Use it or lose it: Board learns $900,000 in budget must be used for implementation of new Kindergarten program
The Cowichan Valley Citizen
By Lexi Bainas
April 9, 2010

Don't fool around with the provincial government or the Valley could lose $900,000, the Cowichan Valley Board of Education was told at a meeting Wednesday, April 7….

Concerns were raised recently about the possibility of offering the program when the District learned that it was not getting extra money to start up the program this year, although separate funds had been promised.

The province has said $900,000 trustees thought was part of their regular budget, is, in fact, the province's contribution to the start-up of full-day Kindergarten.

Several trustees, led by Deb Foster, said they didn't want to knuckle under to what they saw as pressure from the government but a larger group disagreed.

"When we first discussed full-day K, we said we accepted the idea, it was with full funding. Now we discover that other programs have to suffer, I know that was never my intent when I voted for it," she argued.

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