BSD welcomes $5M provincial funding boost

The Brandon School Division is set to receive a $5-million increase in provincial funding for the 2026-27 school year, according to a provincial backgrounder.

The backgrounder was released alongside Manitoba’s announcement of a $79.8-million increase in overall public school funding.

For BSD, the increase represents a 6.4 per cent jump from last year’s provincial allocation of $77.9 million. In the 2025-26 school year, the division received a four per cent increase, raising its total funding to that amount.

Only the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine, at nine per cent, and Portage la Prairie, at 6.8 per cent, will receive larger percentage increases than Brandon this year, with Winnipeg School Division receiving 3.8 per cent.

The $5-million increase is a welcome development, BSD Supt. Mathew Gustafson told the Sun after the announcement.

“The increase will likely be a combination of items, including harmonization increase, increases in base funding and some potential increases in designated funding such as technical, vocational and nutrition,” he said.

Gustafson said the increase will not eliminate all of the division’s financial pressures.

“We know that the increase in funding won’t address all of our budgeting pressures, but the additional support from the province is greatly appreciated,” he said.

“This, combined with last year’s decision by trustees to limit tax increases, means that we’ll be starting at a lower point this year, and those two factors are going to be of great assistance in this budgeting for the next year.”

Board vice-chair Duncan Ross told the Sun it is still too early to determine exactly what the increase will mean until detailed funding allocations are released, but said he is encouraged by the announcement.

“I am heartened to see that it’s a bigger increase than last year,” Ross said.

“They are putting aside money specifically to help with harmonization, which they previously had indicated they would not. So that shows that they are listening to the concerns that we and other divisions brought forward.”

Manitoba public school funding will increase by 3.5 per cent overall for the school year beginning in September, which is above the rate of inflation and amounts to nearly $80 million in new funding for schools, Education Minister Tracy Schmidt said during a news conference in Winnipeg on Monday.

“The province heard from school boards, including Brandon School Division, that salary harmonization costs were creating significant pressures for the upcoming year,” she said.

“We’re investing $11.4 million to make sure divisions with the highest salary harmonization costs get some extra help, because we know divisions need the resources to pay teachers and staff a good wage and to ensure teachers have what they need in the classroom to support students.”

Schmidt said the province would also continue the formula guarantee so that no division in Manitoba will receive a reduction in funding for the 2026-27 school year.

The province has not said how much of the harmonization funding will go to BSD. When asked, Schmidt’s press secretary said she would get back to the Sun with details, but no response had been received by press time.

The division is still waiting for detailed funding information and is currently relying on the figures provided in the announcement and backgrounder, Gustafson said in an interview.

“We don’t know the specific amount for the harmonization funding,” he said. “We will receive the details later in this week under a document called E2, and that’s where it’s the breakdown of our funding.”

The division continues to face rising costs, particularly related to staffing.

Gustafson said a previous report to the board estimated salary-related increases of approximately $6.8 million for the upcoming year.

“Our pressures continue to be the salary increases, including harmonization, enrolment increases, and capital needs in terms of operations and maintenance,” he said. “Aging infrastructure and growing programming needs also add to the division’s challenges.”

He said most of the division’s revenue ultimately supports staffing and classroom operations.

“We run a very lean budget process,” Gustafson said. “The majority of our revenue goes to offset salary costs, of which the majority of that is school-based.”

Ross said the funding announcement appears to place the division in a better position than previously expected, though uncertainty remains.

“I think it’s better than I feared, but is it as good as I hoped? I don’t know,” he said. “It remains unclear whether budget pressures could still result in a tax increase.”

Schmidt said the funding increase is intended to support stability across Manitoba’s school system.

“Our government is committed to making sure every Manitoba family can count on strong, stable public schools, year after year,” Schmidt said.

» aodutola@brandonsun.com

» X: @AbiolaOdutola