The provincial government has given the Howe Sound School district $570,000.
The total is the district’s share of the money saved during last fall’s teachers’ strike and money allocated by the government in response to a mediator’s recommendation on addressing class size and composition issues.
While educational stakeholders were pleased to get the funds the tight timeline for response to the government on how the money would be spent did create a challenge.
Teachers, parents, administrators and others all had to be part of the discussions on where the money should be spent. The response had to be given to the government after Christmas and the money has to be spent by March.
In Howe Sound the decision was made to spend the funds on computers, library books, learning resources and professional development for both teachers and support staff. Most school spending plans targeted their portion of this grant to textbooks, software and other learning resources.
The full amount of the grant stemming from the mediator’s recommendations is to be used to create additional teaching time, including more learning assistance and resource room support for almost every school, and additional classes for two schools. The school board increased the grant by $9,000 to cover the full cost of the spending plan.
