Cybersecurity a priority as city school boards finalize budget blueprints

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This article was published 17/03/2025 (236 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Metro school boards have made cybersecurity a budget priority next year in response to recent data breaches — the worst of which temporarily shut down Pembina Trails School Division phones, disrupted teacher pay schedules and led to internal files ending up on the dark web.

Following months of collecting feedback and internal deliberation, trustees across Winnipeg have approved their respective blueprints for 2025-2026.

Boards are covering rising costs, including new hires and initiatives, with provincial funding and higher mill rates. The latter ranges from 10.812 in Pembina Trails to 15.785 in the Seven Oaks School Division.

New this year, homeowners are receiving a $1,500 property education tax credit on their primary residence instead of a 50 per cent rebate. This change, along with updated property values, given 2025 is a reassessment year, impact how much households pay in school taxes.

Here’s a roundup of what students, teachers and their families can expect:

*These figures do not take into account the new tax credit

**This rate may vary, as it is calculated by each municipality and RETSD encompasses Winnipeg, East St. Paul and St. Clements

Winnipeg

Average home: $269,900

Property tax increase: $214*

Mill rate: 14.630 (up five per cent)

Manitoba’s largest school division is doing away with elementary lunch supervision fees next year and taking on tabs that were previously paid through family fundraisers.

The $525.5-million budget “will help create schools that are founded on joy, love and rigour,” per a news release put out by the Winnipeg School Division.

Trustees in inner-city and central neighbourhoods have indicated they will continue reallocating internal funds and bolstering school budgets to pay for field trips and play structure renovations.

Superintendent Matt Henderson noted WSD is making “significant investments” in cybersecurity next year, with $4 million set aside to upgrade the division’s network, among other technology projects.

The budget adds 80 full-time equivalent educational assistants, 62 teachers, 37 library technicians and 18 clinicians. WSD is also creating a $1.5-million pot for teachers in pursuit of extra professional development opportunities.

Pembina Trails

Average home: $531,400

Property tax increase: $301*

Mill rate: 10.812 (up 3.8 per cent)

Adult crossing guards will clock in for 4,500 more hours in south Winnipeg next year as part of Pembina Trails School Division’s new safety-focused budget.

Decision-makers have green-lit a $248-million plan with changes to both better protect pedestrians in busy neighbourhoods where ongoing construction is affecting traffic during rush-hour periods, and all community members’ online data.

Trustees have committed $400,000 for cybersecurity products, which the board deemed “a necessary expense” because of recent privacy breaches, in 2025-26.

The budget accounts for administration hiring 176.6 more full-time equivalent staff members, including 76.6 teaching positions, 80 educational assistants and 20 bus drivers.

In response to community feedback, the board is restoring the Ignite3 summer camp to a full-day program.

Seven Oaks

Average home: $384,300

Property tax increase: $118*

Mill rate: 15.785 (up 4.5 per cent)

A new fund to improve eco-literacy is what sets Seven Oaks School Division’s budget apart.

The board of trustees approved $60,000 — a minor, albeit unique, line item — to support professional learning around climate education and related school-based initiatives next year. Schools will receive money based on student enrolment.

“It is a global concern and I personally believe, like Mahatma Gandhi — if we want change, let’s start with the children,” veteran trustee Derek Dabee said.

The $207.7-million plan maintains no-fee lunch supervision, free musical instrument rentals and other Seven Oaks staples. It sets aside money for four new school buses, employee wage settlements and paying off a deficit and replenishing a rainy-day fund.

Seven Oaks is slated to hire five more full-time equivalent teachers and 15 educational assistants.

St. James-Assiniboia

Average home: $330,300

Property tax increase: $110*

Mill rate: 12.720 (up 2.14 per cent)

St. James-Assiniboia School Division is staffing up with a number of new roles, from a Michif language instructor to a team of 10 supply teachers who will be dispatched to fill absences during peak respiratory illness season next winter.

SJASD’s $143.5-million budget supports the rollout of an Indigenous-language program, standardized school fees and enhanced cybersecurity, with help from a new information-technology staff member.

The board has endorsed hiring 24 educational assistants, a single speech language pathologist, one grant writer and reinstating an assistant superintendent position that was discontinued in response to the former provincial government’s austerity directives.

Funding is being set aside to hire up to 10 additional teachers to maintain small class sizes in the event of unexpected enrolment growth at any point in the academic year. Another 10 teachers will float around the division to answer sick calls between December and April.

Board chair Holly Hunter noted a one-time injection of $130,00 will fund outdoor development projects.

Hunter said those dollars will be spent to repair, develop and “naturalize our playgrounds.” Hunter and her colleagues are brainstorming how exactly they will distribute the money, she said.

Louis Riel

Average home: $422,500

Property tax increase: $193*

Mill rate: 13.313 (up 6.4 per cent)

Air conditioning will become universal in the Louis Riel School Division in 2031, if all goes according to decision-makers’ latest plans.

Trustees in St. Vital and surrounding communities have voted in favour of spending $630,000 next year to begin a multi-year initiative to equip all schools with AC. The board is projecting the six-year plan to cost roughly $4.4 million.

Its a key plank in LRSD’s 273.8-million budget for next year. Other highlights include $100,000 for a Grades 3-4 water-safety pilot program and $250,000 to enhance cybersecurity with 24-7 intrusion detection, liability insurance and compliance measures.

The board has budgeted for 50.1 more full-time equivalent teachers and 29.8 extra support staffers.

River East Transcona

Average home: $360,600

Property tax increase: $267*

Mill rate: 12.639** (up 5.8 per cent)

Transcona-area trustees are planning to hire 80 extra employees to address ongoing growth in their 42 school communities.

The River East Transcona School Division’s governing board unanimously approved a $268.3-million budget last week.

It earmarks funding for 35.9 full-time equivalent teaching positions and 44 support staffers, such as educational assistants, library technicians and clerical personnel.

RETSD is planning to buy eight new school buses to “replenish an aging fleet” and transport more students to and from school. It’s also rebuilding a surplus and preparing for the September 2027 opening of a new elementary school in Transcona’s Devonshire Park.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca