The Prairie Rose School Division is eyeing a challenging year in terms of funding for 2019-2020 with a 2 percent reduction in funding from the Province.

Superintendent and Terry Osiowy explain the January 25 public schools funding announcement impacts all 37 school divisions differently throughout the province. Out of 37 school divisions, 22 school divisions will either receive no additional funding or will see a reduction of funding.

Osiowy notes Prairie Rose School Division will receive 2 percent less funding and yet must adhere to the 2 percent limit on property tax increases for the piece called the special requirement.

"This means that less money will be coming to PRSD from the province and the Board's ability to recover the loss of revenue to support PRSD's operational costs has been capped," he explained in a release.

The 2019 -2020 public schools funding announcement outlined an overall increase of 6.6 million was announced for public education representing a 0.5% increase to public education. However, all school divisions are expected to continue to reduce administrative costs.

As part of the provincial funding announcement, Minister of Education and Training Kelvin Goertzen noted the mandate under The Public Services Sustainability Act (Bill 28) will help relieve some of the financial pressure on school divisions and control salary costs, which represent about 80 percent of PRSD expenses.

He adds school funding in Manitoba is calculated using the Funding of Schools Program formula, which guarantees divisions receive at least 98 per cent of the previous year's total. Funding increases or decreases are based on several factors that include a change in enrolment numbers, capital costs, equalizations payments, and the phase-out of the Tax Incentive Grant.

The PRSD Board of Trustees will begin their work on the 2019-2020 operations budget beginning Wednesday, January 30. PRSD's draft 2019-2020 operational budget will be presented at a Public Budget Consultation that is scheduled for 7:00 PM, on Wednesday, February 27 at Elm Creek School.

The PRSD Board of Trustees has scheduled Monday, March 11, 2019, as the date to formally approve PRSD's final operational budget for 2019-2020.