By Jill Sperling

School district receiving $705,000 for classroom supplies

Feb 20, 2017 | 6:02 PM

KAMLOOPS — The province announced a $29.4 million grant on Sunday, Feb. 20, to assist school districts in acquiring the resources needed for B.C.’s new curriculum. 

Kamloops-Thompson School District officials met on Monday to discuss how their portion of the money would be used. 

According to board chair Meghan Wade, the school district will receive approximately $705,000

“We’ve always, as a district, come forward with, ‘if you were to give us more we would find something very educationally sound to do with it,’” Wade said. “I’m pleased with $705,000.”

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The Student Learning Grant is earmarked for the purchase of supplies required for the new curriculum that was introduced into schools in the fall. 

“We can look at things such as textbooks, we can look at technology, we can look at equipment, we can look for equipment for non-enrolling teachers that support our schools through the Grube,” Wade said.

The funding amounts to $50 per student. Kamloops-Thompson Teachers’ Association president David Komljenovic says that’s not enough.

“We would need a lot more than that to fully implement the curriculum considering the amount of technology that would be needed, just new textbooks, new resources in order to venture into more project-based learning.” 

Komljenovic says the government would need to triple or quadruple the grant in order to purchase the resources needed for the new curriculum.

He adds the grant isn’t necessarily new money. 

“The government has put in $29 million, and certainly it’s a step in the right direction, but one thing we would note is that they took away about the same amount in administrative savings a couple of years ago,” Komljenovic said. “Because of that we didn’t have the resources to implement the new curriculum.”

Whether it’s new money, or recycled savings, the school district is happy to have some funding to work with. 

“We are very prudent with our money, and we squeeze everything out of every penny,” Wade said. “I’m looking forward to the plans that are going to come up for this money.”

Budget expectations

Komljenovic is hoping to see additional funds for education when the province delivers the 2017 budget Tuesday. 

Last November, the B.C. Teachers’ Federation won a Supreme Court battle against the province for the right to bargain class size and composition. 

With that win the province will be required to start hiring more teachers. 

Komljenovic hopes to see the government address that responsibility through the budget. 

“We would expect that there be about $300 million or $400 million that’s allocated to the education system to fulfill their requirements,” Komljenovic said. “The Supreme Court of Canada made a decision and this government shouldn’t be ignoring that. What they’re saying is they need to invest in the classrooms, they need to make sure that there are smaller class sizes and more support for students.”