After a delay in receiving their budget package from the Ministry of Education the Prince Albert Catholic School Division has received the package and can begin work.
The board received an update from director of education Lorel Trumier and Chief Financial Officer Greg McEwen at their regular meeting on Monday. Trumier is pleased by the general outlook in the budget data received.
“We’re looking into the commitments that are being made for inflation and cost complexity and we’re getting into the details as we speak,” Trumier said. “We are pleased about that and the fact that they have funded the collective bargaining agreement increases for our staff.”
According to the Ministry of Education, the delay in delivery was so the collective bargaining agreement information could be finalized.
The board also heard about the continuation of targeted support funding to hire educational assistants and classroom supports. The division is eligible to receive an additional $10,211. This funding will be integrated into the division’s 2025-2026 budget.
The division will receive $3,849,744 more than last year, pending the enrolment adjustment on Sept. 30, 2025.
The division saw enrolment increase in each of the last three school years, leading to slight mid-year adjustments. The 2025-2026 estimate is a full-time Pre-K to Grade 12 enrolment of approximately 2,970, school divisions are generally conservative in their enrolment estimates.
The division will also see a $256,000 increase in Preventative Maintenance and Renewal (PMR) money.
“We had slight increases in that as well so (they are) showing some promise about trying to get the needs of our school division met in a way that is meaningful and can support our students,” Trumier said. “We are happy about that.”
The board has also set dates for their audit committee to review the budget. The committee is expected to meet later this week.
Depending on how that goes, Trumier said, the Catholic School Division could have their budget ready for July 1.
Because of the delay, Trumier said, the Ministery of Education is talkinga bout giving school divisions more time to complete the budget process.
“It was basically a few weeks delayed with Easter in there,” Trumier said.
“Our school division administrative staff here, along with our administrators in our schools, did a lot of planning and preparation ahead of time and trying to put ourselves in a position where once the budget is known, then we can move rather quickly in terms of what trying to meet our priorities and our needs,” she explained.
“(There was) lots of planning and preparation was done ahead of time and now we’re just refining those decisions and another sort of budget adjacent matter.”
Each year school divisions in the province are chosen to have their audits randomly selected to be assessed by the provincial auditor’s office. This year, for the first time since 2020, told the board the Office of the Provincial Auditor (OPA) will be involved in the audit for the fiscal year ending Aug. 31, 2025.
Trumier said that she does not know how these are selected but the division expects to be picked from time to time.
“It is nothing to be concerned about,” she said. “There’s nothing that we’re concerned about. We welcome those opportunities and what it does is gets another set of eyes looking at our processes and procedures and our use of our tax dollars.”
In 2018, the Catholic Division enacted a bylaw where they can determine its own separate school division tax and set education mill rates. The division is required to pass a resolution each year before April 20 to set their own property tax mill rates.
At their meeting in March, the board chose to set their mill rate the same as that of the province. The 2025 provincial mill rate is 1.07 mills for agricultural property, 6.37 for residential property, 6.75 mills for commercial/industrial property and 7.49 mills for resource property
