The Saskatchewan government is increasing funding for school divisions in the province by an additional $40 million.
The new funding is intended to assist school divisions with enrollment growth. It will be split, with $20 million being provided to address school enrollment growth and the remaining $20 million being made available for school divisions to hire classroom and other support staff such as teachers, educational assistants, speech-language pathologists, counsellors, educational psychologists, or other supports.
Jason Young, the Director of Education at the Northern Lights School Division, said the School Division would meet in the coming days to discuss where the new funding should go. ”
There is going to be a conversation on Monday, an additional conversation with how the money should be spent. So we’re looking at ways in which we can comply with the ministry guidelines on how this funding should be spent, looking at ways in which we can align our plan with how they expect this funding to be expended,” said Young.
“I would say in terms of what the needs are in the division, I mean there are huge needs beyond just the scope around the teaching piece and the personnel piece. I’d say it goes beyond that to ensure that we’ve got the proper facilities, the proper IT supports, the proper transportation, all those pieces that we need in the system to help allow the whole system to run efficiently and effectively. I mean that’s work that we have to continue to do, but certainly this funding does take the pressure off of us and allows us to do some of those things.”
The new funding brings the operating budget for Saskatchewan’s 27 school divisions to an investment of $2.08 billion for the 2023–24 school year.