February 28, 2025, Winnipeg, MB – Parents, guardians, students, staff, and community joined Trustees and Senior Leadership—in person at the Board Office and online—on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025, to learn about the proposed 2025-26 budget.

“Our focus remains on maintaining and incrementally enhancing educational programs and services to support student success, while also being mindful of financial sustainability,” said Jamie Rudnicki, Secretary-Treasurer. “With continued enrolment growth, rising costs, and the need to invest in aging school infrastructure, we are taking a thoughtful approach to ensure our budget supports both immediate and long-term priorities in Louis Riel School Division (LRSD).”

To respond to rising costs due to enrolment growth, a recently negotiated collective agreement and future settlements, as well as inflation pressures, LRSD is proposing a 6.43 per cent mill rate increase to property owners living in the Division. This mill rate increase reflects an average annual increase of $193 for the property owner. 1.22 per cent of this increase will cover the one-time expense of furnishing a new elementary school serving students living in Sage Creek and Bonavista. 

“We know that any tax increase is a concern for property owners, and we don’t take this decision lightly,” said Chris Sigurdson, Chair of the LRSD Board of Trustees. “However, our responsibility is to ensure that we maintain investments to ensure students and staff in LRSD have access to the necessary resources to thrive.” 

Draft Budget Highlights:

• An increase of 44.55 full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers and 31.81 FTE support staff to maintain reasonable class sizes and student to staff ratios.
• Staff increases will also help to reinforce trauma-responsive practices, create a flexible, short-term learning and therapeutic space, and enhance supports for multilingual learners in middle years.
• The draft budget includes a $100,000 investment to support the launch of a water safety and swim skills pilot program for Grades 3-4 students. The pilot program will inform us of the feasibility for a multi-year-phased rollout.
• A six-year plan to retrofit ten schools with air conditioning, enhancing learning environments for students and staff. The proposed 2025-26 budget includes a proposed $630,000 investment to kick-start this Equity in School Infrastructure initiative.
• A $250,000 investment to enhance cybersecurity measures across LRSD. This includes implementing 24/7, 365-day-a-year intrusion detection and prevention, securing additional liability insurance, and ensuring compliance with industry standards to protect student and staff data.

As part of the Board’s budget deliberations, the elimination of student fees was considered. Currently, LRSD collects approximately $1 million in fees from Kindergarten to Grade 8 students, covering about 80 per cent of students. At any given time, LRSD subsidizes fees for the 20 per cent of families who cannot afford them. While the Board explored going beyond this existing support by eliminating fees entirely, the decision for now is to maintain the current subsidy model as an incremental step.

“In the 2023-2024 school year, we launched our latest edition of our Multi-Year Strategic Plan inspired by an Indigenous worldview,” said Christian Michalik, Superintendent. “The Division’s Multi-Year Strategic Plan directs the actions of both staff and students. Its 25 strategic actions are at the heart of the Board’s budget deliberations. The proposed budget aligns with and supports the advancement of these actions.” 

Michalik added, “The draft budget for 2025-26 reflects a data-informed commitment to sustaining and strengthening public education for families living in St. Boniface and St. Vital while being cognizant of the financial realities both the school system and homeowners face.”

If you missed the Public Draft Budget Consultation, you can view it here. If you would like to provide feedback on the budget, please visit LRSD’s Contact Us page.