School board's Baxter to run again, Wiebe won't
Westside Weekly
August 13, 2008
By: Dorothy Brotherton

….Baxter said there are two main issues she expects to be raised during this campaign and that will occupy the attention of the new board.

The first is the budget.

"This year we were hit severely by changes of the ministry - counting students in a different way, funding they were giving us that they are no longer, and costs going up."

She noted the Ministry of Education did come up with $2 million in additional funds, but it doesn't even cover salary increases that came about in contracts the Ministry had negotiated.

"We've had to cut things out, rather than put things back into the budget," she noted.

The issue of all-day kindergarten and possible extension of kindergarten to four and three-year-olds is another big issue, according to Baxter.

It's a decision the province will make, but Baxter worries if extra years are added, this district will face a space squeeze.

Any empty spaces are occupied by pre-school programs run by independent groups.

Shifting school population also affects the space issues.

"For instance, Rose Valley and Shannon Lake are overflowing, absolutely bursting at the seams. But at one time, Rose Valley was on a list for possible closure," Baxter said.

That was about 10 years ago and since then demographics have changed so there are more families with school-aged children in that area.

Throughout the district, school enrolment is declining 100 to 200 students per year, "but we have pockets of overcrowding," said Baxter.

On the wish list is a new school for Westlake Road, where the district owns property, but no provincial funding is allocated for it yet.

"We can only hope they will see we can't keep putting more and more portables out there."….