The Hastings Prince Edward District School Board is looking at a $260.5 million budget for 2025-26.
That’s up from almost $247 million for 2024-25.
Trustees got a look at the draft budget in a meeting of the Physical Planning, Finance and Building Committee this week.
Director of Education Katharine MacIver says student enrolment determines how much money school boards are eligible for from the province.
She says the Ministry asked boards to be very conservative this year with their predictions.
Projected student enrolment for 2025-26 is down slightly.
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“We’re relatively stable in our secondary school. And our elementary school is the place where we’re seeing a decline, I think it was, you know, just over 200 students across junior kindergarten through to grade 8.”
There are a projected 10,519 elementary students for 25-26 and 4,526 Secondary students for the next school year.
It’s a later start to the budget process this year as well.
The Board only just received the final funding document from the Ministry of Education about a month ago.
The document outlines how boards are to use the money they’re provided with.
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“So they provide the funding in specific grants that come with specific purpose. And so we don’t have as much flexibility about how we utilize those dollars as people may think.”
The majority of their budget goes to staffing, about 78 per cent.
The other 22 per cent includes classroom resources and materials, facilities work, trustee and travel expenses, professional learning and the central office.
School renewal projects include roofing, ventilation and other work that is occurring at several schools throughout the board.
Later this month the board will also be looking to approve the last of the work for Central Hastings School’s outdoor field and track space that is undergoing rehabilitation.
MacIver is very proud of the work staff have done over the last few years to continue balancing the budget.
The Education Act requires school boards in Ontario to pass a balanced budget by June 30 but many boards are struggling to meet that goal.
“We’ve had a very successful, you know this is our third year of having a balanced or surplus budget because we have been meticulous in ensuring that our expenditures align with the funding that we receive.”
Prior to the release of funding information, HPEDSB held an internal review and utilized data gathered from a community engagement survey to shape
budget decisions.
budget decisions.
The Physical Planning, Building and Finance Committee meets again on June 16 to make a final recommendation to the Board with trustees expected to pass the budget at their June 23 meeting.
Read the full budget report here.
