St. James-Assiniboia School Division is proposing a nine per cent hike in education taxes to make “minor improvements” next fall.
Officials hosted a public meeting Wednesday to share how they plan to spend $146.6 million during the 2026-27 school year.
The draft budget includes new dollars to hire secretaries to support small schools, expand extracurricular programming and reduce student fees.
The St. James – Assiniboia School Division Office at 2574 Portage Ave. (Mike Deal/ Free Press files)
“Overall, the budget reflects, mostly, a status-quo operating model,” said Tara Smith, chair of the board that oversees 26 schools across west Winnipeg.
“The board of trustees is looking to make only minor improvements.”
The division has been allotted a 1.6 per cent increase in total provincial operating dollars next year. Its draft budget shows expenses are projected to climb 3.3 per cent.
Smith indicated staff wages and benefits, which make up 84 per cent of the budget, are driving the increase.
In order to address teacher wage pressures attached to a new provincial salary scale, the province is providing a $435,000 grant. That’s about half of St. James-Assiniboia’s harmonization costs.
The workforce is made up of 1,289 full-time equivalent positions, including 571 teachers.
While its schools are expected to welcome 88 new students next year, there are no plans to hire extra teachers or educational assistants.
The draft budget prioritizes adding the full-time equivalent of 1.75 “relief bus drivers,” 5.5 secretaries and one employee to the division’s finance department.
Smith noted that last-minute bus route cancellations have been a challenge for families this year.
The proposal includes about $200,000 extra to bolster cybersecurity and roughly $50,000 to reduce middle years supply fees and high school course fees.
One of the new line items is $50,000 to launch Peaceful Village at Hedges Middle School. The after-school program, which is targeted at newcomer students, already runs out of St. James Collegiate and George Waters Middle School.
Trustees have tabled a nine per cent increase in the local mill rate, up 13.868 from 12.720, to cover costs.
For the average homeowner in the division, with a residence valued at $330,200, that amounts to $70 more in annual taxes.
The student population is growing in “little pockets” all over the division but class sizes should remain stable, said superintendent Jenness Moffatt.
Average class sizes in early years, middle years and senior years are 20.4, 22.7 and 21.6, respectively, this year.
The meeting drew about 40 people to the 2574 Portage Ave. board office on Wednesday evening.
Jennifer Monaster, an EA who is the president of the Manitoba Association of Non-Teaching Employees, was among the attendees.
The union leader represents about 530 EAs, secretaries and library technicians across St. James-Assiniboia.
Monaster said she was pleased to hear the board intends to increase staffing in school offices next year.
Most elementary schools have a single secretary in charge of answering phones, buzzing-in visitors and other administrative duties, she said.
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“It’s very tough for them to get things done when, every five minutes, there’s a student walking into the office (saying), ‘my nose is running’ or ‘I don’t feel well,’” Monaster said.
She noted the onus of monitoring who is entering and exiting schools — a renewed priority across the province in the wake of a Nov. 27 incident at Winnipeg’s Darwin School — is on these employees.
The province issued marching orders to divisions this fall to review building security and emergency preparedness plans.
The directive was issued after a convicted sex offender snuck into an elementary school washroom in St. Vital, where he hid and assaulted a 12-year-old girl.
maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca
Maggie Macintosh
Education reporter
Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie.
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