Greenwood City Foods FRESH FRUIT, VEGETABLES AND MEAT
250-445-6548 $
1.10
Times THE BOUNDARY CREEK
Thursday, APRIL 16, 2015
Includes tax
POLICE
Two suspects arrested in connection with break and enters and vehicle property P thefts in the Boundary.
3
Wing Night
Wednesday 5 - 8 pm
Texas Holdem Poker
Thursday, Registration 6:30 pm
Karaoke
Saturday, May 2 8:30 pm Family Friendly • Rooms Available
250-449-2655 Bored Room Bistro 607 8th Ave., Midway, BC
250-449-2465
14,364 pizzas SOLD as of April 12, 2015
Sunday Brunch 11 am - 2 pm
12 per person (tax incl)
$
Takeout, Sit In, Delivery Midway, Greenwood, Rock Creek www.boredroombistro.com
Westbridge, BC
Located in Westbridge and proud to service the area
1-250-446-6808
0
24543 16681
8
Bob Bugeaud 250-449-1982
bordercountrybob.ca
VOL. 33 Number 16
EDITORIAL
SPORTS
No soccer practice scheduled? Kick the kids outside and let them play hide and go seek with their childhood. P
Boundary Minor Hockey held its award banquet last week,also recognizing Earl Lindsay for his years of service. P
4
8
SD51 hosts consultations PAT KELLY
Boundary Creek Times Reporter
School District 51 (Boundary) held two public consultation meetings last week. There was one in the West Boundary on Wednesday, April 8 at BCSS and another in Grand Forks for the East Boundary parents and communities the following night. On hand at the BCSS meeting were trustees Cathy Riddle, Cindy Strukoff and Rose Zitko along with Superintendent Kevin Argue, Director of Learning Doug Lacey, Brian Foy, principal of the four West Boundary elementary schools, and teacher Jennifer MacDonald. The three-hour meeting featured a PowerPoint on planning, finance and educational directions. Argue began with an overview of planning as it is currently done in the district and the resulting documents such as school growth plans and district achievement contracts. The current district achievement contract has four goals: to embed the inquiry process into teaching and learning throughout SD51; to improve student achievement in reading; to increase access and use of technology to deepen learning and authentically communicate their knowledge; and to improve the positive, social emotional connectedness of our students with their school experience through school initiatives supported by the Health Promoting Schools coordinator. The room was divided into two
discussion groups and Argue asked them to consider the question: How are our goals changing our outcomes for students? Secretary-Treasurer Jeanette Hanlon then gave a report on the budget now being prepared for the 2015-2016 year. She noted that since the 20012002 school year enrolment in the district has fallen 39 per cent. From 2,030 in 2001; there are now 1,247 full-time equivalent (FTE) students in the district. The declining enrolment trend is expected to continue too. There are 1,423 students (by headcount) in the system in September 2010. Last September there are 1,270. That is expected to fall to 1,117 in September 2019. “Enrolment determines revenue,” Hanlon said. She added that Kindergarten enrolment is a huge number each year. Using birth records and StrongStart numbers, the administration makes educated estimates of what those numbers will be each year. But even educated guesses can be off. This year they had anticipated 68 or 70 students starting Kindergarten across the district; they have 60. Hanlon gave an overview of how the district is funded. Funding protection guarantees 98.5 per cent of previous years’ funding to protect against huge fluctuations in student numbers. Estimated total expenses for the 2015-2016 school year are
Soccer kicks off
Boundary Youth Soccer kicked off the 2015 season in Midway on Sunday morning. The association’s mission is to provide an opportunity for all children aged 18 and under to participate in recreational soccer in a safe, supportive, sporting environment at an affordable price. See story page 3. PHOTO: PAT KELLY
$16,016,274. Revenue is anticipated to be $15,448,622. This leaves a shortfall of $567,652 that will have to be covered by the $1,200,408 surplus on hand from prior years; leaving, on June 30, 2016, an estimated surplus for future years of $632,756. Seventy-six per cent of expenditures go to instruction, 15 per cent to operations and maintenance, five per cent to district administration
and four per cent to transportation. The board is challenged in this upcoming budget by a ministry edict that they find $91,880 in administrative savings in the coming year. The question Hanlon put to the parents and community was: How can our financial decisions best meet student-learning needs? Learning directions was cov-
• See CONSULTATIONS page A3