The Manitoba Government made a splash last Thursday, announcing an increase of $100 million to school divisions across the province.

Superintendent of the Portage la Prairie School Division, Todd Cuddington, explains that this is relatively positive news and much needed.

"The reality is also that our costs are rising, just like every family in our community, our costs have increased. So, a lot of the increase will simply be to offset inflationary cost increases."

Cuddington explains that where the school division needs the most help is with staff salaries, infrastructure and transportation costs.

"Seeing an increase is definitely what we were looking forward to, and I think the board will be able to dig in deeper when we start to get into our budget planning discussions, which will start right away."

Cuddington notes that the school board will engage with the public, as they do every year when they complete their budgeting process.

The Public Budget Forum date will be determined at the division's next board meeting, February 14th. Cuddington shares that it is expected to be in late February.