At yesterday’s regularly scheduled board meeting, the Board of Trustees approved two motions that will assist the District in monitoring its use of space inside schools and in caring for exterior spaces near schools.

Trustees approved a motion to develop an optimal enrolment measure for all district elementary and junior high schools. The new measure will enable the Board of Trustees to determine how effectively the District is using school space to support board priorities in a way that reflects board values.

“Our Board believes strongly that our school space should be used to provide a range of services to our students and their families,” says Board Chair Sarah Hoffman. “This measure will give us a better way to monitor that use.”

Trustees also approved a motion to restrict the application of pesticides on land near schools. Use of pesticides would be reserved for situations where it was not possible to otherwise control weeds that posed a threat to the health and safety of students and staff, or a threat to biodiversity, where the weeds could change the ecosystem on a fundamental level. This expectation will be added to the existing Board Policy FO.BP – Environment as part of the policy review process.

“In approving these two motions, the Board considered first and foremost what was best for our students and staff,” says Board Chair Hoffman. “These decisions also demonstrate how the Board is following through on provincial direction to pursue community partnerships in our work.”

At yesterday’s regularly scheduled board meeting, the Board of Trustees debated a number of recommendations that will have significant implications for the District. 

“Trustees received some very important recommendations, each of which involved consideration of a number of complex factors,” says Board Chair Sarah Hoffman. “We did our very best to balance the competing interests facing the District and made the best decisions we could in extremely challenging circumstances.” 

After extensive debate, the Board approved the following:

• Four year collective agreement with support staff, for the period September 1, 2011 to August 31, 2015;
• Provincial Framework Agreement with teachers;
• Delay a 2.25 per cent salary increase for exempt staff from September 1, 2013 to September 1, 2015;
• Forego planned increases to Trustee compensation scheduled to take effect after the election of the next Board of Trustees;
• Third reading of revised policy on student assessment, achievement and growth;
• Distribution of funds for the 2013-2014 school year; and
• Three-Year Capital Plan for 2014-2017. 

“Our Board has mixed feelings about the difficult decisions we had to make today,” says Hoffman. “We are trying our best to shelter students from the impact of the cuts we need to make in these difficult financial times, but our students, and our staff, deserve better.”