Every spring, following provincial funding announcements, school division trustees set to work preparing budgets for the coming school year. In early March, Hanover and Seine River publicly released their newest budget drafts.

A new consideration for every Manitoba school division this year is the provincial mandate for teacher salary harmonization, ensuring that teachers in every school are on equal footing in terms of pa rates.

For that reason, the province has set aside an additional $11 million in funding for the purpose of helping divisions adjust teacher salaries.

Hanover School Division

Due in part to a projected overall enrolment increase of nearly 300 students, the Hanover School Division is predicting total operating and capital expenditures in 2026–27 to come to $146.7 million, just over $10 million more than the previous budget.

Provincial funding will increase by $73.5 million over last year, including the wage harmonization subsidy.

“The 2026–27 budget… provides funding for approximately 20 teachers to address growth, along with eight additional teaching positions,” states the HSD budget announcement. “Of the 28 positions, six are designated as literacy and numeracy support teachers, along with a $500,000 allocation for Grade 1 literacy initiatives. The budget also includes funding for 22 additional educational assistants.”

Unlike last year, where the education tax mill rate saw a minor dip, property owners in the division will actually see an increase this fall of almost eight percent. The new mill rate of 13.32 will equate to an approximate $53 increase in school taxes for homeowners with a property value assessment of $354,000.

Seine River School Division

The Seine River School Division is facing similar enrolment challenges. Since 2020, SRSD’s student enrolment has increased by nearly 20 percent. Couple this with cutbacks required to recover from two years of financial deficits and the result is slow but steady improvement.

Thanks to increases in provincial funding and internal austerity measures, the SRSD shows a modest surplus this budget term of $1.78 million. Still, this only reflects 2.2 percent of their overall budget, leaving them somewhat short the provincial guideline of four percent.

SRSD saw a 5.7 percent provincial funding increase this year, or $2.4 million to be applied towards their $81.5 million expenditures. Approximately 20 percent of this extra funding is designated for salary harmonization.

According the SRSD’s budget announcement, the harmonization funding will cover only half of their cost to equalize teacher pay.

Despite another tight budget, though, the division is still trending in a positive direction when it comes to pupil-teacher ratios.

With the addition of more staff this year, SRSD’s ratio, when including principals, VPs, and clinicians, will go from 14:1 to 13.5:1. Still, they remain tied position for second-last place province-wide when it comes to teacher-students splits.

The EA to student ratio is also improving after budgetary cuts in recent years.

“We made noticeable progress in hiring EA support for our schools and currently have one EA for every 30 students,” the announcement states. “Continuing to restore much needed classroom assistance remains a priority this year.”

While these ratio gaps continue to close, however, the disparity is growing in terms of student investment.

“Assessment per student, already in the bottom third in the province, declined this year by about $4K/student.”

Also facing a drop in divisional funding is maintenance, going down by $500,000. Each of the division’s 15 schools will receive around $10,000 to aid in smaller maintenance projects while other projects will be deferred.

“This creates risk, as our average building age is 57 years and all facilities are experiencing more rapid wear and tear due to enrolment growth. Many are at or exceeding capacity.”

Last year’s mill rate, which remained steady at 12.67, will increase this year to 14.12. For the homeowner with a $375,000 assessed home valuation, this will mean an education tax increase this fall of approximately $144.