Thursday June 15, 2023 | LANGFORD, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Today a local Vancouver Island school funding request was delivered in the House of Commons.
Alistair MacGregor, MP (Cowichan-Malahat-Langford) pitched that the federal government should provide funding for what is now a school in the local Sooke School District 62.
Most of the students there are of Indigenous families, hence the business model that SD62 administration came up with, getting the SD62 board of education behind that.
Back on March 31, 2023 the announcement about the future of the Port Renfrew Elementary school was delivered with the might of BC government dignitaries including Minister of Education Rachna Singh and outgoing former Premier John Horgan (MLA for Juan de Fuca until midnight that day).
They were joined at the podium by Sooke School District (SD62) Chair Ravi Parmar and Pacheedaht First Nation Chief Jeff Jones. The traditional Indigenous welcome was delivered by Songhees Elder Florence Dick.
Today is the first time things have publicly reached the federal level, including a verbal response to Alistair MacGregor, MP in the House of Commons from Patty Hajdu, Minister of Indigenous Services.
By-election in the SD62 area:
Currently there is a by-election going on in the provincial riding of Langford-Juan de Fuca. The BC NDP candidate in the by-election is Ravi Parmar, who only recently stepped aside from being chair of the SD62 school board (he is still an elected trustee).
Exposure at the federal level is likely to further support the Parmar campaign profile.
If Parmar wins the provincial by-election that will open up a seat on the SD62 board (in the Belmont Zone — for voters in Langford, Highlands, Colwood and Metchosin).
Business plan:
Back on March 31, other than saying that seismic improvements were on the Ministry’s radar, only the vagaries of a SD62 business plan were hinted at by Chair Parmar and Chief Jones.
Based on details filled in afterward by SD62 Superintendent Scott Stinson, it looks like SD62 hopes to hold out for federal funding through the Pacheedhat First Nation in order to expand the current elementary school (Grades K-5) to be a full campus school including Grades 6 to 12.
That will be one of the options in the business plan that was the key point announced by Parmar and Horgan.
Last year at the June 2022 SD62 Resources Committee meeting the seismic needs of Port Renfrew Elementary (and Sooke Elementary) were presented at the top of the list of schools needing that level of upgrade.
Small student population & taking the bus:
The present Port Renfrew Elementary School is attended by 19 students in Kindergarten to Grade 5. Older students in Grades 6 to 12 must travel by school bus for about 1.5 hours each way on weekdays to get to school in Sooke and return, making for a long day ahead of a bus that departs around 7 am and gets them back home to Port Renfrew around 5 pm.
Sooke has four elementary schools (John Muir, Sooke, Saseenos and Ecole Poirier), one middle school (Journey) and one high school (Edward Milne Community School).
Eventually eliminating the bus route to and from Port Renfrew would also help SD62 reduce their operating costs for buses, repairs and drivers. SD62 has been suffering from a chronic bus driver shortage over the past year or two.
===== RELATED:
Seismic upgrades or more for SD62 school in Port Renfrew (March 31, 2023)
SD62 capital plan: new schools, seismic upgrades, replacements (July 7, 2022)
Port Renfrew & Sooke Elementary top SD62’s seismic mitigation list (June 14, 2022)
===== ABOUT ISLAND SOCIAL TRENDS:
Island Social Trends is a professional news portal at islandsocialtrends.ca . Fully online since mid-2020, Island Social Trends emerged from the extensive groundwork of previous print publications in the west shore: MapleLine Magazine (2008-2010), Sooke Voice News (2011-2013), and West Shore Voice News (2014-2020).
Since 2008, journalist and editor Mary P Brooke has taken a socioeconomic lens to news analysis about the west shore and south Vancouver Island region, including BC provincial news, and national news impacts.
Ms Brooke has been covering news of School District 62 (SD62) at the board and committee level, including attending nearly all of their meetings since 2014. Mary P Brooke was a school trustee candidate (SD62 Belmont Zone – Langford, Colwood, Metchosin and Highlands) in the October 2022 election, as a service to community.
The Island Social Trends Journalism Program offers the opportunity for high school students on Vancouver Island to learn journalism by preparing and submitting articles in a real world context.
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