The Board of Trustees passed the SJASD Budget for 2025/26 at a Regular Board Meeting on Tuesday, March 4, 2025.
The budget was approved following an in-person budget consultation meeting on February 27 that saw approximately 40 staff, parents, caregivers, community members and Divisional representatives attend to ask questions, provide feedback, respond to a public survey, and learn more about the Division's plans to support teaching and learning in 2025/26 school year. Trustees also held a fall budget consultation in October to kickstart the budget planning cycle.
At the February consultation meeting, attendees asked questions about safety, maintenance and grounds development, sustainability, e-gaming, nutrition programming, and how to support needs in the classroom.
After Trustees and Divisional staff responded to questions, they thanked community members for a notably high level of engagement and participation.
Budget Snapshot
The final operating budget for 2025/26 is $141,909,111, an increase of 9 per cent or $11,699,234 over the 2024/25 budget. With those funds, the Division is making the following investments to support a projected 1.8 per cent enrolment growth along with additional needs in the classroom:
Hiring a total of 24 Educational Assistants and 1 Speech Language Pathologist to increase student engagement and success in the classroom.
Adding 1 Assistant Superintendent position to Division Administration, restoring the total number of Assistant Superintendent positions to two while strengthening strategic leadership and addressing workload intensification.
Investing in 10 Supply Teachers from December to April to proactively address absences during the respiratory season and support capacity at some of the Division's smallest schools.
Reserving funding to support up to 10 additional FTE Teachers to maintain small class sizes in the event of enrolment increases.
Adding 1 Information Technology staff member to enhance cyber security efforts, protecting digital assets and the privacy of our community.
Hiring 1 FTE Michif Teacher to provide language exposure and instruction to students and staff through the Let's Speak Michif Indigenous Language Program.
Investing in 1 Grant Writer to leverage resources available in the public and private sector.
Lowering school fees for families by eliminating the fundraising fee and supplementing school budgets to reduce and standardize supply fees for students in Early and Middle Years.
The majority of funding for public education comes from provincial sources and school taxes. In 2025, the Provincial Government provided SJASD with a 1.7 per cent increase in provincial operating support (2 per cent including nutrition funding). After factoring in the impact of a decrease in portioned assessment values on March 1, the SJASD Board of Trustees approved a final education property tax increase of 6.2 per cent. The average homeowner can expect to pay $110, or $9 a month, more in gross school taxes this year, based on an average home value of $330,300, before the Province's new $1,500 Homeowners Affordability Tax Credit is applied (Jan. 2025 Residential Unit Report).
Thank you to the community for your participation in this important budgeting process in SJASD.
To review the final budget and supportive infographic, visit the Budget section of our website.
(Pictured above): SJASD Board Chair Holly Hunter (top) and Vice Chair Tara Smith (bottom) present draft budget to community members at the Division's annual Public Budget Meeting on February 27, 2025.
