IF North Vancouver students are to be kept out of the winter rains during their outside play time, it's not going to be the school board or the province paying for it.
That's the result of a policy adopted by the school district in late May that groups sheltered areas in schoolyards in with interactive playgrounds, outdoor classrooms and learning gardens as "enhanced features."
When building or planning for new schools, the board "will consider" such features, according to the policy, but the board acknowledges those costs can be over and above the approved capital budget for the school.
"In these instances, additional sources of funding, such as parent fundraising
and/or corporate and government grants may be required to address the initial and ongoing costs of these enhancements," the policy states. "The board deems schools responsible for the initiation and development of proposed site enhancements and any related costs."
The unanimous school board decision comes as a disappointment to members of the Cover our Kids campaign, a group of parents lobbying to see that all North Vancouver schools are built with the sheltered play areas commonly included in older North Van schools.
"The whole question we were trying to get across in the beginning was 'Why is this now not a priority?' All the old North Van schools had covered areas," said Erin MacNair, Cover our Kids member and a Highlands elementary mom. That school was recently rebuilt without a covered area.
"By lumping it in with the outdoor spaces, I do think the issue is diluted and probably will not get the focus we were looking for," MacNair said.
The Ministry of Education will provide funding for sheltered areas if the board can demonstrate it has 2,000 millimetres in annual precipitation, which the North Shore has and then some, according to data MacNair pulled from Environment Canada.
However, the board used data from the National Research Council that showed North Vancouver precipitation just below that mark.
Putting the onus on parent advisory committees to raise cash - about $150,000 for a proposed shelter at Highlands, is unfair said MacNair, as the PACs are already putting in overtime to raise money for other school equipment.
"There's something wrong with this. Why are the parents expected to come up with all of this money when the parents are trying to tell the people who are building the schools, they were always built this way for a reason. Don't take them away," MacNair said.
But the board has many "wants" to contend with and setting the policy is meant to give the board the tools it needs to deal with all of them fairly, according to board chairwoman Franci Stratton.
"The intention of the policy was to further support and guide the board's process for addressing the competing demands placed on us in terms of funding, particularly in regards to site enhancements, which would include playground installations, teaching gardens and covered play areas," Stratton said.
"The board appreciates the work the Highland parents group has done. It's all about the kids and they're passionate about their position.
"We're not always going to come to the same conclusions but they have to know we're all working towards the same goals and that is our students."
