Pine Creek School Division budget rising
- Details
- Published on Thursday, March 19, 2015
By Kate Jackman-Atkinson
The Neepawa Banner
Meeting the needs of students through staffing support was a key part of this upcoming year’s budget for the Pine Creek School Division. This year’s budget will rise 4.78 per cent compared to last year, to a total of $14,255,975.
For the first time in the last decade, the division is predicting stable enrolment at 1,026 students. Division superintendent Brian Gouriluk said that in addition to the stabilization of enrolment, there is a possibility they may see some increases in the future. He noted that most of the growth in the division is at the northern end and in Gladstone in particular, which has benefited from a spill over of growth in Neepawa. He noted that enrolment in the colonies is stable, although it would have increased were they not to be losing students to a colony split.
Staffing, both regular instruction and support staff, account for the majority of the increase in this year’s budget. Gouriluk explained that the staffing increases come from a variety of areas. One area that will see additional resources will be secretarial time, to provide better coverage, especially in the division’s small schools. There will also be the creation of an administrative assistant position that will provide support for the seven colony schools within the division. “These are [investments] that we have wanted to do for a few years,” said Gouriluk.
The division is also adding additional staffing support for substitute teaching, numeracy, EAL, colony physical education instruction and a mental wellness action group. They will also increase the divisional students at risk grant by 10 per cent in response to rising costs.
Gouriluk said that in addition to staffing increases, the increase in staffing costs is due to younger teachers moving up the pay scale. He noted that after a number of retirements, they have a staff that is balanced between younger and more experienced teachers.
The division will be setting aside money in reserve funds for two capital projects: the expansion of the Gladstone Elementary School gymnasium and the renovation of the McGregor Collegiate home economics room.
The division received no additional funding from the province, which means that the additional funds will be coming from local ratepayers. Gouriluk noted that they have tried to keep increases small in the past, but that the board felt that these were worthwhile initiatives in order to better serve the division’s students. Under the new budget, the PCSD assessment increase will be 1.24 per cent and the mill rate will be 15.0. This means that for a residential property assessed at $125,000, the increase will be $52.12; for farmland assessed at $250,000, the increase will be $60.23 and for a commercial property assessed at $250,000, the increase will be $150.57.
