The Prairie Rose School Division headquarters pictured in 2024. Eli J. Ridder/CHAT News

By Olivia Thorington

EDUCATION

Prairie Rose school division passes balanced budget, boosted by student uptick

Jun 12, 2025 | 2:19 AM

The Prairie Rose School Division is returning to a balanced budget for the 2025-26 school year due to a projected enrolment increase boosted by a change in Alberta Education’s funding model. 

The school board’s CFO Ryan Boser said Wednesday that, with a projected year-to-year rise of 159 students, the province’s switch to a two-year average from three years bumps up the grant.

“It just really gives you a little bit more revenue or recognition of the students that you’re expected to have in place for that year that you’re budgeting for,” Boser told CHAT News. 

“That’s been helpful for us for sure.”

That growth means Prairie Rose can hire more staff at a time when Medicine Hat’s school boards are looking at shrinkage amid a drop in local birth rates.  

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“We’re looking at adding education, assistance, support staff and so our job boards are full right now, which is always a good thing,” said Boser. 

Trustees passed the $83 million budget on Tuesday.  

There was another positive for Prairie Rose, too. 

Beyond the pre-student base grant that each school boad receives annually — which was unchanged this year — there are other funding streams that boards rely on. 

Five years ago, Prairie Rose lost $785,000 from an annual operations and maintenance grant crucial to the school board to provide a safe and clean learning environment.

But this year the school board received an additional $1 million through a new rural-specific component, increasing the overall operations grant to about $4.8 million.

“That was key because this is a budget that we’ve operated with a deficit for for many years,” Boser said. 

He said the extra cash is a recognition by the province of the extra costs associated with both the work by internal maintenance staff and the added cost of having contractors from the cities. 

“It actually has brought our maintenance budget into a small surplus,” he added. 

The rural board’s rosy outlook stands in some contrast with Medicine Hat’s public board.

The Medicine Hat Public School Board is facing a 150-student enrolment drop for the next school year and, as it battles rising costs impacting the entire education sector, it is cutting 3.66 full-time staff positions. 

While the cuts this year are taking place through retirements and other forms of attrition, as opposed to layoffs, the MHPSD’s secretary treasurer Leanne Dulle said the student population is expected to continue dropping due to low local birth rates. 

Economic pressures aren’t the only challenges facing school boards across the province this year. 

Alberta teachers voted this week to authorize a strike mandate that could lead to labour action at the beginning of the fall semester if negotiations for a new collective agreement with the Alberta government continue unresolved.