Manitoba government announces increased funding for school divisions

Funding for Manitoba's school divisions is increasing by $67 million for the next academic year.

Monday morning, Tracy Schmidt, the newly minted education minister for the province, said the boost is consistent with last year's increase at 3.4 per cent.

Background information from the province shows the bump will vary between one per cent and almost 10 per cent for individual divisions, with the inclusion of federal nutrition funding.

According to that information, the Hanover School Division (HSD) will be getting a 2.2 per cent boost worth almost $72 million, and the Seine River School Division (SRSD) will be receiving an extra $41.5 million, or 5.7 per cent.

The province says "incremental" changes to the funding formula for school divisions are also being made.

"This includes calculating funding based on the best of the last three years of enrollment," Schmidt says. "In addition, we will be reconstituting the stakeholder advisory committee on school funding to identify further opportunities to improve the way education is funded in our province going forward."

A revamp of the funding model was promised by the former Progressive Conservative government, but did not come to fruition.

It was a point of concern at a recent HSD budget consultation.

Schmidt vows continued dialogue with school divisions, staff, and Manitoba families to "provide stable and predictable funding" for schools.

Earlier this month, HSD and SRSD expressed concern over the delay in Monday's funding announcement, which traditionally comes before the end of January.

"Each school division quickly scurries to put all those numbers into our financial accounting and then see where we sit at that point," said Colin Campbell, superintendent of the SRSD, last week.

Around that same time, Ron Falk, chairperson of HSD's finance committee mentioned time to plan a budget was getting tight.

"We need time to review and make informed decisions," he explained.

HSD is also waiting to hear from the province about funding for Parkhill School, which is currently under construction, as well as about expanding Green Valley School which is bursting with students.

Monday's announcement celebrated a new school to be built in northeast Winnipeg.