Board of Trustees approves 2025/2026 Preliminary Operating Budget

On May 26, the Lethbridge School Division Board of Trustees approved the 2025/2026 Preliminary Operating Budget.
The budget totals $149.62 million, which represents a 0.51% decrease from the 2024/2025 school year. Over the past several years, the Division has faced a growing gap between rising expenses and available funding. The 2025/2026 budget continues this trend, especially considering the Division did not receive an increase in the Alberta Education base grant, which represents 55 per cent of the overall budget.
Since 2020, the Division has welcomed over 1,000 new students. However, enrollment growth has recently slowed with smaller cohorts entering Kindergarten and larger cohorts graduating from high school.   
For 2025/2026 enrollment is expected to remain stable, with early projections indicating a potential uptick in Kindergarten and strong student retention across all grades.  
In addition to enrollment trends, provincial requirements have impacted the Division’s financial flexibility. In recent years, Alberta Education mandated a reduction in reserve funds. Lethbridge School Division has used approximately $7 million in reserve funding over the last three school years to meet government requirements, and to maintain programming while expenses outpaced funding. The Division is no longer in a position to use reserve funding to support the budget.
These factors have contributed to make the 2025/2026 budget a challenging one.
In response, the Division has worked to find efficiencies and reductions in all areas of the organization. Several strategic reallocations have also been recommended for the upcoming year, which has included reductions to central office staffing with funds redirected to schools, along with shifts from facilities and administration budgets to support classrooms.
The Division has also reallocated $2.6 million in funding from the base grant to support inclusive learning and a further $1 million to support early education.
Board Chair Christine Light emphasized the Board’s commitment to student learning and inclusive education and added the Board will continue to advocate for the need for more support from the government.
“Every child has the right to an education that provides opportunity for growth, support and success,” said Light. “Public education, funded through public dollars, is a community investment made to help ensure every student has equitable access to this fulsome education experience.”
Light added budget deliberations were especially difficult this year.
“This year, the Division has been presented with an exceptionally challenging budget,” she said. “This budget highlights the impact of an inefficient and unsustainable funding structure. Our work to advocate for additional and appropriate funding will continue. We do hope more funding will be coming but at this time, we have to work with the funding we have available.”
The Division has maintained dialogue with the government about the budget, and highlighted improvements to the Weighted Moving Average formula, along with the introduction of the capital accelerator program, as encouraging developments.
This year’s budget was shaped by robust public engagement, which featured a February Town Hall with over 2,400 submissions and a Budget Engagement Survey with 368 responses. Stakeholder feedback emphasized key priorities such as addressing classroom complexity, maintaining support for students and staff and protecting student wellness.
After final approval by the Board, the budget will now be submitted to Alberta Education.