The school board meeting is held at 7pm, Tuesday, April 4th. Full agenda: http://www.sd57.bc.ca/Pages/newsitem.aspx?ItemID=100&ListID=75c80a8f-296a-4d0a-940f-ee765426e1a2&TemplateID=Announcement_Item
The school board office is located at 2100 Ferry Avenue, Prince George, BC (opposite corner across from Superstore).
The meeting road is immediately to the right after you walk in.
If you wish to sign up for a 5 minute maximum (they mean this) speaking slot, there will be a place to write down your name on a table to the right, along with copies of the agenda packages.
You do not have to speak if you do not wish to.
If you do put your name down, they will call names, and you will move to a table at the front with a microphone.
After the public speaks, the partner group representatives have an opportunity to speak. DPAC Chair, Gillian Burnett, is planning to discuss the process used for the potential move of Springwood Elementary during her time slot.
I’ll also be there (Sarah Holland) – would be happy to answer any questions at that time you may have. I’ll probably be in the corner, near a power outlet, with a red laptop.
Please keep in mind that no decision has been made as yet.
However, also keep in mind that there is a very real need for additional space in the Hart. Hart area elementary schools had enrollment of 1,258 in 2012/13, increasing each year to 1,287, 1,319, 1,327, and to 1,363 in 2016/17. The capacity of each school has now shrunk, due to the Supreme court of Canada finding that the government bargained in bad faith with the BCTF – the maximum kindergarten size has decreased from 22 to 20, grade 1 to 3 from 24 to 22, and grades 4 to 7 from 30 to 29.
Some background on the court case – http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bc-to-restore-smaller-class-sizes-after-bc-teachers-federations-court-victory/article32833732/ (decision reached November 2016)
We have the two very real issues of increasing enrollment and decreasing space meeting, although this certainly should not be a surprise to the district.
If you prefer to watch online, there will be a link provided on the www.sd57.bc.ca website.
As a technical note, SD57 makes two methods avaible to view board meetings – a link for Windows, and a link to Mac. The link for Windows doesn’t seem to work on current versions of Windows, but people can use the Mac link to view – mmsh://199.175.16.202 (this was a previous IP address, no idea if this will be valid for this meeting as yet). Copy that text to the clipboard, open up VLC player (possibly downloading it first – it’s a very good media player though), and then Media, Open Location from Clipboard.
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