School trustee candidates confirmed VANOC does not have a role in the school board's decision to shut down schools during the Olympics, during a Chamber of Commerce all-candidates meeting at Brennan Park Monday (Nov. 3)."The school communities are telling us what their needs are during that period. We are not responding to VANOC's needs and it looks like we will not be meeting any of their needs for facilities in the schools," said incumbent and candidate Rick Price. "The precedent came from VANOC to shut the schools down," said incumbent and candidate Andrea Beaubien. "They however asked for three weeks and two days, we did not go for that request, that was too much time for our kids to be out of school."She said the school board came to the decision they would schedule March Break during the Olympic period so kids would have the chance to volunteer for the games.Price said deliberations over the school calendar are not over yet as, "many school communities are divided right now over what the solution is."Council candidate Deb McBride asked if the board would consider having school buses in service after dropping the kids off at school to increase public transit.The third school trustee candidate, Terrill Patterson, said the school buses "are not meant for stop-and-go transit buses."Price said there have already been preliminary discussions between the school board and the district council regarding the subject but those discussions have remained preliminary, however that might change in the next three years."It is not an easy issue, you are talking about two different unions to provide two different services and at the moment most of our bus drivers who are full time workers drive other buses on their routes and then they also have other functions in maintaining our schools," responded Beaubien.The candidates were also asked questions regarding the high school student to teacher ratio, special needs programs and rental rates for school facilities, which were all answered as provincial funding issues. Price said because the funding from the province has to be spread to many avenues, such as school buses, education dollars are often taken out of the classroom."However, on average the board spends more money on special education than the provincial government sends," said Price.Beaubien said rental rates for school facilities are in affect because the building has fees to pay if open after school hours. "It's unfortunate that the community doesn't have space for a lot of these groups but we can't use our kindergarten to Grade 12 dollars to consolidate groups in the community to use our facilities," said Beaubien.In response to the lack of school funding Patterson said repeatedly, "next spring the provincial government will be going to the polls, they are the ones who control the money and your question should be brought to that forum."
