The Garden Valley School Division board of trustees and staff will be diving into the 2025-2026 budget planning process in earnest in the new year, and they’ll do so armed with feedback from consultations held this fall.
The division invited the public to a pre-budget discussion at Northlands Parkway Collegiate Nov. 26. It followed on the heels of earlier discussions with GVSD students, teachers, and parent advisory council members.
It’s the second year the division has held these advance consultations, as opposed to inviting stakeholders and the public to hear about the nearly-finalized budget in March.
“I think this sounds more like a conversation,” observed board chair Leah Klassen. “We are able to get more feedback, instead of coming to the public saying, ‘This is what we’re doing and, oh, by the way, we’re passing the budget in two weeks.’
“This gives us the opportunity for more discussion and to have a better understanding of what the community would like out of their school division.”
The forum drew GVSD staff, parents, and taxpayers, all of whom were asked to share their thoughts on four questions:
• Are the educational programs and services provided to children meeting your expectations?
• Are there any programs and services not currently being provided that you would like to see added?
• Please provide three to five priority areas that you believe are most important in our upcoming budget.
• Please identify the priorities that you feel should be addressed by the school division in the 2024/2026 budget.
“Are we meeting the needs?” Klassen said in boiling down these questions. “What are their children’s experiences in the schools, and where can we help?”
Past feedback has led to things like increased funding spent on mental health and speech and language supports, for example.
“Today, one PAC member pointed out some of our buildings are needing help—there are some staff rooms that are being used as classrooms ,” Klassen shared. “Those are the things that the board wants to hear and wants to know whether they are a priority for the community.”
Drafting the annual budget is always a delicate process, observed secretary-treasurer Kevin Vovchuk
“There’s going to be tough decisions that have to be made, whether it’s to prioritize different programs or services versus increased taxation,” he said. “That’s the balancing act that the board has to go through every budget year—services versus tax increases.”
When you break it down, GVSD receives about two-thirds of its annual revenue from the provincial government, with most of the remaining one-third coming from local taxpayers.
“Our budget is around $60 million dollars,” Vovchuk shared, “so it’s a significant budget that we are dealing with and significant funds that we have the responsibility to administer.”
But while the operating budget numbers in the millions, there’s actually a fair bit of restriction in it.
Eighty-three per cent of the current budget is locked up in salaries—a number that will rise with the new contracts that have been inked with the division’s unionized staff, including teachers.
“So of the remaining amount, there isn’t a lot of play in a lot of those numbers. Most of those items are fixed,” Vovchuk said, noting the remaining 16 per cent of the budget covers all the division’s programming, services, materials, and other operational costs. “When you look at the non-salary expenditures that we have some discretion over, it’s probably very close to five per cent of the expenditures we have.”
Due to rising property values across the division, Klassen noted GVSD has been able to keep the mill rate relatively low while still getting the funds it needs to efficiently run the schools.
Still, the 2024-2025 budget saw a 5.25 per cent increase in the mill rate, and they expect they will have to raise it again to deal with rising costs.
“At the end of the day, this last year was a break-even budget,” Klassen pointed out.
“Expenses are going up, everything is going up,” she said, noting, in example, the most recent provincial collective agreement with teachers includes a plan for harmonization of salaries across Manitoba in a couple of years, which will likely mean increased costs.
Just how much the school tax bill will increase for Winkler area residents next year is hard to predict right now.
“One of the big unknowns right now is the provincial funding,” Klassen said. “That drives a big chunk of the decision.”
The board is also continually lobbying the provincial government for details on the planned new funding model for the public school system.
“We’re looking at making sure that our funding is sustainable, that it’s consistent, that there is enough there so we don’t have to always go back to the ratepayer,” Klassen said.
The GVSD board and administrative staff will take the feedback gleaned this fall to heart as they begin drafting the financial plan for the next school year. Work on that goes into overdrive once the provincial funding is confirmed in January or February. The budget then needs to be completed and submitted to the province by the end of March.
If you missed last week’s forum and want to weigh-in on the budget planning process, Klassen urges you to get in touch with the division or any of the trustees. Contact information is available at gvsd.ca.
