Seven Oaks may cut teachers, programs as superintendent says rising costs exceed province's funding

The Seven Oaks School Division is considering teacher and programming cuts in the upcoming school year as the superintendent says provincial funding isn't keeping up and costs are still rising.

Earlier this month, Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Wayne Ewasko announced school divisions across Manitoba would get an increase of at minimum 2.5 per cent in operating dollars for the upcoming year, while some would get more.

However, Seven Oaks superintendent Brian O'Leary said based on his calculations, Seven Oaks isn't meeting that minimum.

The division in Winnipeg is holding a budget meeting Monday night for families to discuss which potential cuts could be on the table. 

"We're going to bring to our community [Monday] night a lot of what I would say are unpleasant possibilities that would really diminish the quality of education and the attention that kids get," O'Leary said in an interview Sunday. 

In a letter sent home to parents Friday, the chair of the board of trustees said she expects revenues will rise by slightly more than two per cent, but enrolment is set to rise by three per cent. The letter said costs will rise even more. 

"We are now forced to contemplate further reductions including cutting teachers, eliminating programs like Learn to Swim, closing schools to after-school programs and eliminating bussing for Grade 7 to 12 students," chair Maria Santos stated in the letter. 

O'Leary said these changes could also mean larger class sizes.

"It means for the kid who's struggling, less attention. It means kids aren't known as well, it may mean fewer options, you know, and at a certain point there's a wear and tear on your staff, so they start to withdraw from some of their voluntary extracurricular involvements, which are things that kids really need."

O'Leary said the division has routinely been getting increases of half a percent to a percent while costs have escalated well beyond that.

He said the division has made significant cuts over the past few years. He said it's trimmed 25 non-teaching positions, a dozen education assistants and have "frozen teaching staff while enrolment has been increasing."

Provincial funding

The government pledged $100.2 million in new funding for kindergarten to Grade 12 schools, or a 6.1 per cent increase over the previous year, Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Wayne Ewasko said during a news conference on Feb. 2. 

According to the province, Seven Oaks School Division will receive $91.7 million next year which is an increase of $3.3 million over the previous year. Seven Oaks is receiving the smallest increase — in terms of the dollar total — among all the Winnipeg-based divisions. 

In a statement to CBC News late Sunday, the education minister's office said Seven Oaks would be receiving the equivalent of a 3.8 per cent increase.

"This includes operating funding, their portion of the $22 million for student presence and engagement, the two per cent property offset grant and their portion of the $22 million for the additional operating support," Ewasko said in an emailed statement.

However, O'Leary is disputing the calculations and said the division has found what appears to be a significant flaw in them. He said the division will get just a 2.1 per cent increase for the next school year. 

O'Leary also said their special requirement is frozen which means they will end up with less funding in the future.

"We need to open new classrooms for new kids. We need to add teachers. We've got some cost pressures we need to address and some wage pressure and we can't do all that with funding that doesn't even keep pace," he said.

Discrepancy between divisions

O'Leary also added that other divisions seemed to receive "more reasonable increases," and noted Pembina Trails will see a 9.5 per cent hike while River-East Transcona will get 7.5 per cent. 

"For divisions like Seven Oaks, the formula used to divide up funding actually means we will receive less than our actual rise in enrolment and costs. So, in real terms, more cuts," division trustee Evan Krosney said on Twitter.

Krosney was not available for an interview ahead of the budget meeting. 

Members from the division, including O'Leary, met with the assistant deputy minister of education on Feb. 10. He said they were unable to respond to the concerns brought forward.

O'Leary said the board chair then reached out asking for an urgent meeting with the education minister, but they still have not received a response. 

"We think they've made a pretty significant error," he said. "We would hope they would want to correct it, but to this point there's no indication that they even acknowledge it."

He said now is not the time to be making cuts as children are still recovering from having their schooling disrupted due to the pandemic.

"It's not the time [to] be taking resources away and programs away from those kids," he said.

The meeting will get underway at 7 p.m. Monday at the Seven Oaks Performing Centre at 711 Jefferson Ave.