Image Credit: Curtis Goodrum / CFJC Today

By Curtis Goodrum

SD73 PRESSURES

SD73 sees brighter short-term financial outlook even as storm clouds loom on the horizon

Sep 9, 2025 | 5:15 PM

KAMLOOPS – The 2024-25 audited budget was released on Monday evening (Sept. 8) during the regular Kamloops-Thompson Board of Education meeting. The budget saw a surplus, which was able to cover the deficit the district had incurred. Despite this positive figure, the district is still facing financial challenges.

“We are always looking at ways we can reduce costs without lessening the impact on student success and in our classrooms that always is going to be an ongoing issue. If we’re looking at a down trend in terms of enrollment and knowing that a lot of our funding is based on enrollment, we may be in situations where we’re having to, as a district, make some difficult decisions,” said Heather Grieve, chairperson of the SD73 school board.

The district is facing declining enrollment and added inflationary pressures. Despite this rise in costs, the district says it needs to focus on building its reserves slowly.

“Naturally, there will be some savings through attrition if positions do not get filled. That will be another way to be able to grow that reserve. But we’ll come up with some recommendations for the board to be able to have that balance between providing the education this year as well as continuing to build up that reserve up to that 3 per cent for those unexpected occurrences,” said Harold Cull, the district’s secretary treasurer.

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Substitute teachers and other relief roles have accounted for more costs in the district over the past year, forcing the district to come up with new ways to reduce spending in that area.

“Our relief costs have gone up quite a bit over the last couple of years and we’ve seen that elevated. I think digging into that and seeing if there are ways we can engage with our employee groups as a district to mitigate some of those costs,” said Grieve.

The board says it’s continuing to advocate for more per-student funding and other funding from the province to help ease the financial burden.

“We are not unique in this experience, and certainly in terms of looking at our per student funding. We need to continue to work with our provincial partners as well in terms of that larger voice around talking about how education is being impacted by inflationary costs,” said Grieve.

More information about the audit and the district’s financial reports can be found on the SD73 website.