b'ManitobaUpdateCSBA Annual Report 2025Passing of Minister of Education Nello AltomareOn January 14, 2025 Manitoba education stakeholders and people of all politicalpersuasions mourned the loss of the Honourable Nello Altomare, who served as our 35thMinister of Education. As a cancer survivor, Minister Altomares was just 61 years of age.In spite of serving as Minister for a relatively brief period, Nello achieved much during histime in office starting in Fall, 2023, among which perhaps the most impactful includes theestablishment of Manitobas universal school food initiative. This Manitoba initiativetotalled $30 million and preceded the additional federal investments made throughoutthe rest of the year. Before the end of the legislative session this past spring, theManitoba Government passed Nellos Law in an effort to protect our school foodprogram in the future. Nello AltomareNew Minister of Education, Tracy SchmidtDuring Minister Altomares leave, the Honourable Tracy Schmidt, then Minister ofEnvironment and Climate Change, assumed acting duties for Education. On January 24, itwas announced that Minister Schmidt would fully transition into the Education portfoliofrom her previous Environment and Climate Change responsibilities. Our new Minister hasbeen very active in engaging with school boards and rather refreshingly, acknowledges therole and responsibilities of boards on most every public occasion.Tracy Schmidt, Minister ofEducation and EarlyChildhood LearningFunding of Schools AnnouncementOn February 10, 2025 the Manitoba Government announced its annual funding for education. Overall, the average increase to operating met annual inflation at 3.4 percent, seeing a total funding increase of $67 million. This funding included $53.1 million in operating costs for publicschools. The commitment of $30 million for nutrition programming was further added to federal commitments of$6.7 million, for a total of $36.7 in nutrition funding. New funding included $6 million for capital support, and anadditional five schools were named under our Community Schools Program (which receive separate grant fundingfor impoverished or high socioeconomic need communities).For the second year in a row, the Government also authorized school boards to raise the remaining operatingrequirementsthrough unlimited education property assessment. This was very important given ongoingimplementation of our recent provincial teacher collective agreement which was ratified in late August of lastyear, the first such agreement that is provincial as opposed to local in scope.Annual ConventionFrom March 20-21, 2025 MSBA convened our annual convention. The agendaas always consisted of one full day of Professional Development and Regional Connec tionmeetings followed by one day of association business. Cassie Campbell Pascallserved as our opening keynote this year speaking on board governance from Collaborationher experiences at Hockey Canada. MSBA welcomed our new Minister and Celebrationinvited guests to a very engaging two days of networking, business and fun!Alan Campbell was unanimously acclaimed to the Presidency, with Sandy Nemeth stepping into the PastPresident role. Two new members of Executive were elected to serve: for Region 4 Dr. Henk Warnar of the SchoolDistrict of Mystery Lake and, for Region 5, Cheryl Smukowich of the St. James-Assiniboia School Division. Henkand Cheryl bring new perspectives to our table, even as we thank outgoing Region 4 Director Tim Davis of FlinFlon School Division and Region 5 Director Greg McFarlane of Seven Oaks School Division for their years of serviceto our Provincial Executive! 59'