Bus replacements, class sizes and a new playground were some of the issues discussed during the School District 51 regular agenda meeting on Oct. 9.
Class sizes and head count
There was one Grade 6/7 mix class that had over 30 students at Christina Lake Elementary School (CLES) and the teacher was given monetary support from the Learning Improvement Funds.
“Our two intermediate classes at Christina Lake, the Grade 4/5 and Grades 6/7, will come down to 28 and 29 students, which will put us down to the legislated classes size limits very shortly,” said Michael Strukoff, superintendent of schools for SD51. “There will not be any additional additions added to that school.”
Jeanette Hanlon, secretary treasurer for SD51, added that though class sizes look good enrollment for students is down from last year.
“Christina Lake Elementary students grew but Grand Forks Secondary School (GFSS) saw a loss with the Grade 12 students leaving,” she said. “There were also kids who moved out of the district or transferred to home schooling.”
Superintendent search
The board, stakeholders and staff are currently advertising for the position of Superintendent of Schools.
“A September meeting was held with stakeholder groups seeking input,” said Hanlon. “The board hopes to have the candidate selected by the end of November or early December.”
Strukoff, along with Director of Instruction Maxine Ruzicka and Louise Bayles, principal for Boundary Central Secondary School in Midway, will be retiring in July 2013.
Capital bylaw for energy manager
School board trustees voted to adopt the Capital Project Bylaw No. 126424, which is aimed at school districts who don’t have energy managers or specialists.
“The bylaw allows people to engage with those specialists,” said Hanlon. “The bylaw is $7,317 to engage with someone so that next time there is an opportunity to apply for the money, we have some projects that we can do.”
Hanlon noted that some school districts were able to go through FortisBC and BC Hydro to hire energy managers and the companies paid for it.
“We are a smaller district and FortisBC in this area didn’t provide any of that expertise,” she said. “We are going to engage somebody to help us figure out what other sort of energy efficient projects we can do at our district to save energy. This will give us an idea of projects that we could do so that we can apply for the money.”
She pointed out that the bylaw is capital from the ministry, and would not cost the school board.
Bus Replacement
The school district is looking to replace up to four buses in the next two years due to aging and rust on the buses.
“The criteria to replace a bus are 13 years old for buses our size (the size of the buses) or 325,000 kilometres,” explained Hanlon.
Hanlon noted that two buses have rust on them, while the other two are aging as well.
“We’re going to take the chance that (the Ministry of Education) might replace all four,” she said. “They may delay it and say we’ll replace the first two but not the last two.”
Older buses have previously sold but some are kept as spares.
New Greenwood Elementary School playground
Greenwood Elementary School will be getting a new playground after receiving a provincial grant.
Darryl Turner, principal of Greenwood Elementary School, explained that the $50,000 grant was a welcome surprise he received last June.
“There’s a bunch of new types of playgrounds with cables and climbing and rocks,” he said. “I familiarized with what would work at intermediate schools, platform versus climbing, and then I started thinking about downsizing one and upsizing the other or if we could do a combination.”
Turner started working with two different companies but settled with Henderson Recreation Equipment after much discussion.
“We ordered the playground in late July and selected the colours in early August,” he concluded. “The kids can climb in and through all the cables with the safety of the steel structure on the outside; it minimized the danger but maximizes the playability of it.”
The playground is set to be installed by the end of October with help from the city and local residents.