Prairie South School Division trustees voted unanimously in favour of unrestricting over $727,000 in funds during their board meeting on Tuesday. 

Of the funding, $620,548 was restricted for funding the school division’s pre-Kindergarten programs. The school division currently funds pre-K programs at Central Butte School, Coronach School, Glentworth School, Ecole Gravelbourg School, Lafleche School, Lindale School, Palliser Heights School and Sunningdale School. 

“It's interesting. I never, ever thought I would see the day where we would have unrestricted funds for pre-Kindergarten.,” said Trustee Lew Young.  

“It's finally nice to be able to know that Prairie South and the board is directing administration to say pre-Kindergarten is here until that discussion takes place in a few years or for many years to come.” 

Prairie South School Division CFO Ron Purdy explained how the school division is able to unrestrict the funds for Pre-K. 

“Unrestricting the money for pre-Kindergarten does not mean that we are not going to be funding going forward,” Purdy said.  

“We're going to be funding it out of operations so we don't need the restriction anymore. There's no move or whatever that we're somehow trying to do anything to reduce their pre-Kindergartens. It's just we don't need that restriction because we'll fund them out of operations.” 

The school division also has eight Pre-K programs that are funded by the Ministry of Education. These programs are at Empire School, King George School, Prince Arthur School, Westmount School, William Grayson School and Assiniboia Seventh Avenue School. 

Meanwhile, $107,066 will be unrestricted from the school division’s innovation programs. There is still $52,882 restricted for innovation that is already committed to projects. Purdy said that the funds can be unrestricted because the program is winding down.