Provincial policy changes costs school district $5.8 million
Prince George Free Press
By Arthur Williams
September 24, 2009

A series of provincial policy changes has hit the Prince George School District with over $5.8 million in lost funding and additional costs.

District trustees held an emergency meeting Tuesday to begin planning for the impacts on the current and 2010-11 school years. District superintendent Brian Pepper said the Ministry of Education's decision to cut the annual facilities grant — worth $4.1 million to the district — is only the beginning of, "what we may know as the worst of times."

… In addition, if any upgrades — such as ramps or lifts — are required to accommodate students with special needs the district won't have money to do those projects, Pepper said….

Unaccounted for in the district's financial picture is the cost of implementing all-day Kindergarten, Pepper said. In the provincial throne speech and budget, the province committed to implement all-day Kindergarten in all classrooms over the next two years.

On Oct. 2 school districts across B.C. are meeting with the ministry to find out more about how that will be rolled out and funded….

"We must let this government know what they're doing to education," trustee Sharel Warrington said. "Even through they see $98 million in surpluses on the government books for school districts ... every dollar we have is committed."…