Red Deer Public Schools approves 2025-2026 budget

Red Deer Public Schools’ 2025-2026 budget reflects the growing complexity of delivering high-quality education in a time of rising costs, inflation and increasing demands on schools.

At its May 14 meeting, the Board of Trustees approved a budget with $139,159,549 in revenue and $139,859,549 in expenses. To cover the $700,000 shortfall, the Division will access reserve funds, leaving about $3.5 million remaining. Projected enrolment for the upcoming school year is predicted to remain stable at about 10,826 full-time equivalent students, unchanged from the 2024-2025 school year.

“This budget reflects the Board's commitment to putting students first,” said Board Chair Nicole Buchanan. “Despite financial challenges, we are focused on supporting classrooms, maintaining staff, and ensuring students have access to the resources and programming they need to thrive. Every available dollar is being invested in excellence in teaching and learning.”

While Red Deer Public is expecting approximately $2 million in additional funding from the provincial government over the 2024-2025 school year, cost pressures continue to impact the Division’s financial planning.

Contributing factors include a growing number of newcomer students; rising costs for materials and supplies, utilities and insurance; higher employee costs for a third consecutive year, with increases of $796 per Classified and CUPE employee and $947 per Certificated employee; as well as a projected $350,000 cost for the 2025 Trustee election - significantly higher than previous elections due to the ban on vote tabulation machines requiring increased staffing costs for manual counts.

“We appreciate the increase in funding from the provincial government,” said Nicole. “However, we continue to make tough decisions to prioritize students and staffing. One of these decisions was to not increase comprehensive fees for middle and high school families. We know many families are feeling financial pressure, and we wanted to avoid adding to that burden.”

Despite these challenges, the approved budget maintains a strong focus on student learning and wellness. Key investments include maintaining staffing levels; continuing a comprehensive bullying prevention program; continuing to support dual credit programming; and adding a 0.6 Academic Support Teacher in all schools to provide literacy and numeracy support for students.

“This budget allows us to maintain the programs and supports that make a difference in students’ lives, even as costs rise and expectations grow,” said Chad Erickson, Superintendent. “We’re continuing to invest in strategies that improve student outcomes and support the mental health and wellbeing of our school communities.”

The Division will submit the approved budget to Alberta Education by May 31.