Board approves balanced amended 2025-26 budget amid financial challenges
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Despite ongoing financial pressures and constraints, the Surrey Board of Education passed a balanced amended budget for the remainder of the 2025-26 school year.
At the February public board meeting, the board approved the 2025-26 Amended Annual Budget, adjusted to $1.156 billion from the $1.159-billion budget passed last May. The decrease primarily comes as a result of declining enrolment of full-time equivalent (F.T.E.) kindergarten to Grade 12 students, noted in the district’s end-of-September headcount for the Ministry of Education and Child Care, which informs the amount of provincial funding the district receives for operating expenditures.
“We are operating in a challenging financial environment,” said Trustee Terry Allen, who serves as Chair of the board’s Finance Committee. “For the first time in nearly 20 years, the district is experiencing a decline in student enrolment, driven largely by external factors such as federal immigration changes, reduced temporary foreign worker permits and families relocating.
“As enrolment directly drives funding, these changes have meaningful financial implications for the district.”
As the largest school district in B.C., Surrey Schools has seen tremendous growth in recent years, with this latest drop in enrolment being an unusual departure in the past two decades.
Additionally, ongoing constrained provincial finances, cross-border trade tensions, shifting government mandates around capital project contributions, and inflationary and contractual cost increases placed further challenges on the budget.
Surrey Schools spends 86% of its operating budget on instruction, including salaries for teachers, inclusive education support workers, support staff, substitutes and other professionals.
Allen noted the board continues to actively monitor and manage pressures related to enrolment, provincial constraints, inflation and contractual costs as trustees prepare for the 2026-27 annual budget in May.
“Our focus remains on long-term financial stability and ensuring revenues and expenditures are aligned, optimizing how our resources are allocated and preserving an operating fund balance to help manage unexpected pressures and protect educational services,” he said. “This amended budget reflects our continued commitment to fiscal responsibility, operational efficiency and the delivery of high-quality education.”
