Western School Division (WSD) plans to invest close to $22 million on approximately 2,000 students in their proposed 2019-20 budget.

Board Chairperson, Brian Fransen says, "Western School Division is definitely fortunate with the funding increase of 4.4 percent from the province this year." This is the second highest funding increase any of the province's divisions, and means slightly lower taxes for local residents.

Households can expect to pay $1,895, a reduction of $7.42, farmers in the R.M. of Stanley with 1/4 section of farmland (valued at approximately $1 million) are looking at a total of $3,983, a decrease of $15.60, and business owners can expect to pay $8,154 at a reduction of $19.50.

"One of the things that's really important is that when you're looking at growth in the future, you can't just run on empty. The province, when it provides funding for new schools or even portable classrooms, it's the bare bones . . . and so we need to use local dollars to fill it. We're trying to be prudent with our budgeting looking forward saying, 'Hey look. We're going to have lots of growth, we need to make sure that we can afford to put stuff into these new spaces.'"

Fransen says, "with all of our growth we're hiring more teachers and support staff to handle that, and looking at specifically continuing to support and enhance our literacy and numeracy program."

This means 83.2 percent of the budget will be going toward salaries and benefits, 7.15 percent to instructional support, and 6.18 percent for transportation and operation. The remaining 3.47 percent is in tax and interest, adult and community education, and administration.

An area seeing an increased expense of 20 percent is the plot of land purchased in preparation for a new school. The $25,000 of interest is now looking to be $30,000.

"Over the last number of years we've had to make some difficult decisions, and looking forward saying, 'we aren't always going to be in sunshine and rainbows.' We have to be planning ahead and not making rash decisions," he says.

Some other changes coming to the division include the purchasing of laptops for grade eight students, as well as opening up Minnewasta School for evening events. Previously, this was the only school not being used in this capacity.

"Our communities love to use the space that we have in our schools and with the growth that we've had in the schools, not only are the communities wanting to use it, but also the schools are needing to use more of that space. So sometimes the schools now are taking longer into the evening booking that time which prevents the communities from being able to use it," adds Fransen.

He also says the board continues to be a strong advocate for these decisions to stay local as the education review proposes the amalgamation of school divisions. Fransen questions how single governance can work with the diversity of needs within a different division.

"How are we going to deal with that in the future if what we have now is working under a fairly sufficient system?"