Interlake School Division’s board of trustees is seeking feedback on its proposed budget, which includes a proposed mill rate increase.
On Wednesday, Feb. 28, the school board presented its 2024-25 proposed budget during a virtual public information meeting. The proposed mill rate would increase to 11.067 next school year compared to 10.23 this school year.
Board chair Alan Campbell explained that the school division had to make cuts in recent years due to reduced funding from the provincial government. The proposed budget would be balanced at $45,683,000, compared to $41,705,000 in 2023-24.
“From about 2014 to 2019, we would receive 98 per cent of what we had received from the year before, yet expenses have gone up every year,” he said.
“Then five years ago, the provincial government, under the former PC government, capped all school boards’ capacity to increase education property tax revenues in excess of two per cent over the year prior. So for the last five years, the problem of poor provincial funding was exacerbated by the fact that they further limited our ability to fund our programs by limiting our ability to tax.”
That changed on Feb. 1 when the current provincial government announced a 3.4 per cent increase to operating funds for public schools. Higher levels of funding will go to divisions with high enrolment growth and divisions with a smaller tax base. for “For us, we actually only received a one per cent increase, which is a very small increase, equating to a $186,000 increase on the $19 million in provincial funding,” Campbell said.
“However, the provincial government also recognized that school boards have a lot of ground to make up after years of underfunding and we have the local autonomy to generate revenue through education property tax.”
The local school division will focus on maintaining an average class size of 20 students. For the 2023-24 school year, the average class size for kindergarten to Grade 8 is 19.72 while the average class size for grades 9 to 12 is 19.51. The pupil-to-teacher ratio is calculated by the number of students divided by the number of classroom teachers in each building.
Enrolment in 2023-24 was 2,967 students. For 2024-25, it’s expected to decrease slightly to 2,953 students.
Currently, the school division employs 225.4 professional staff members, which includes teachers, administrators, program support workers and clinicians. The proposed budget would increase the professional staff team to 230 full-time equivalents, which would include an additional social work position as well as an Indigenous education position. Hours for education assistants would also increase. All staff salaries account for more than 83 per cent of the ISD budget.
The proposed budget also includes purchasing four new school buses as well as restoring funds for capital maintenance projects.
“We are proposing a budget that increases the mill rate; therefore, our constituents will see an increase in their education property tax. This a needs-based budget, not a wants-based budget,” Campbell said.
“This is the bare minimum that we can do in order to maintain our class sizes below 20, which is a provincial government priority. So we balance what the provincial government expects of us with what we know our community expects of us.”
For a property assessed at $212,700, the proposed mill rate would represent about $80 more on this year’s property tax bill compared to last year. For a property assessed at $450,000, the proposed mill rate increase would represent about $170 more compared to last year’s property tax bill. Properties assessed at a lower value would see a lower increase, while properties assessed at a higher value would see a higher increase.
“The provincial government is still planning to rebate 50 per cent of education property tax back to property owners this year. So for all intents and purposes, on a property worth $450,000, it’s an increase of approximately $85,” he said.
“The calculation is different when you look at commercial or agricultural property by virtue of how the provincial government tax model works.”
The school division plans to increase its special levy, which is the amount of money it generates through local taxation.
“We are increasing the amount of money that we generate from the special levy by 9.9 per cent over what we generated last year,” Campbell said. “That’s a significant number.”
For those who weren’t able to attend the virtual meeting, they still have a chance to provide feedback on the proposed budget.
“We want to hear from people who are concerned. We want to hear from people who are supportive. We’ve heard from some parents who feel that what we are considering is not enough. They feel that we should be investing more and increasing more because we’ve had almost a decade of cuts,” Campbell said.
“Anyone can submit questions. The plan for the board is to compile those questions, which will then give us an opportunity to consider that feedback before we pass the budget in March.”
A link to a recording of the proposed budget presentation meeting will be posted on the Interlake School Division website at www.interlakesd.ca. Residents can submit feedback by emailing isd@isd21.mb.ca.
