The Garden Valley School Division (GVSD) board is expecting there will be some hard decisions to make in planning the division's operating budget for the 2019/2020 school year.

GVSD Board Chair Laurie DyckBoard Chair Laurie Dyck says it will be a unique year with the combination of less overall funding from the government, the mandate from the province to cap any increase on education property taxes at 2%, and the costs associated with opening a new school.

"We need to figure out how to balance all of that with everything else that we feel is important to do, but obviously something is going to have to give, we're just not sure how because we don't want to impact the classroom learning," said Dyck.

Dyck said the board is actually in a position of having to figure out where they're going to have to cut budget pieces in order to run the division next year. "That's something Garden Valley School Division hasn't experienced in many years."

The board has scheduled a budget consultation meeting for this Thursday, February 28th, at 7:00 pm at Northlands Parkway Collegiate in Winkler. Dyck says this will be an opportunity for the general public to get involved in the budget planning process.

The consultation will give people the opportunity to hear about the different programs offered in the division, and an opportunity to have their voices heard on what programs are important to them.

Thursday's consultation will also include a component related to the provincial education review. "We've decided it's important for our constituents to know good information from our side why you want a local voice at a local school board making choices for you with your money."

Dyck says there are a lot of myths that exist about school boards and education, and they hope to address that as well.