Pembina Trails draft budget maintains class sizes, adds teachers

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This article was published 18/02/2022 (1475 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The board of trustees in the Pembina Trails School Division has drawn up a draft budget that both maintains current programs and increases teaching positions in anticipation of two new schools opening in 2023.

Pandemic expenses aside, rising inflation and staff wage settlements are top of mind for trustees across Manitoba who are in the process of finalizing budgets for the upcoming school year.

“We’ve had two years of interrupted education through COVID. It’s been a tough two years on everyone, but we’re not in a position of cutting,” said Kathleen McMillan, chairwoman of the board and trustee for Ward 3 in the district.

“From where we sit, we’re very content.”

Pembina Trails’ $195-million draft budget, the details of which were released to the public Friday, includes the addition of 8.6 full-time equivalent teaching positions, including 3.5 new early years literacy support staff, and funding for pre-kindergarten summer programming in 2022-23.

Class sizes across the division — no more than 26 students in K-4, a cap of 30 in middle years, and a ratio of one classroom teacher for every 22.9 high school pupils — are anticipated to remain the same, although the division has indicated they may decrease in some cases.

McMillan said the current budget accounts for an estimated increase of 250 new students in the division, which currently has a student population of more than 14,700.

Pembina Trails has received a total of $11.7 million in new provincial operating and capital funding for the upcoming year, an increase of 6.4 per cent.

The province has also earmarked a one-time payment of nearly $4.4 million for the board’s operations. That sum is the equivalent of what could be raised through a two per cent hike in local education property taxes, because the Tory government has frozen those fees at 2020 levels so it can continue to phase out the tax in its entirety.

As a result, the average homeowner in the south Winnipeg district will see a decrease of $24 in school taxes, according to board estimates.

Construction is currently underway on a site in Waverley West that will soon become home to the Bison Run development, new child-care facilities and an education and recreation campus.

Bison Run School, a K-8 building with an 800-student capacity, and Pembina Trails Collegiate, a high school that will accommodate enrolment of 1,200 learners in the division, are slated to open in January 2023 and September 2023, respectively.

Noting the construction projects are on schedule, McMillan said there are numerous planning costs associated with opening schools, including hiring a principal in the lead-up to prepare staffing plans.

“This (budget) will allow us the lead time that we need to ensure that when these schools are ready to be opened, that we’re ready to receive the students — that the teachers are in place, the administration’s in place, and it’s a flawless transition,” she added.

Division families, educators and other residents are invited to share input on the draft document via email. The board is also encouraging people to sign up to partake in a delegation at the board’s special budget meeting Feb. 24 at 8 p.m.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie