As the Garden Valley School Division mulls over its operating budget for the 2018/19 school year, the board is anticipating to hold the line on local education taxes.
Tuesday evening in Winkler, the board outlined its spending priorities at a public budget consultation.
New spending considerations, include hiring a new literacy coordinator, two new bus purchases, and $200,000 allocated for the new school reserve. Board Chair Laurie Dyck said they are also looking to continue support for the Winkler Family Resource Centre and the Imagination Library.
Going back a number of years, Dyck said when looking at their incoming kindergarten literacy rates, they are seeing kids are coming in stronger than they have. "We believe that that's making a difference, getting books into the hands of young children and into parents' hands, and that intentional time, whether it's at the resource centre or at home with your Imagination Library book, it is making a difference."
The board is looking to match last the current year's funding for the two groups, $17,000 for the Winkler Resource Centre, and $10,000 for the Imagination Library.
"What's important to us is to make sure we can offer the programs that we want, so we look at that, but we do definitely look at the tax dollar at the end of the day to see how everyone's property taxes are going to be affected by the choices we make," said Dyck.
At this point, the board is planning to hold the line on local property taxes, with anticipated education tax reductions in every area, with the exception of farmland taxes. Based on assessment values, it's expected taxes on homes will go down about 1.47 percent, businesses taxes will drop by about 3 quarters of a percent, and farmland taxes are expected to rise by just over 17 percent from the current year's budget.
The board will finalize its budget at its next board meeting on March 13th.
Related article: "Full Impact Of Education Funding Announcement Still Uncertain, GVSD Reacts"
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