School divisions still waiting on more money from provincial gov’t

Four weeks after Premier Scott Moe and Education Minister Dustin Duncan announced more money would be coming to help school divisions in the province, there’s still no word on how much money they’ll get or when it will come, and divisions are currently trying to put together their fall budgets.

Divisions across the province have been speaking out about what they see as a funding shortfall in the provincial budget released this spring and have been talking about cuts and fee increases they feel they have to make to balance their budgets.

This week, Duncan wasn’t available for an interview, but the ministry sent a statement saying that he has been meeting with divisions to talk about their funding issues. It didn’t say when divisions would hear about additional dollars, just that they would be notified in the “coming weeks.”

School divisions are currently trying to work out their budgets for the 2023-24 school year, but it seems to have been made more complicated by this promise of more money.

Regina and Saskatoon’s Catholic divisions both say they have their budgets on the agenda for a meeting earlier in June but, with the current uncertainty, it could be pushed to a meeting later in the month.

Regina’s public school division currently has a meeting scheduled for the middle of June with the 2023-24 budget on the agenda. Director of education Darren Boldt has said the division knows more money could be coming but since it doesn’t have any details, the division has to work with what it knows.

And Saskatoon’s public division isn’t even giving a guess as to when the division might have a final budget because it’s saying it won’t approve a final budget until the board understands the additional money from the province.

Normally the division budgets would have to be in to the province by the end of June, but the ministry said they’re getting more time this year.