School division urges funding pressure on province

A city school division is calling on parents to apply extra pressure on the province to increase its funding while warning they should brace for “difficult choices.”

On the eve before classes resumed after the winter break, the Louis Riel School Division announced it is operating in the red.

“Without additional support, we face difficult choices that could affect classrooms, programs, and staffing,” Sandy Nemeth, chair of the board of trustees, wrote in a mass email to employees and families.

Nemeth, a representative for Ward 3, indicated the board entered the 2025-26 school year with a $2.42-million deficit.

She highlighted the division’s growing student population — it has registered 1,170 students over the last three years — and inflationary pressures as contributing factors.

She also pleaded for residents to “join us in advocating for fair and adequate funding.”

Between September 2023 and September 2024, Louis Riel added 412 students — the third largest overall number, following Winnipeg and Pembina Trails school divisions. Those divisions recorded influxes of 829 students and 731 students, respectively.

Manitoba Education has yet to release its latest enrolment report, but division data show its student population is 17,441. That’s slightly down from 17,530 at the start of the 2024-25 school year.

When reached for comment Monday, Nemeth reiterated the contents of her email. She did not have the latest deficit number handy and declined to discuss potential cost reductions.

“I have to be optimistic,” she said. “I have to be optimistic that government is going to fund us the way we need to be funded. I’m also optimistic that our community will be willing to support through local funding the way they have in the past.”

Trustees approved a $273.8-million budget for the current school year that projected 199 more students would register in its 41 schools.

Nearly $3.8 million in one-time costs were earmarked for the opening of École Sage Creek Bonavista.

Other highlights included funds to upgrade cybersecurity, retrofit schools with air conditioning and launch a water safety and skills pilot program.

Trustees voted to increase the area mill rate by 6.43 per cent to balance the budget. The tax hike was slated to cost about $193 for the owner of an average house in the division valued at $422,500.

Property education taxes were expected to raise about $145.5 million, roughly 53 per cent of the division’s total expenses during the current budget year.

The division has touted costly new initiatives, such as the rollout of universal full-day kindergarten, in recent years.

Louis Riel leaders are approaching things differently this year, Nemeth said. The division will share a detailed breakdown of the its finances and collect public input before drawing up a draft budget.

The division will host a community engagement event, which will allow for both virtual and in-person participation, on Jan. 21.

Nemeth’s memo appealed to the community to call on the province to implement a multi-year funding model — something trustees have pushed for.

The Louis Riel Teachers’ Association identified “consistent, stable and predictable” funding as critical to support its members.

Teacher Jay McGurran warned that existing challenges, such as overcrowded classrooms and mental health-issues, will worsen if funding shortfalls persist.

“Teachers are over-worked and under-appreciated, which leads to stress, burnout and members leaving the profession,” said McGurran, who represents upwards of 1,100 teachers in the southeast Winnipeg.

Manitoba’s annual school funding announcement typically takes place between late January and mid-February.

Education Minister Tracy Schmidt defended her government’s track record on funding “great work” in Louis Riel and Manitoba at large.

Schmidt noted Louis Riel School Division has received annual funding increases of 8.1 per cent, 4.7 per cent and 2.4 per cent over the last three years.

Overall, funding has increased by more than double the division’s enrolment hike during that period, she said.

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The minister added that the division has created 45 teaching positions, along with 21 educational assistant jobs and 4.5 clinician roles this year.

“We know that school divisions like Louis Riel are playing catch up after years of funding cuts,” Schmidt said.

The minister’s office is currently reviewing new recommendations from its funding advisory committee.

While the department is open to input from stakeholders, she said there are no plans to introduce multi-year funding at present.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

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.