The Kinew government plans to break ground on 11 new public schools before the end of its first term by using a template that designers will copy and paste. Budget 2025 sets aside an initial $20 million to carry out the commitment that’s estimated to cost $700 million overall. An excerpt from the 146-page budget […]

The University of Winnipeg is warning about a “dire financial situation” and hefty deficit — $4 million in the red is its low-end estimate for next year — due to chronic underfunding and a drop in international enrolment. Internal documents obtained by the Free Press via a freedom of information request shed light on the […]

The University of Manitoba Students’ Union has issued an alert about an “accidental disclosure” of member information to candidates running in an upcoming campus election.  Student names and identification numbers, as well as their school emails and faculties, were mistakenly shared with 30 campus leader hopefuls via email on Feb. 12, per a statement on […]

Canada’s privacy commissioner is investigating a cyberattack involving a popular education technology software vendor used by the majority of Manitoba’s 38 public school boards. PowerSchool recently informed its local clients — many of which pay for its student information system — that an unauthorized third-party had accessed their data over the winter break. Schools across […]

The aftermath of a contentious art-buying trip to Italy cost taxpayers more than the trip itself.  Parents, a Catholic teachers’ union and the provincial minister of education expressed shock after it was revealed four trustees with the Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board spent around $120,000 for a summer trip to Europe to buy […]

A southern Manitoba school division has issued an update after a cybersecurity breach compromised student information from multiple Manitoba school divisions. “We are writing to provide an update about the cybersecurity incident that PowerSchool, our student information system (SIS) provider, recently experienced,” said Hanover School Division (HSD) Superintendent and CEO Joe Thiessen in a letter […]

The federal privacy watchdog says he’s “concerned” about a cybersecurity breach involving a student information system used across Canada, as the country’s largest school board revealed the scope of the data that may have been stolen last month.  The Toronto District School Board told parents and guardians in an email Monday that its students’ birthdays, […]

Administrators at the division scolaire Franco-Manitobaine (DSFM) have been busy over the past few years developing policy to keep up with technologically changing times. Their 2023–24 school year brought in student cell phone use restrictions, a full year before the province initiated the same. In 2024, the DSFM chose to implement a restriction on the […]

A POLICE officer, a First Nations lawyer and a community-health program manager are among a dozen people who’ve been chosen to serve as panellists in disciplinary cases involving teachers under a new Manitoba Education Department professional registry and complaint process. Bobbi Taillefer, the province’s first independent education commissioner, has the discretion to dismiss or investigate […]

The Manitoba government has scrapped plans to create a centralized database for student registration, report cards and other information at a cost in excess of $50 million. The Free Press has learned the initiative is not moving forward — unrelated to a series of recent cybersecurity incidents, although the Opposition Tories argue the shelved proposal, […]

Nova Scotia’s Education Department has asked for help from IBM as it investigates a cybersecurity breach involving a student information system used across North America, saying the breach could have a financial impact on some former and current teachers and staff. The department issued a statement Saturday saying some social insurance numbers collected before 2010 […]

As of January 9, parents and caregivers with students attending schools in Niverville and Ritchot have been notified of a cybersecurity breach which affects the personal information of children. The data breach similarly affects staff at each of the seven public schools in this region. The Hanover School Division (HSD), division scolaire Franco-Manitobaine (DSFM), and […]