At the November 25th Regular Board Meeting, the Board of Trustees approved the Division's audited financial statements as of August 31, 2025, after receiving a presentation from the auditors.
The Division experienced an increase in its 2024-2025 financial results, ending the year with a $2.7 million surplus. In the current year, this surplus represents 2.2% of the $120 million budget. This surplus is due to higher than expected revenues (e.g., more International students than projected, investment income) and reduced system-wide spending in supplies and services as well as variable costs (e.g., maternity leaves, utilities and insurance).
Our current surplus of $2.7M is part of our accumulated operating reserves which is the Division's savings to manage unexpected expenses. The surplus from 2024-2025 is 2.2% and with the accumulated operating reserves so far this year, it is now at $2.85M or 2.73%, which is within the Ministry's recommended range 1% to 6%.
The reason the Ministry recommends this range for accumulated reserves of 1%-6% is to manage unexpected expenses. For perspective, if a household budget is $100,000, 3% savings is $3,000. This would be considered conservative.
Given that we have accumulated reserves, the Division is in a stable financial position but there are increases in unfunded costs such as salaries and benefits, utilities, insurance, maintenance materials and supplies, fuel, tariffs, and opening a new school (i.e., operating costs such as utilities and staffing to open the school are not funded).The most pressing unfunded items are the necessary supports and services required for students with inclusive needs.
The Board is committed to understanding how to best address these unfunded costs and is seeking input from parents, students, and staff. To support this work we will hold community engagement meetings in February 2026 to help determine budget priorities for 2026-2027. You will find information about these community engagements on this webpage.
