Neepawa and Area's Beautiful Plains School Division Budget Reflects Both Growth and Changes to Funding Model

In episode four of 'Schooled', NACTV covers the presentation of the draft annual budget of the Beautiful Plains School Division. The budget presentation is aimed at families, taxpayers, and any interested parties. It outlines the proposed 2024-2025 budget but also covers some background on the school division.

Since 2008 the student population of the division has nearly doubled, resulting in the need for additional classroom space, teachers and support staff, and transportation. With the exception of the 2020-2021 school year, where the influx of new community residents was temporarily halted and several students were homeschooled, that growth has been fairly steady, with a 12.5 percent population growth in the past 2 years alone.

Board of Trustees Chairperson Richard Manns, Secretary/Treasurer Shannon Bayes, Assistant Superintendent Krista Reynolds and Superintendent/CEO Jason Young take us through the details of the Beautiful Plains School Division and the upcoming year’s budget in this program.

The proposed budget is $28.8 million, an increase of $2.25 million over last year. Provincial funding is based on the previous year’s enrollment and accounts for 63% of the total budget. Additional funding sources include the small class size initiative and nutrition program, as well as school property taxes, which had begun to be phased out in 2019 but have seen a change of direction in the past year.

As to where that money goes, the largest portion of the budget is salaries, almost 75% of which is for teachers, with the rest comprising administration, educational assistants, custodians, bus drivers, health supports, and others. That same data can also be divided by function, where the division demonstrates that the majority of the money, 65%, goes directly into classroom instruction.

Beautiful Plains School Division is happy to receive feedback by email to bpsd@bpsd.mb.ca. The finalised budget will be sent to the province by March 31.