First, let me take a moment to apologize for not posting in so long. It has been a very busy time. I’ve been hard at work visiting schools in my zone, reading policies, attending meetings and generally soaking in as much information as possible, so as to be prepared for what I know could be an arduous budget process.

As many of you know, the Board voted to put a hold on all work at Cedar Elementary. We have begun a public input process to help us discern what the broad community sees at its values. That information will guide us as we make decisions regarding where to go with both facility usage and the budget. As we talked, we realized that the two do go together.

We hope that a wide range of people will take part in the process. You do not have to have children attending School District 68 to participate. There is a survey available on the District website – http://www.sd68.bc.ca – that we encourage everyone to complete. I know there has been some concerns about the structure of the questions. Please know that any omissions were not made intentionally. This process is new to us and we have already learned a great deal which will help us both as we go along this year, as well as for future years. Also note that if there are things you want to share that aren’t specifically discussed in the questionnaire, you are encouraged to add your own comments.

On that note:

There are 3 public forums where we will discuss the broad themes of the survey. They all run from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. Locations and dates are as follows:

• February 17th (tonight) at Dover Bay Secondary
• February 26th at John Barsby Secondary
• March 5th at Ladysmith Secondary

On March 19th we will be holding a special business meeting at the Vancouver Island Conference Centre. Like the forums, the time will be 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm.

• If you wish to present at this meeting you must submit your request to the Secretary-Treasurer’s Office in writing before Tuesday March 10th (email kelsey.toye@sd68.bc.ca).
  
• Your letter asking to appear should identify the spokesperson for your group, the topic you will be discussing, and the phone number or address where you can be reached.
• Depending on the number of requests for delegations to appear before the Board, there may not be enough spaces for everyone. Spaces will be allotted on a first-come, first-served basis.
• Presentations are limited to 10 minutes.
• Please note that the deadline for all presentation materials (power point, handouts or otherwise) must submitted to Kelsey Toye by Monday, March 16th by 12 PM (noon).

I truly believe this process is one that will benefit our District. I want to thank our staff, especially Dale Burgos, Shauna Debodt and Kelsey Toye, for their work in organizing these meetings.

I swear my next blog update will not take as long to appear as this one did. I’m going away this weekend to attend my first Provincial Council (A BCSTA event). When I get back, I’ll share updates on the Health Centre at John Barsby, SOGI, and other exciting District initiatives.