The Portage la Prairie School Division held a virtual public budget meeting last week where the board of trustees outlined how it plans to come up with over $1M to not only back pay its teachers but to also include increases in 2021-2022.

The issues surrounding teacher wages date back to a 2017 bill introduced by the Manitoba Government to freeze the wages of public sector workers across the province. Bill 28 limited local boards from negotiating different salary scales, while implementing a salary freeze. Additionally, Manitoba school boards have been operating under instruction from the province not to raise the local special levy beyond 2 per cent for the past three budget cycles.

Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench Justice Joan McKelvey ruled against the draconian bill this past summer. And although the Province is appealing this ruling, the decision led to interest arbitration awards to neighboring school divisions.

"I just want to make sure that people realize this is not the fault of our staff. This is not something that that they could control," says Rod Brownlee, PLPSD board of trustees chair. "(This was created by) the government. It was a bill that was brought in, was never officially proclaimed, was taken to court by a number of unions. The court decided that the government didn't have the right to do what they were talking about."

The Portage la Prairie School Division has yet to enter into negotiations with the Portage Teachers' Association, but recently received correspondence stating its desire to begin discussions and is anticipating a $1.3M shortfall based on recent rulings. In order to budget for these dollars without provincial funding increases and the board’s inability to increase the local special levy, the board is suggesting the following reductions to cover the funding shortfall:

1. Teaching staff re-allocations / Non-renewal of term teacher contracts
2. Combining classes to create multi-grade programming in the high school where possible
3. Reducing select school-based instructional coaching positions
4. Freezing all Technology investments from Operating Fund for 2021-2022
5. Freezing all Operational investments from Operating Fund for 2021-2022

"First of all, this is not something that we want to do or something that we're really pleased about," says Brownlee. "But you know, it's not something that we could have done anything about, unfortunately, and at this point, teachers deserve some kind of an increase since 2018."

Brownlee says much work still has to be done when it comes to figuring out exactly what the 2021-2022 year will look like, but they are exploring cutting coaching positions within PCI's hockey academy, and combining classes at the high school where possible.