Virtual Budget Town Hall—Q&A and PowerPoint (Feb. 29, 2024)

On February 29, 2024, the Board of Trustees held its second Virtual Budget Town Hall to provide a preview of the draft budget to the community.

Attendees were provided an opportunity to ask budget-related questions during the event. In the spirit of open, transparent, and honest communication with our public, below you will find responses to the questions posed, as well as the PowerPoint presentation that was shared (see bottom of this page). Please note: We have combined similar questions. If you submitted a question during the budget meeting and you do not see a response below, please email: info@retsd.mb.ca.

Funding & Costs

• What does a status quo budget mean?

• The province provided an increase of $8.2 million in the recent funding announcement. How can RETSD fall $15 million short of a status quo budget?

• Did the board contemplate a larger increase that would go beyond the status quo?

• After the 2023–24 budget was approved last year, RETSD announced the phasing out of IB and reductions to library technicians. Regardless of the option chosen for the upcoming budget, how will the Board of Trustees share what reductions, if any, will need to be made?

• I appreciate all the efforts the Board of Trustees has made to bring attention to the inequitable funding formula. It is fundamentally broken. How can we, as parents and community members, more actively advocate to support your voices and push for change?

• I would like some clarification around the reason our school division is severely lacking in the funding and resources our students so desperately need, while other divisions have more money to spend.

• Why did RETSD just spend money on new laptops for every teacher?

• How have administrative costs been reduced?

• What would the savings be if the retirement age of all division staff increased by one year?

• Is there an alternative to printing and mailing out The Torch?

• The 2023 financial statements have capital additions of $34 million, $20million more than the prior year. What is this and why would we do this in times when cash is thin?

• Why are travel conferences for RETSD teachers allowed in tough budget times?

• How does the budget for educational assistants get distributed throughout the school division?

• Are you able to garner any philanthropic support from the industries in the community?

• What savings could be realized if pension plans were converted from defined benefit to defined contribution?

• What about a contingency fund? What will the division do if an emergent situation arises that wasn’t accounted for in the budget?

Enrolment

• How many more students are you expecting to join the division next year?

• Why are we continually accepting newcomers to RETSD schools, and we can’t even put our children in a school of choice, even if it is a better fit for the child based on the specific needs from their disabilities?

• With an increase to EAL (English as an Additional Language) students, how does the division use funds to support them?

Programs & Transportation

• Why is it that we provide free resources, such as lunch programs and transportation, to residents of East St. Paul and yet people who live in other areas are expected to pay out of pocket for these?

• Given evidence indicating the ineffectiveness of Reading Recovery, would it be prudent for our school division to explore reallocating funds towards evidence-based programs aligned with the science of reading, particularly those emphasizing phonics instruction?