Surrey school district seeks public input as budget pressures continue
Published 4:30 pm Tuesday, March 10, 2026
The Surrey School District is asking parents to share their priorities as trustees begin planning the district’s upcoming budget in the face of a projected $8-million drop in funding.
Trustee Terry Allen, chair of the district’s finance committee, shared with Peace Arch News that feedback from families will help guide how the board decides where funding should go.
“The people need to know that the survey is really critical,” Allen said. “It gives opportunities to give clear direction to the board on where they want us to spend money.”
Allen is encouraging parents to take part in the district’s online survey, saying community responses help shape the priorities trustees use when planning the spending of the budget.
“I can’t over-emphasize enough how important it is for the parents to fill in the survey, to tell us where they think their priorities are as far as spending money in the school district goes,” explained Allen.
Allen says the district uses feedback from the survey to help identify priorities within its strategic plan. Trustees then work with district staff to determine what resources are needed to support those priorities.
Allen admits that the budgeting process takes time and careful planning.
“I think people think there’s some magic wand that just makes it all fall into place, but it doesn’t work that way,” he said.
In planning for this next budget, the school district is facing financial pressures this year, with an 890-student enrolment decline, resulting in roughly an $8-million hit to funding.
“There’s no easy way around it,” Allen said.
Allen noted that some long-running programs have not seen increased provincial funding for many years despite rising costs, including initiatives such as StrongStart and Ready, Set, Learn.
Allen explained that the district had to take “drastic steps” last year to deal with financial pressures.
“The truth of the matter is that if we hadn’t taken those steps we took last year, it would be a nightmare to deal with on top of all the other things that we have to deal with,” he said.
Still, Allen said trustees hope to avoid impacts on programs or staff.
“We don’t want to cut programs. That’s the last thing we want. We don’t want to have layoffs. We don’t want to have to reduce hours for EAs, but those are always there and looking you in the face when you don’t have the same amount of funding you had last year,” explained Allen.
Allen acknowledged that difficult decisions are sometimes unavoidable.
“There’s always going to be disappointment in the decisions we make. But people need to know that this is hard for trustees to make,” said Allen. “We don’t want to disappoint parents, but we certainly don’t want to disappoint students.”
The district will receive its provincial funding allocation the day before spring break, leaving trustees limited time to finalize the balanced budget required by the province.
“The bottom line is, we have to put in a balanced budget when we do, and that’s the government requirement,” said Allen.
Spring break begins on Monday, March 16.
More budget information will be discussed at the next Surrey school board meeting that takes place tomorrow (March 11) at 7 p.m.
Surrey Schools invites the public to attend the meeting in person or via livestream posted on their website. More information on the agenda can be found here.