CASTLEGAR NEWS Your Horoscope For the Week with Michael O’Connor inside the West Kootenay Advertiser
Thursday, May •
West Kootenay hoopsters off to Kamloops See Page 19 Rauni Naud
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Llama leads a merry chase through town See Page 3
School District budget breezes through in Blueberry JIM SINCLAIR
Jo-Ann Bursey
Vol. • Issue
Breaking news at castlegarnews.com
The topic and the atmosphere in the gymnasium of Blueberry Elementary School were anything but pleasant on Monday night as the board of School District 20 (Kootenay Columbia) dealt with further steps involved in passing a budget. Attempting to hammer out a workable document from which to run the district for the next year, while trimming available funds by about a million and a half dollars, the board was unanimously in agreement on most agenda items on this evening. There were, in fact, only three items at the heart of the proceedings: • Second reading of an Annual Facilities Grant Bylaw – an allocation of $110 million from the Ministry of Education for this year and next. As stated in agenda
attachments, school districts must provide project funding and spending plans prior to any such funds being allocated. The board voted to give the bylaw second reading, with trustees Mickey Kinakin (RDCK Electoral Areas I and part of J) and Jen Carter (City of Castlegar and part of RDCK Area J (Robson) opposed. There was not much debate over the course of the evening, more like trustees declaring before the votes how they felt about it, and why. • The bylaw pertaining to school reconfiguration/closure (with two of three scenarios in the first half of the question involving the closure of MacLean Elementary) was passed with a wide majority. With the second half of the item shifting the focus north to Castlegar, the question was whether to consider making Twin Rivers Elemen-
Kootenay Columbia Teachers’ Union Spokesperson Andy Davidoff, standing, at left, makes a point during public comment portion of Monday’s budget meeting at Blueberry Elementary. Timothy Schafer, Black Press photo
tary kindergarten to grade 7 and closing Castlegar Primary... or combining the schools while using two physical campuses. These both passed, with Jen Carter and Mickey Kinakin opposing the Castlegar choice. It was emphasized during the meeting that the vote did not necessarily mean the schools would close, only that the moves be considered. • The budget bylaw itself. Prior to the votes, Mr. Kinakin expressed frustration over the entire process, and he later clarified some of
the sources of his dissatisfaction. “What happened at this meeting that’s disappointing,” said the trustee, “is that the whole bunch of different issues were rolled into one, as a budget issue. The facilities grant, for instance, is outside of the budget and it determines which schools get fixed and which ones don’t.” Kinakin bemoaned the process as frustrating. “Then you’ve got the next motions of whether we’re closing or not closing a school. That’s a planning-for-the-future report, that has noth-
ing to do with the budget.” Back to the agenda, first and second reading of the budget bylaw itself were easily carried. Kootenay Teachers’ representative Andy Davidoff led the way in the public comment portion, first slamming the process for its lack of agenda packages for the public to look over. Board Chair Darrel Ganzert apologized for this oversight. Davidoff took the board to task over whether it had done sufficient preliminary costing of certain hypothetical outcomes. Superintendent Greg
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Luterbach responded with a number of figures, including a statement of $88,000, mentioned in relation to savings associated with the closing of Castlegar Primary. Davidoff made a number of other points before leaving the meeting. He took issue with some who have been critical of the amount of sick time being taken by teachers, who have suggested some of it may be inappropriate. The Kootenay Columbia Teachers’ Union spokesperson expressed frustration over this,
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