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By Dylana Kneeshaw

2025/2026 BUDGET

SD73 Board of Education approves district spending plan; staffing cuts to follow

Apr 29, 2025 | 4:42 PM

KAMLOOPS — A series of cost-cutting measures largely impacting staffing were approved Monday night (April 28) by the Kamloops-Thompson Board of Education within the district’s budget plan for the 2025-26 school year.

This will see more than 70 full time equivalent positions cut in an effort to deal with a $5.8-million cost increase. School boards are legally mandated to present a balanced budget each year. However, the Kamloops-Thompson board feels some of the spending cuts could have been avoided if provincial funding for public education was increased.

“There’s no good news coming out of this budget and we recognize that. Regardless of that, we have an obligation to move forward and pass a budget,” says Board Chair Heather Grieve.

The upcoming budget was formed with $5.8 million in projected cost increases that had to be recouped. According to the district, part of the problem is that student enrolment increases have begun to plateau, combined with larger jumps in their operations costs.

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“Like benefits premiums, increments, portable moves,” explained Superintendent Rhonda Nixon. “You wouldn’t think about that, but we can’t always predict where kids are going to go. Moving a portable is expensive, buying a portable is expensive, opening a new school — we pay for the administration to start a bit earlier and we have to because they need to open their school.”

The past school year already saw cutbacks in supplies spending in an effort to balance the books after a more-than-$2-million accounting error.

“This was inevitable and, really, this is not related to the accounting error for one simple reason — we reached a net positive standing point, a stable standing point before we developed the budget and that’s because we made hard decisions this year, mid-year,” reiterates Nixon.

The budget vote followed a months-long public consultation period. Grieve says some of the top priorities were identified as student supports related to staffing levels, curriculum impacts and transparency about the spending plan.

“I think we’re doing what we can, but to say that the impacts would not be in the classroom would be a mistake and I don’t blame parents for expressing their concerns around that,” she says.

It’s not clear yet how many employees will lose their jobs entirely. The district says the cost-cutting pertains to reducing full time equivalency and changes to position hours will be made on an individual basis.

“My best case scenario is that I hear back that it didn’t impact people’s livelihoods the way it may appear right now because we were able to find another position for them or another way to use the time they lost,” adds Nixon.

Should revenue, enrolment or per-student funding increase more than expected, Grieve says the board will use the consultation feedback to prioritize students and classrooms with any changes to district spending decisions.

“It’s going to be incredibly difficult, I think, for districts throughout the province to continue to provide the education services that they’re required to without a change and an increase in funding,” noted Grieve.