Louis Riel division budget blueprint expands full-day kindergarten

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This article was published 23/02/2022 (1367 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The expansion of full-day kindergarten, status-quo class sizes, and a community kitchen launch in southeast Winnipeg are among the highlights of the Louis Riel School Division’s new draft budget.

During a special board meeting this week, trustees and senior administrators shared how the division plans to spend almost $210 million on operations in 2022-23.

Upwards of 120 people tuned-in to watch the 90-minute event via Microsoft Teams livestream Tuesday evening.

Should the draft budget be approved as is, the division will start offering full-day kindergarten in five new buildings: Archwood School, École Varennes, Hastings School, Marion School, and Victor Mager School, for a total of nine local schools. The board has earmarked $400,000 for the scale-up.

Report card data suggests a higher percentage of students who start their school careers in full-time programs in comparison to half-day models attain a level 3 or 4 across subject areas at the end of both Grade 1 and Grade 3, said superintendent Christian Michalik.

“We can’t afford to offer universal full-day kindergarten in LRSD. We wish we could,” Michalik said.

The division leader indicated the board is in favour of Manitoba following in the footsteps of Ontario, B.C. and other Canadian jurisdictions in which full-day programs are universal to ensure all children have a solid start to school.

For the time being, however, he said the division can only expand part-time programs in some communities and their proposal targets schools where there is economic inequality.

Board representatives spoke at length about current cost pressures, from recent staff salary settlements to pandemic expenses, throughout the Tuesday meeting.

LRSD estimates at least $3.8 million will be spent on COVID-19-related costs, including mental health and well-being initiatives, vaccine promotion, and learning recovery, in 2021-22. The division has received approximately $3.4 million in provincial grants to address those expenses, according to administration.

Provincial funding for school programs has increased by a total of 1.6 per cent for the upcoming academic year.

The province has also provided every division with a one-time grant the equivalent of the funds that could be raised via a two per cent increase in local property education taxes, as the government continues to phase-out the fee in its entirety.

As a result of the ongoing tax freeze, homeowners across the province can expect slight decreases in their bills; in LRSD, the average property taxpayer will save $17.70 on a home valued at $346,200.

Despite the budget restraints, the board plans to spend nearly $940,000 on diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism initiatives next year. Those projects include: ongoing reviews of curricula; hiring more Indigenous educators, including one Ojibwa language teacher; and the creation of a community kitchen.

The board is proposing the René Deleurme Centre be a site where a chef-teacher and culinary arts students prepare meals for school communities to address food insecurity across the division.

The importance of small class sizes, adequate staffing levels, and accountability are some of the themes that have surfaced in public consultations on the budget-making process to date, said Louise Johnston, chairwoman of the board of trustees.

On Tuesday, division leaders shared plans to slightly decrease average K-3 and middle years classroom sizes next year, from 20.5 to 19.9 and 23.3 to 22.6, respectively. The teacher to pupil ratio in grades 9-12 courses will be maintained at one to 19.8 in French immersion and one to 22.8 in English program, according to LRSD.

Members of the public can weigh-in on the draft budget via the division’s ThoughtExchange.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie