BSD trustees approve budget

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This article was published 09/03/2021 (1777 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon School Division’s board of trustees voted unanimously to pass their 2021-22 budget on Monday night, earmarking $109,822,700 for their operating revenues and expenditures next year.

This represents a two per cent, or $2.13 million, jump over last year’s operating budget, which is partially due to enrolment changes, increased diversity of student needs and other variables.

During Monday’s meeting, none of the trustees had anything to say about why they voted in the affirmative, with board chair Linda Ross theorizing that everyone had already said their piece during the past couple of weeks.

After all, throughout this process, the board made no illusions about the difficulties they experienced balancing this year’s budget.

One of the biggest hurdles came in early February, when the province froze every Manitoba school division’s ability to raise property taxes, which caused the BSD’s special levy to stay stagnant at $49,039,369.

This wasn’t helped by the fact that the province also capped special requirement increases at two per cent, meaning the BSD’s final source of revenue to fund budgeted expenditures was limited to $50,168,687 for 2021-22.

Because of this lost source of revenue, the board was contending with a $720,500 budget shortfall unless it took some drastic actions.

As such, the board ultimately decided in late February to cut 2.44 full-time equivalent teaching positions and 2.61 full-time equivalent support staff, alongside some other budget line items to help make up the difference.

During the board’s Feb. 22 budget deliberations, most BSD trustees expressed their disappointment with having to take this action, with Ross even directly apologizing to members of the public as the meeting wrapped up.

“None of us are happy about it, as you can tell, but we had difficult decisions to make and we had no options,” she said.

“I don’t expect you to like what we did, but I hope that you will understand why we had to do it.”

Other trustees expressed outright anger at the province for putting them in such a financially unwinnable position, especially members like Jim Murray, who was forced to withdraw his request for eight new school counsellors due to the budget crunch.

“These eight school counsellors would have a major impact on our system at a time when it’s needed more than it’s ever been needed in the history of education in this country, and we can’t do it because a guy in Winnipeg wants to balance a budget,” he said on Feb. 22.

During the board’s public consultation meeting on March 1, representatives from CUPE Local 737 and the Brandon Teachers’ Association supported the board’s proposed budget and put the blame squarely at the feet of the province for its shortcomings.

“Our government forced you to cut,” BTA representative Mary-Louise Davis said at that meeting.

“I really hope it is hard for them to sleep at night knowing that this was the choice they made for our children.”

Following Monday’s meeting, the Sun asked the BSD board to provide a comment on the now-approved budget, but did not receive a response by press time due to the trustees being in the middle of in-camera discussions.

Anyone looking to obtain a more detailed breakdown of the BSD’s 2021-22 operating budget can do so by visiting the division’s official website at bsd.ca/board/budgetfinance.

The BSD board of trustees’ next regular meeting is scheduled to take place March 22 at 7 p.m.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson