The official trustee operating in place of the fired Greater Victoria School Board has approved a $331-million budget for the 2025-26 school year.
Sherri Bell, a former Greater Victoria School District superintendent, gave the required three readings for the budget document Tuesday night.
The 2025-26 Greater Victoria School District budget is up from $318 million in 2024-25. All school districts are required to file balanced budgets each year by June 30.
The school district said the budget had a $5.1-million deficit that was offset by a $3.6-million surplus from 2024-25 and a further $1.5-million budget adjustment.
“Thank you to everyone who contributed to the development of the 2025-2026 budget,” Bell said in a statement. “We received valuable input and feedback from rightsholders, students, staff, education partners and the wider community.”
She said it is never easy to make reductions to balance a budget, and the process for developing the 2026-27 budget is already in the works.
The Greater Victoria district is inviting community feedback on the development of the 2025-2026 budget through an online survey at forms.office.com/r/PbDfRFJuLW.
The survey closes at 4 p.m. on April 23. Results will be included in the agenda package for the in-person April 29 board meeting being conducted by Bell, after five years of virtual board meetings.
Bell announced the change last week, saying she thinks the in-person format leads to the best dialogue and input.
Bell was appointed to her position after Education Minister Lisa Beare dismissed the board in January after a lengthy dispute about school police-liaison officers.
The 2024-25 was balanced through cuts to music programs, elementary-school counsellors and learning-support teachers that offset a $6-million deficit.
The Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association said at the time that it realized difficulties the school board was facing because the provincial government wasn’t providing enough funding for the district to deal with factors such as aging infrastructure and rising utility costs.
The province countered that operating funds for school districts have risen steadily since 2017, with the average funding per student of $13,000 representing an increase of 50 per cent from 2016-17 to 2024-25.
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