The Mountain View School Division's proposed budget passed the vote at Monday's board meeting, increasing the 2026 budget by $2.7 million.
Lori Slepicka, Secretary Treasurer, said the majority of the increase goes to costs related to staff.
"The total funding increase in the budget is $2.7 million, and about $2.5 million of that actually goes to staffing costs. 34.7% of that $2.5 million is our harmonization cost to bring teacher salaries to the provincially negotiated salaries," said Slepicka.
Another area of interest in the budget is increased to the School Division's property taxes. Notably, a $1.5 million or 7.24% increase on their Special Levy, a one-time payment from the lot owner to help cover shared costs, and a Mill Rate increase from 13.26 to 14.14, which is 6.6%. That Mill Rate means for every $1000 of assessed value, the lot owner pays $6.36, with up to a $1500 credit.
"The 6.6% is going to be adequate because of the process that we go through when we ensure that the increase that we ask for is adequate to cover what we've accepted to be essential," said Slepicka.
Slepicka said she supports the increase to the budget because it should cover the essentials, but the Mountain View School Division would rather have more of the burden on the province.
"The increase is good because it covers what we needed it to, but is it ever enough, probably not...our preference would be that education is more adequately funded by the province as opposed to having to tax locally," said Slepicka.
The Mountain View School Divison received a provincial funding increase of just 0.7% for 2026, the lowest of all School Divisions in Manitoba.
