Rural Manitoba school divisions struggling with budget decisions in spite of funding increase

Psychologists, crossing guards and buses for field trips could all be cut back at schools in a southeastern Manitoba division struggling to budget for the upcoming year with what it calls inadequate funding.

Hanover School Division board chair Ron Falk said the money the division got this year was supposed to be a 9.3 per cent increase over last year. But last year, it got additional funding for things like wages and student support. With that factored in, the increase this year is actually more like 1.8 per cent.

"I've been on the board for 30 years and I would say this is, for Hanover … the worst by a mile," Falk said.

"It's not a very happy story these days."

Last month, the provincial government announced every school division would get at least a 2.5 per cent increase in operating dollars for the upcoming year.

For Hanover, the increase came out to $2 million, between operating support and the property tax offset grant, according to a document the province shared at the time.

But that increase doesn't keep pace with rising costs for the division, and it's now looking to cut about $2.7 million from the upcoming year's budget — the equivalent of about 27 teachers, Falk said. 

Reductions in everything from educational assistants to school programs are being considered to find those savings before the division completes its budget in the next few weeks. It's already decided to freeze budgets for things like maintenance and transportation, he said.

And as it considers reducing spending on specialists like psychologists, the biggest challenge will be keeping enough mental health support for students who need it — a number that grew during the pandemic, he said.

"There will be some things that we don't want to have to do, but we're going to have to," he said.

"It is very discouraging. There's no question about that."

Just getting by

It's a similar story in the Interlake School Division just north of Winnipeg, where board chair Alan Campbell said the equivalent of 5.6 full-time teaching positions will have to be cut.

The province said last month the division got an $800,000 increase in funding.

Campbell said while Interlake got a two per cent funding boost, it comes after years of cuts that meant the division had to get rid of its junior kindergarten and continuing education programs and hold off on getting new buses.

"We're barely able to keep our heads above water," said Campbell, who is also president of the Manitoba School Boards Association.

"We find ourselves in this awful position where we're relieved that we're able to maintain one social worker for one grade group and another social worker for another grade group."

Not all rural divisions are looking at making cuts this year — but that doesn't mean there's much extra room in the budget.

In southeastern Manitoba's Seine River School Division, a funding increase of about six per cent was barely enough to allow it to maintain its current programs and staff without cutting back this year, secretary-treasurer Scott Carleton said.

But Carleton said he's thinking ahead to the result of ongoing contract negotiations with teachers and other school staff. The possible outcomes are creating "a lot of anxiety" for administrators who wonder what may have to be pared back if wages increase beyond what's expected, he said.

In Seine River, the first to go would likely be the extras the division prides itself on, said Carleton.

That includes its full-day kindergarten and the transportation option it offers for students living more than 800 metres from school — instead of the 1.6 kilometres required by law.

"It's things like that where we made decisions as a division and prioritized initiatives, where that's probably the first place we would have to look," he said.

Meeting needs

Cheryl Sinclair, board chair for the Kelsey School Division in northern Manitoba, said cutting staff isn't on the horizon there yet, but the budget is tight — even with the extra $600,000 it got from the province this year.

"We are grateful that provincial revenue has increased," she said in an email, but inflation and "years of chronic underfunding make it difficult to … meet all of the needs within our division."

Some divisions have a brighter outlook, though.

A presentation posted on the website of the Morden-area Western School Division in southern Manitoba said it's looking at adding teachers and other workers and spending more on information technology devices to support learning.

Superintendent Stephen Ross said in an email the division has had significant growth and is building a new school.

And the Brandon School Division in southwestern Manitoba said in a news release it's also looking at adding teaching and support staff positions and reinstating four roles that were cut in previous budgets, including a psychologist.