2025-2026 Preliminary Budget Presentation Summary

On April 9, 2025, the Board of Education and District staff presented the Kamloops-Thompson School District’s 2025-2026 Preliminary Budget in a live streamed event that has been viewed by over 1,000 people.

Stable 2025-2026 Preliminary Budget

“2025-2026 will be a stable budget for the Kamloops-Thompson School District,” shared Board Chair Heather Grieve. “After extensive consultation with students, parents, staff, Indigenous rights holders, and partners, we have a financially sound budget with a conservative accumulated operating reserve, or District emergency fund, of just over 1% of the Operating Fund.”

If the Board approves the preliminary budget as presented, the District will be in a stable financial position, with an approximate annual budget of $251 million.

The 2025-2026 budget presentation highlighted the significant financial challenges our District, and many others around the province are facing. Throughout this budget development process, we have tried to balance the priorities set out for us by the government and feedback from our District and school communities with the realities of inflationary and funding pressures.

Budget Development and Consultation

The development of the 2025-2026 draft budget was guided by the 2022-2027 District Strategic Plan priorities, including: Intellectual Development, Human and Social Development, Cultural and Identity Development, Career Development, and Systems Development.

Throughout the budget development process, District staff and the Board of Education engaged in robust community consultation with employee partner groups, Indigenous rights holders, staff, parents, students, and school communities on the District's budget priorities and challenges. Over the past four months, this consultation included 20 focus group meetings with CUPE 3500, Kamloops-Thompson Teachers’ Association (KTTA), Kamloops-Thompson Principals’ and Vice Principals’ Association (KTPVPA), District Parent Advisory Council (DPAC), District Student Advisory Council (DSAC), and Indigenous Education Council (IEC), as well as a public survey and email feedback that resulted in 290 responses from the community. We greatly appreciate the participation of our community members who so generously gave of their time and energy to contribute their thoughts on spending priorities.

The key feedback themes from consultation highlighted the importance of providing support for students, curriculum, and programming. In considering this feedback while developing the 2025-2026 budget, a common theme across all groups was to maintain classroom-based staff to ensure the well-being and academic success of our students, retain programming that matters to students, parents, and staff, and limit curricular programming reductions to certain non-funded programming and staff.

2025-2026 Budget Pressures

The Kamloops-Thompson School District’s annual budget of approximately $251 million is made up of three funds: Operating Fund, Special Purpose Fund, and Capital Fund.

School districts are funded based on student enrollment. In recent years, our District has been growing at approximately 250 students a year, which has resulted in increased revenue that has helped offset increased costs over the last 4 years. We can no longer rely on increased revenue from substantial enrollment growth as enrollment projections are flattening.

Similar to districts across the province, we are facing cost increases, inflationary pressures, and increased supports needed for students with complex needs, and funding is not keeping pace with these increased pressures.

2025-2026 cost increases are anticipated to be $5.79M. These cost increases are due to several factors including replacement salaries, teacher increments and salary changes, employee benefits, inflation, vehicle and equipment replacement, portable moves costs, Sníne Elementary School opening costs, and services and supplies increases. Many of these cost pressures are not funded and must be absorbed into existing budgets.

Because of current provincial funding levels, flat enrolment, decreases in revenues, and provincial cost increases, we have had to make some difficult recommendations in the development of the 2025-2026 preliminary budget while trying to meet priorities. Preliminary recommendations to address cost increases include reductions to supplies and services, and exempt, teaching, and support staff, with an emphasis on retaining positions most directly connected to students and classrooms. To learn more about these recommendations to address costs increases, please watch the presentation here.

The Board would like to thank all staff, partners, and community members who took the time to learn about this preliminary budget and provide input. These are incredibly difficult decisions, and we have done our best to meet school community feedback and needs.

There is still time to provide feedback on the 2025-2026 Preliminary Budget. Please watch the budget presentation here and then submit your comments by April 21, 2025 to Budget Feedback. After considering final input from employee groups and members of our community, the Board of Education will vote on the final budget on April 28, 2025.