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WINNIPEG The Pembina Trails School Division is taking $1.5 million from its accumulated surplus fund to offset expenditures, and cutting nearly $7 million worth of spending for budget 2021/22. The school division said it has been forced into this position from a combination of factors, including a government directive to freeze property taxes, pandemic- related costs and a recent arbitration award. Deferring an unprecedented amount in infrastructure maintenance and using $930 thousand from our surplus funds to cover necessary building repairs is far from ideal and not a permanent solution,” said board chair Kathleen McMillan in a news release. The budget will see a reduction in middle years’ teacher-librarian time by 25 per cent, and high schools’ by half. The division will also reduce school instructional budgets, English Additional Language specialists, and divisional-based allocation for educational assistant staff.
WINNIPEG The board of trustees for the Pembina Trails School Division is facing a tough task when it comes to building a proposed budget for the 2021-22 school year. Without doubt this has been the most difficult budget that I and the board has faced since my career as a trustee. We have encountered a necessity to make some very, very difficult decisions, said Kathleen McMillan, who is the chair of the board of trustees. The board released its draft budget on Friday and cited several difficult situations such as growing communities, inflation, an arbitration awarded to the teachers association and on top of that there is the provincial freeze on the property tax levy and the pandemic.