The Pine Creek School Division (PCSD) will hold its public meeting tonight on the approved preliminary budget of $15.4 million for the 2017-18 fiscal year.

PCSD announced the preliminary budget late last week, saying it faced a 2% cut in provincial funding, or about $130,000 less than the $7.5 million PCSD received each year since 2013. The projected increase in overall expenses and capital projects in the 2017-18 budget is 2.2% compared to the 2016-17 budget, with salaries and benefits making up 78% of the total budget.

The mill rate will rise one full point to 14.8, a 7.3% increase compared to 2016-17. School taxes for residential ratepayers in the PCSD area will be $732 on a home valued at $153,600, an increase of $61 from 2016. On farmland valued at $300,900, school taxes will increase $100 to $2,054. Commercial ratepayers will see a hike of $138 on a valuation of $218,200.

“The budget itself was a challenge this year because we did receive two per cent less funding from the provincial government,” says PCSD superintendent Brian Gouriluk. “...That made it a real challenge because we already have collective bargaining agreements that are in place through to the end of the 2017-18 school year. And as well, the division for the first time is looking at a significant enrolment increase.”

“As a result with the fact that we have growing enrolment it was a difficult budget to create with less money from the province.”

Surpluses applied to previous budgets to lower the implication of rising costs on the local levy are no longer available, a school division statement explains, as the board has depleted surplus levels in support of many rising needs throughout the last few years.

“The division’s people resources are a priority to Pine Creek Trustees and administration,” a PCSD budget statement explains. “As a major employer in its communities, the division is not considering employment cuts, especially at a time where enrolment for September 2017 is projected to increase for the first time in years.”

“In order to maintain staffing to adequately support classroom needs and still cut back on expenses, some initiatives that had recently begun in the division have had to be pulled back.”

Gouriluk points to maintenance work such as building painting, which used to be offered for public tender, as an example of one area of spending that was rolled back. The division will now allocate those duties to existing staff instead of contracting it out.

The Public Budget Consultation takes place at 7 p.m. Tuesday night at William Morton Collegiate in Gladstone.

“We look forward to talking it over with local taxpayers and parents so they can understand the challenges we have in creating the budget,” Gouriluk adds. “But also to talk about the successes. What we want to do is make sure that people feel if they are paying taxes for education, that they're paying it into a school board that has some really good plans to ensuring kids in the community are well-educated.”

Here's the document.