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$25,000 for Barriere Elementary playground

Barriere Elementary has been awarded a Provincial Ministry of Education grant for the repair and upgrade of their playground equipment

It’s the end of June, and summer has arrived (apparently?) so it’s time to say goodbye to school for another year.  With the year coming to a close the following is a brief summary of some of the happenings at School District 73 this spring.

In May I had the pleasure of attending the Barriere Secondary School graduation ceremonies.  I was very impressed with the talent and hard work the students in the 2012 graduating class exhibited, and I wish them all the best in their future endeavours.  The District Honours reception was another wonderful event and I would like to express congratulations to Mason Mosdell, Nicole Stamer and Robbie Stevens for being recognized for their excellence and commitment to learning.

As you may have read in last week’s paper the Transportation Review has been released by the District.  The report is currently available on the school district website at www.sd73.bc.ca and makes a number of recommendations, the most notable of which is to ensure the system is operated such that expenditures do not exceed revenues provided by the Ministry of Education, which is not currently the case.  The Board has accepted this report for information and will be reaching out to stakeholder groups in the fall for input, and I urge interested parties to review the report and consider the options.

Of special interest for the coming year, Barriere Secondary School is currently seeking individuals and local companies who may be interested in trades training for Welding beginning in February of 2013. The program is a partnership with Thompson Rivers University and allows students to receive a Level ‘C’ welding ticket at the end of six months and is open to both students and adult learners.  Anyone interested should contact me or the School prior to June 29,  as a minimum number must be confirmed before the program will be pursued.

Now for the exciting part!  Barriere Elementary has been awarded a Provincial Ministry of Education grant for $25,000 for the repair and upgrade of our playground equipment.  This announcement was made on June 22, and is part of a program that totalled $8 million for playground equipment throughout the Province.  This is exciting news for the students, and I would like to extend a special thank you to the Parent Advisory Council past and present membership.  It is partially through their hard work in identifying areas of need that this has come to be.

In closing, I would like to thank all of the staff, students and parents for a great year.

While there have been challenges, it seems they have been outweighed by the many more positive events at schools.

I couldn’t list them all but have attended many.  It takes an amazing amount of hours to plan and prepare for these events, but the memories the students take from them are well worth it. I hope everyone enjoys their summer and takes a well deserved break.

* School District 73 Trustee Report by Rhonda Kershaw