Community Forum coming up on Feb. 25
This year, the Lord Selkirk School Division(LSSD) is making some changes, and in advance of their annual budget, they are hoping to inform residents of some of what they are facing going into the 2026/27 school year. Residents will also have a chance to ask questions about the budget and learn more about education in the region on Feb. 25 when the school division hosts its Budget Community Forum.
“One of the things that I think is really pivotal from our perspective is just making sure we inform our community of our current state of affairs,” said Jerret Long, Superintendent of the LSSD.
Something that has been a growing matter in the LSSD has been growth in our area, which means increasing student enrollment.
“We are continuing to grow at quite the exponential rate in terms of students in the division. I think it’s important because all these things are connected. When we talk about the budget and the needs from the budget and the resources required, it’s a direct correlation to our needs that we have because of growing enrollment,” said Long.
The school division has seen a growing trend of over 100 students a year over the last three years, which has put additional strain on their budget.
Long explained that, from what they see, that trend will likely remain the same or even increase for the 2026/27 school year, and because of the housing projects that are coming into the City of Selkirk and the RMs that their students come from, it doesn’t look like it’s slowing any time soon.
“In fact, if we were to look at our data, which we do, we haven’t had this student number enrollment in our division since way back in 2013/14. So, well over 10 years since we’ve seen these types of numbers, and we anticipate them continuing to grow and grow and grow. We are almost at approximately 4250 students, where not long ago we were not even at 4000,” he said.
Long says that he doesn’t see this increasing enrollment as a problem, but it’s something they’ve had to consider.
“It’s a great thing to have more kids in our buildings, but it has a direct drain on resources, and (affects) class sizes, which we boast about in our division of having, compared to other divisions, in some cases, especially in the metro regions, our class sizes are really, really good,” he said.
They’ve been able to achieve this goal because it’s been communicated through surveys and past budget community forums that this is a priority in the region, but he’s explained that it’s becoming harder to achieve those goals.
Despite this, he does still want to hear from residents and encourages them to participate in the upcoming meeting.
“I would encourage people to attend our community forum for our budget. But what I can tell you is the two aren’t working well. Our enrollment goes up, but our funding from the province, I would say, is probably down approximately 30 per cent if you accumulated over the last 10 years. With minimal amounts of funding that we received, those minimal increases add up over the years, and so with a decrease in funding and an increase in students there, it causes a lot of pressure,” said Long.
The school division isn’t just raising the alarm now, they have been responding to this enrollment increase for some time now.
“For example, our community should know that we’ve had to, because of expanding numbers in our schools, (we’ve) had to reach out to the province some time ago and ask for more portables on sites. We’ve had to change, which we’ve done already for Robert Smith, and we’re looking at doing it for Ruth Hooker School, because they’re bursting at the seams, we’ve had to change our catchment lines so that students can be placed in another school just because we physically, in some cases, don’t have the space. So, I just wanted our community to know that we are responding as best we can,” he said.
The meeting won’t be just about the difficulties that the school division has been facing, but also areas that they are proud of. One area where he feels great support is actually how engaged residents are in turning up for the community forum, which takes place online via video call so that more residents can attend.
“We’ve had great turnout. We’ve had a lot of people sign up already. I would just actually add that we would love to hear people’s priorities. Lots of people have already indicated in written comments and questions about what they’d love to see and different priorities in the division. There have been a number of comments that say they recognize the potential for an increase in taxes, and understanding some of those things, and have shared quite respectfully and reasonably some concerns. But there’s also been a lot of support for wanting to make sure that our students are supported, and so making sure that we have the resources we need,” he said.
To sign up and get more information about the LSSD Budget Community Forum, you can check lssd.ca, where they will add a sign up option prior to the forum.
Long encourages residents to sign up and thanks them for attending.
“We feel very fortunate in the LSSD. I can certainly speak as Superintendent that the community has always been very supportive of our students. And, it’s been reflected in our small class sizes and the positive school cultures. The results that we have in our schools are a direct result of the support we receive from our community. So that isn’t lost to us,” said Long.
