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KAMLOOPS THIS WEEK THURSDAY
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AUGUST 31, 2017 | Volume 30 No. 104
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A seemingly abandoned mobile home in Heffley Creek’s Haven Park trailer park has led to a life of misery for next door neighbour Laura Girard. She says the structure has been in rough shape for a few years and is home to all sorts of animals — and the stench they produce. Girard says she has spoken to her strata council and the city, but nobody seems empowered to rid the blight next to her home. Turn to page A5 for the full story. DAVE EAGLES/KTW
SD73 points out in print its need for capital cash CHRISTOPHER FOULDS KTW EDITOR editor@kamloopsthisweek.com
The chair of the KamloopsThompson school district (School District 73) said new Education Minister Rob Fleming followed through on his promise to talk to all 60 board of education chairs in the province this summer. Meghan Wade said she spoke with Fleming and deputy minister Scott MacDonald and impressed upon the pair the need for capital improvements in the district and a revamp of rural school policy to address distance-learning technology.
But it was the former issue that took precedence, with the school district long asking for a replacement of aging South Kamloops secondary and faced with crowded classrooms in various schools as enrolment grows. Wade’s discussion with the new NDP education team was followed by an in-person meeting between Fleming and MacDonald and KamloopsThompson school district Supt. Alison Sidow, who placed into Fleming’s hands a 12-page brochure outlining the district’s argument for capital funds. The brochure, Schools: An Investment In Our Future,
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contains enrolment projections through 2025, capital infrastructure needs and fact boxes on how much money has been spent in the past in the Kamloops-Thompson compared to other districts in B.C. The school district is roughly the size of Belgium, stretching from Blue River to Westwold to Logan Lake and Savona, and has 44 schools, 2,500 staff members and an operating budget of $169 million. While enrolment is pegged at about 14,000 for this coming school year, projections have more than 14,000 students in classes from 2018 through 2025.
In its dossier, the district points out it had 2.6 per cent of provincial student enrolment from 2001 to 2017 (which happens to be the entire length of the B.C. Liberal reign), yet received only one-half per cent of the provincial capital expenditure investment. The district is 13th in size (according to enrolment), but 46th in capital investment. Also noted is the fact the province spent $2 billion on schools in B.C. from 2002 to 2016, with Kamloops-Thompson accounting for only $10.7 million of that pot of cash. By comparison, school districts in Kelowna ($114.7 million), Victoria ($96.2
million), North Vancouver ($73.9 million), Prince George ($60.9 million) and Vernon ($57.5 million) all received more in infrastructure funding. In addition, between 2001 and 2017, the local district received an average of $742 per student in capital infrastructure spending, while the provincial average during that 16-year period was, on average, $6,888 per student. If the district is successful in convincing the NDP government to spread some cash locally, it has a Top 4 priority list. See SD73’s, A6
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