Some Winnipeg residents could see their local school taxes rise next year, after the Winnipeg School Division proposed a 9.25 per cent mill rate increase in its draft 2026-27 budget presented to school board trustees on Tuesday evening. 

Matt Henderson, the school division’s superintendent, said that increase would bring the mill rate — the amount of tax payable per $1,000 of taxable assessed value — to about 15.9. That would mean that a home with an assessed value of just over $270,000 would pay about $65 more annually.

Homes assessed at $300,000 would pay about $83 more per year and homes worth $400,000 would pay an extra $144, according to a budget presentation delivered on Tuesday. 

“We feel that that is a responsible ask to the community, particularly as Winnipeg School Division is the glue that keeps the city together,” Henderson said.

The increased mill rate would be

Most of the division’s $549.7-million budget goes to paying staff, he said. The draft budget is 4.6 per cent higher than last year’s budget because of “salary pressures” and a “harmonization gap” compared to other divisions in the province, Henderson said.

“The vast majority of our budget, 80 per cent of our budget, is people. That makes sense when you think about schools — they’re full of people,” Henderson said.

Earlier this month, the Manitoba government announced $79.8 million in new provincial funding for the 2026-27 school year. Winnipeg School Division is slated to see its provincial funding rise by 3.8 per cent next year.

Henderson said that provincial increase is not enough. The bump is “lower than the rate of inflation, which means that we have to go to community,” he said.

The division’s draft budget keeps a “stand-pat resource level,” with no planned increases to staffing levels, said Henderson. The number of full-time equivalent positions will remain exactly the same as last year, according to the budget presentation, with 2,260 teachers, 1,515 educational assistants and 120 clinicians.

In addition, the draft budget proposes that money be spent on school and infrastructure repairs, upgrading technology and IT networks, and adding more child-care spaces in schools. 

It also includes funding for more arts and music, as well as international baccalaureate programming, for middle-years students, and more global issues classes at high schools, Henderson said. 

Six schools within the Winnipeg School Division will get full-day kindergarten. 

“While that is an increase, we feel that that’s a responsible increase,” Henderson said of the 9.25 per cent mill rate hike. 

He said the school division doesn’t expect the draft budget to change much, as the board mulls it over in the coming weeks. 

The budget is expected to be passed early next month, Henderson said.