A group of parents from North Vancouver's Highlands elementary school are mounting a campaign to make sure their kids, along with the rest of the students in the North Vancouver school district, have some shelter from the storm.
The Cover Our Kids campaign has been lobbying the school board to get covered play areas at each school to keep kids out of the near-constant North Shore rain.
"When you see little kindergarteners huddling under slides, freezing in the cold rain, you think 'This isn't working,'" said Erin MacNair, one the Highland moms. "We're trying to raise some awareness that this decision, whenever it was made, to stop building schools with covered areas, was made without public input and we're trying to give that public input back to (the school board), saying 'No, actually, we do need them. We live in a rainforest."
Highlands was designed so it could accommodate two covered areas in the schoolyard, but the board has said it will be up to the parent advisory committee to raise the funds.
"It's going to cost $150,000 and (we) have to raise all the money. The PACs of all the schools on the North Shore are already stretched. They're paying for other things. Quite often, it's the PAC that raises money for playground equipment, any sort of computer things. That has to be done. So the idea that we could somehow come up with $150,000 is just not going to happen," MacNair said.
It is particularly frustrating considering the new Highlands came in about $700,000 under budget - money that could have been spent on covered areas, MacNair added.
The trend for recent rebuilds of North Vancouver schools has been to not replace shelters previously on school grounds, shelters that the Ministry of Education should be funding within its capital budget, MacNair said.
"If it's within the capital budget, it's not taking away from teachers' pay and it's not taking away from computer labs or things like that. The real question was that if it was a priority before . . . and now suddenly it's not?"
But parents were consulted during the design process for Highlands as well as all other new schools, and the decision for Highlands was to build the school with larger overhanging eaves as opposed to covered play areas, according to Franci Stratton, North Van school board chairwoman.
While Highlands did get built under budget, it was never the school's money to begin with, Stratton added. "In a situation where there's extra funds, those funds just go back into the capital reserve and are no longer part of the school budget. The board manages capital reserves to address an abundance of projects throughout the school district," she said.
Covered areas are a nice-to-have, when compared with the must-haves the board will put first - especially when it comes to safety, Stratton said. "I also think the priority for the board and the Ministry of Education is focusing on seismically safe schools. That is the direction they have gone," she said.
Argyle secondary, along with Handsworth and Windsor at the top of the list for getting seismic upgrades. "Those are top priority projects. We have to look at all of the projects and all of the needs in the school district and find a way to balance those with the available funds," she said.
Students often prefer to be outside, rain or shine, Stratton added. "We want to make sure kids aren't coming in after play soaking wet. Hopefully they're prepared for those days, whether there's a covered area or not. Children will go and play where they want to play," she said.
The school board doesn't have a set policy on whether all new schools will have covered areas but a policy for that and other school property enhancements is currently in development and will be up for school board debate in the next month, Stratton said.
In the meantime, she encouraged more parents to come out to school board meetings.
