Background
On April 15, 2026, the Board of Education will consider the budget for next school year, 2026/2027.
The detailed analysis of the current year's budget outlines the budget for 2025/26, the current school year.
The Superintendent has proposed draft changes to this budget for the Board to consider for implementation in the 2026/27 school year. These recommendations summarize the budget process, cost pressures, proposed changes and potential risks.
Please provide your input on this form by 6pm on Wednesday April 8th.
Budget consultation so far
Between January and March, the Board received budget submissions from CUPE, VTA, the District Parent Advisory Council and members of the public. The budget timeline page summarizes the information gathered by the Board so far.
These proposed changes reflect the educational needs identified through this process to the extent possible within the taxpayer funding available to SD22.
Proposed Changes
The Superintendent's draft budget proposal includes the following operational changes. Negative amounts show an increase in cost, and positive amounts reflect a decrease in cost.
| Change | $ | Resources |
|---|---|---|
Add supports with a goal of closing the achievement gap between students with diverse needs and all other students. Feedback received from CUPE, VTA, DPAC and leadership staff also recommends more resources in this area as a priority. | 817,000 | Add more non-enrolling staff focused on direct supports for students with diverse needs, including SBRTs and education assistants. |
| Maintain class sizes for elementary students, keeping close to provincial averages. | -600,000 | Net reduction of four elementary divisions |
| Maintain class sizes for secondary students, keeping close to provincial averages. | 280,000 | Add fourteen blocks |
Increase support for staff, students, and educational leadership at VSS and Seaton. This year, VSS and Seaton have 1,104 and 1,065 students, respectively (headcount, including international students). Each school has a Principal and a Vice Principal (PVP). Staff at the schools have raised the concern that the high student to PVP ratio makes it challenging for PVPs to address all emerging matters as they arise. To corroborate that concern, the Secretary Treasurer compared enrolment and PVP allocations at other secondary schools in the province. All thirteen secondary schools with between 926 and 1,000 students have three PVPs. Allocating more time for PVPs enables better support for students and school staff. It also enables more educational leadership time to implement strategic improvements at schools to further improve student success and close achievement gaps. | 180,000 | Add a school-based Vice Principal position at VSS and at Seaton with 0.5 FTE non-teaching time each. |
Continue to upgrade school shops (wood shops, automotive shops etc.) to ensure they have the equipment needed to meet curricular requirements within a safe environment. The facilities department completed a recent renovation of the Charles Bloom wood shop using facility department funds. The Board currently allocates $30,000 a year to local capital for this purpose, which is not all spent. Next year, there will be about $120,000 available from existing local capital funds to continue to improve curriculum resources in school shops. | 0 | The Board can achieve this with existing resources. |
Inflationary increases for non-discretionary items. (for example, utilities, software licensing, NOYFSS and Whitevalley service contracts). The Board last increased school supply budgets in the 2019/20 school year. Since then, inflation has increased costs by about 24%. However, discussions with PVP and a review of unspent school budget balances at the end of last school year suggests that other needs, such as inclusion, are a greater priority for increased allocation of resources. Budget feedback showed concerns about inequities in opportunity for schools with a larger population of vulnerable students. Staff are exploring ways of addressing that inequity within existing budgets. | 184,000 | Maintain existing non-discretionary resources. |
| Total impact of operational changes | 861,000 |