The school board has created an ad hoc committee on rural education, and has now engaged a consultant to gather information from people regarding the successes and challenges of rural education in this district.

They have not defined rural, but left it to be “inclusive and self-determined”.

The board’s original committee composition did not include parents as a partner group, but when this was pointed out to them at the November 24th board meeting, they added a representative from DPAC to their terms of reference, in addition to the planned second representative from CUPE.

The board also approved a motion at the November 24th board meeting to allocate up to $20,000 to hiring a consultant to facilitate community consultation meetings.

If you have comments to make about the successes and challenges of rural education that you would like passed along to the board, please let us know.

If you are a parent in Mackenzie, then your session was held November 16th, from 5 to 7pm. We hope you knew about this.

Parents in McBride have an opportunity to meet on November 30th, from 4pm to 6pm, at McBride Secondary.

The committee then travels to Valemount Secondary the same evening, to meet from 7:30pm to 9:30pm.

On December 2nd, from 5pm to 7pm, residents of the northern part of the Prince George area are apparently invited to Glenview Elementary. It is unclear how this is being publicized. Presumably, this would include residents of Bear Lake, Nukko Lake, Salmon Valley, and Shady Valley, and the former Springwood area.

On December 3nd, from 5pm to 7pm, residents of the southern and eastern parts of the Prince George area are apparently invited to Pineview Elementary. It is unclear how this is being publicized.  Presumably, this would include Hixon, Giscome, Pineview, and Blackburn, and surrounding area.

On December 10th, from 10 to 12pm, the committee will be meeting with all the principals from the rural areas, and then a report will go to Management and Finance.

If you’re in a “rural area”, and haven’t heard of these consultations, or if you would like to provide input through email or a letter  – please let us know, as we would be quite happy to pass that information on to the board.