School board approves 7.25% property tax hike

The Brandon School Division board of trustees has approved a $149.8 million budget for the 2026-27 school year — a 6.5 per cent increase in spending compared to last year.

Trustees approved the $149,836,400 financial plan during Monday’s general board meeting after a motion moved by trustee Breeanna Sieklicki. The budget includes $149,682,900 in operating expenses.

Overall spending is up by $9,203,635 from the division’s $140,632,765 budget for 2025-26.

To support the budget, the division will require a special levy of $64,261,527, with $59,274,200 to be raised from municipalities.

The plan includes a 7.25 per cent property tax increase, which trustees agreed to last month during the budget deliberation.

The owner of an average single-family home assessed at $301,300 will pay about $138.49 more in school taxes, according to senior administration.

The new budget was less challenging to finalize than last year’s plan, board chair Linda Ross told the Sun after the meeting.

“It was a less difficult budget than last year’s budget because of the decisions that we made last year,” Ross said. “Trustees previously made difficult choices, including cutting some positions, with a longer-term outlook in mind.”

School division budgets span two years in terms of planning impacts, she said, meaning decisions made one year affect the starting point for the next.

Ross said the division also received slightly more provincial funding than anticipated, which helped ease some pressure.

Despite that, she said trustees remained mindful of the burden on taxpayers.

“There’s only one taxpayer at the end of the day,” Ross said. “Municipal, provincial and school taxes ultimately come from the same source.

She said trustees aimed to balance the needs of students and the division with the impact on residents while positioning the division in a reasonable starting place for the following year’s budget.

Supt. Mathew Gustafson said the board’s multi-year budgeting strategy helped stabilize this year’s process.

“Multi-year strategic budgeting is a very necessary tool,” Gustafson said. “The board made decisions last year to set up so that the budget was easier to implement this year.”

He said while the budget maintains key classroom supports, it was not possible to restore all staffing levels that existed two years ago.

“It was striking a balance of trying to maintain classroom supports while keeping an eye on the level of taxation,” Gustafson said.

The budget retains five full-time equivalent teaching positions that had been under discussion during earlier budget deliberations.

Keeping those positions will help both educators and students, Brandon Teachers’ Association president Sandra Thompson told the Sun after the meeting.

“I think the board made some difficult decisions, and I’m thankful that they’ve kept those five FTE in the budget,” Thompson said. “It’s going to benefit students and teachers.”

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