By James Peters

New parent group looks to pressure Victoria for more capital funding in SD73

Jan 22, 2019 | 3:38 PM

KAMLOOPS — A new parent lobbying group has popped up to push for more provincial capital funding for the Kamloops-Thompson School District.

Acting chair Chris Ponti says a number of parents formed “Advocates for SD73” after hearing a presentation on the district’s Long Range Facilities Plan.

“Kamloops has really been shortchanged in terms of capital project funding from the ministry, which means we’ve been struggling for space in the Kamloops area,” said Ponti. “I know the rural schools are under capacity, but the Kamloops schools are over capacity.”

SD73 Board Chair Kathleen Karpuk told CFJC Today last month that Valleyview Secondary is at about 180 per cent capacity.

Other schools are also crowded, and Ponti says that hits the students’ educations directly.

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“They’ve been Band-aiding things by adding portables and covering up play areas and fields. But those portables cost money and that money comes out of their operating capital, and their operating capital comes right out of our classrooms,” said Ponti.

There are more than a dozen portable classrooms at Valleyview Secondary alone.

“It’s not fair to our kids that everywhere else, they’re building new schools or expanding when this over-capacity issue is hitting, while we are using our operating capital to add portables,” said Ponti.

A Facebook page set up to support the advocacy group has garnered more than 200 members since launching on Sunday.

Ponti says that doesn’t surprise him.

“I definitely expected people to be interested and jumping on board, but I am very pleased with the positive messages we’ve been getting, and the thank-yous for starting this,” said Ponti. “That has been very nice, even though it’s a lot of work so far for a lot of people putting this together. That really helps.”

The group’s first public event is a rally planned for Feb. 8 at the Kamloops-Thompson School District office on Ninth Avenue, starting at 12:00 noon.

Ponti says he’s hoping for a strong show of support for new school builds in Kamloops.

“We want to put the government on notice that we care about the education system — we care about our students. It’s not fair that other districts’ kids are getting a better share of the capital dollars and we’re being left behind.”