The Evergreen School Division is holding costs steady for taxpayers in its 2025-2026 budget with no changes in the mill rate and a projected surplus of 3.4 per cent.
Superintendent Scott Hill said the previous provincial government [Conservative] had “frozen” school divisions’ ability to levy local taxes through the setting of mill rates. But the current NDP government’s funding model allows school divisions to set mill rates. It’s unclear at this point if that funding model will change in the future.
For this year, the division is not adjusting its mill rate, which will remain at 9.818.
“We are holding the mill rate this year (no change), so increases in tax revenue are related to property value reassessments,” said Hill. “The provincial government also changed the tax credit related to this from a 50 per cent rebate to a $1,500 credit. The impact of that is outlined in our budget highlights document. Properties assessed at the values we’ve identified will pay less as a result of the change from a 50 per cent rebate to the $1,500 credit. Properties assessed at much higher values may not see a reduction, and some will pay more as a result of this provincial change.”
ESD released a budget highlights document along with its budget, and it says properties assessed at about $340,000 and less will effectively “not pay education tax.” A property assessed at $400,000 will pay about $270 per year. Last year, a property assessed at $400,000 would have had an education tax bill of approximately $885 per year. So this should result in a saving of about $615.
The division is expecting to see total revenue of $28,293,059. It has a projected surplus of almost $2 million, and after transferring $1 million of that to its capital fund, it ended up with a net surplus of $967,394.
The ESD’s projected surplus of 3.4 per cent is “below” the provincial guideline of 4 per cent, Hill said, and that reflects the “economic uncertainty” Canada is currently facing and which is expected to continue into the summer and the coming school year.
“As examples, the costs of buses, building materials, technology and other necessities have risen significantly in a short amount of time and may continue to rise,” said Hill.
The budget lists total provincial revenue of $16.9 million, and that represents an increase in funding to ESD, said Hill.
The division’s core values are putting students first. Learning is its core purpose in addition to serving the common good through public education.
In addition to the 3.4 per cent projected surplus, other budget highlights reflect recent structural changes the division made to classes.
Kindergarten to Grade 6 students will enjoy their own grade classes; prior to the change, many students were in shared classes (e.g., a 3-4 class). There will also be smaller class size averages (about 20 students for K-3 and 25 students for grades 4-8), the elimination of school fees for K-8, a reduction in high school athletic fees, two new school buses, 11 additional teachers and 11 additional education assistants, infrastructure improvements and expected salary settlements that will assist with staff recruitment and retention.
Hill said the reconfiguration of grades was not aimed at saving money and will not result in money saved. It was aimed at improving learning and teaching.
“The aim of the reconfiguration is to improving the teaching and learning context for all of our students. In the elementary grades (K-6), it will allow for us to have single-grade classrooms, and to add sensory rooms to each of our schools to support our diverse population of students. At grades 7-12 it allows for more efficient access to a variety of programming to meet and broaden student’s interests and learning experiences,” he said.
“In support of the reconfiguration, the board is investing in several ways including staffing to ensure single grades, low class sizes and extra student support, especially in the early years, and in upgrades to infrastructure – buildings and grounds particularly in our Arborg and Riverton collegiates. There will be enhanced learning spaces and materials for practical arts, and each of our three high schools (will have completed a new hard-court surface on the grounds for basketball/ 4-square etc., by this fall, along with many other renovations and improvements.”
Evergreen has eight schools in Arborg, Riverton, Gimli and Winnipeg Beach. It has 25 bus routes with trips of over 7,500 kilometres a day. It employs over 280 people. It has 1,425 students, which includes full-time kindergarten students of whom the province only funds at 50 per cent. The province counts kindergarten students as .5 and thus deems ESD to have 1,395 students.
ESD spends about $18,474 per student ($26,325,666 expenses / 1,425 number of students).
When asked if the division plans to limit travel – for meetings, conferences, student trips and so forth – to the United States given U.S. president Donald Trump’s tariffs and annexation-of-Canada threats, Hill said the board is “certainly paying attention to the current circumstances, and we have no current plans for staff or student travel to the United States.”
ESD’s budget and budget highlights documents are posted on its website.
