Board chair Jennifer Tuininga shared these key thoughts about the 2018 provincial budget released on March 22. 

Appreciate government’s commitment to funding public education despite the challenging fiscal climate

• We appreciate the government – and the minister of education –making students and public education a priority against the backdrop of a recovering economy. There were no cuts to the base per pupil grants.
• While this budget continues to support education; because of inflation, the cost of the goods and services we purchase will go up.  This coupled with declining student enrolment means our school division will have less money to work with next year. We are predicting an 11% drop in Kindergarten enrolment and a 0.7% decrease in grade 1-12 enrolment.

School Fees and Nutrition Program

• There will continue to be no instructional material fees for parents as the government  replaces this lost revenue with a school fee reduction grant. Pembina Hills Public Schools will receive a $406,000 grant.
• Many of our schools are participating in the nutrition program and have received money from the grants provided by the government.

Next steps – detailed analysis

• Our administration will crunch the numbers to see what the budget means specifically for Pembina Hills Public Schools. We will finalize a budget by May 23, 2018. We will share this budget with our schools and community.
• We are responsible for investing these tax dollars in support of student learning and public education.