teachers who are interested in learning Michif and exposing their students to it.

The superintendent’s goal is to tap teachers from each of the division’s kindergarten-to-Grade 12 schools to join its “Let’s Speak Michif” program.

The division wants to hire a proficient speaker to help train those volunteers and start a kindergarten-rolling cohort of students who will study Michif “in a holistic way” that involves land-based learning, she said.

About 1 in 5 students identify as Indigenous in the division. About 45 per cent of those children and youth are Métis, Moffatt said, adding those figures are at the heart of the project.

Other highlights include new salaries for one grant writer, an information technology specialist — a bid to bolster cybersecurity — and a single speech-language pathologist.

Tara Smith, vice-chair of the board, spoke about how more students have been showing up to school with additional needs, from school-preparedness challenges to mental health concerns, over the last three years.

There’s been a three-fold increase in the number of students with an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis while more young adults with disabilities are remaining in school until age 21, per internal statistics.

Smith said the board’s investment in an additional clinician and new EAs aims to increase student engagement, reduce anxiety and frustration and create a safer learning environment overall.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca