Cam Johnson

Beat Klossner

Overcrowding is the result of at least 15 years of severe under funding of the Public School system. Boards of Education were forced to close schools and did so obediently. At the same time there has been great growth in the city as well, without the needed Education Infrastructure taken into account by all levels of government.
The result we see today is more students having to travel further to fewer schools,which is also the main reason for the traffic problems we have at schools.
The current Board of Education is dealing with this situation by buying portables to use as class room. In a report to the Board on the June 25th meeting it was suggested that 32 more portables are needed at a cost of over $5Mil. installed.
This means that the Board is planning to make a temporary solutions (portables) into a permanent one.
Now, a tree farm is not a forest, just as a Portable classrooms are not really schools.
The solution is simple: re-open closed down neighbourhood schools, such as Westsyde Elementary or Ralph Bell in Valleyview . The schools and grounds have been maintained and it would be the most efficient and effective way to deal with the overcrowding.

Kathleen Karpuk

It needs to be addressed on a school by school basis. In some cases there are just a few more students than the school was built for so a portable is appropriate, in other cases there are many more students in a neighborhood and asking the province to provide funding for a new school or an addition is best. Unfortunately, the province has a very complex formula for determining where additions and new schools are placed. The district must prove that 1) there are enough extra students to justify building an addition or new school - hence numerous portables at Valleyview. 2) There is no extra capacity at neighboring schools - leading to multiple portables in Aberdeen area schools while we wait for approval for a school in Pineview. 3) That there is growth enrollment in the district - supported by several years of enrollment data and birth records.

Re-opening schools (such as Westsyde) cost money to bring them back to operational functionality especially if they have been closed for more than a decade, but are certainly options that need to be looked at. Schools such as Ralph Bell and Happy Vale are currently housing multiple day cares and preschools, so opening those schools would result in losing a lot of child care spaces when there is already a severe shortage and this would need a lot of thought before that step should be taken. As well, most of the closed schools are in areas where there are not enrollment pressures so that means that students would be bused out of their neighborhoods, away from friends, and no longer within walking distance. This could potentially increase traffic as parents drive students to and from sports and after school activities that are not compatible with a bus schedule. This also leads to a disconnect with their neighborhood. Many parents would probably rather have their children at a neighborhood school in a portable than on a bus to a school in a different area of the city. A prime example of this is Sun Peaks where all the students are in portables so they don't have to ride the bus to Heffley Creek.

In short, portables meet a need short term, schools and additions take a really long time to get funding, and re-opening schools needs a lot of thought to make sure it's being done for the right reasons and in the right area.

Meghan Wade

As the current Chair of the School Board, I have led this District for the past year in a very public awareness and advocacy campaign for provincial capital spending in Kamloops. Before this, the Board was advocating behind closed doors with different sectors and representatives of the Provincial Government. The campaign has served to inform the public and the Province on how specific areas of Kamloops are facing overcrowding and how critical the situation is. I am proud of the work I have done over the past year and am committed to continue doing during another term. Making this District's capital needs so very public has not been easy but we are closer to receiving an announcement than we have ever been in the past 17 years. I am running again because I am committed to strongly and publically advocating for the capital needs in this District that have been ignored for too long. My goal is funding commitments from the Province for the top 5 projects on the District's Capital plan by the time the next term ends.

Adam Jensen

I believe overcrowding to be a complex issue and it deserves a close look at catchment areas and enrollment numbers before making a final decision. However, I do feel that too many portables at a school can be a bad thing, but at the same time, a couple portables utilized to be fiscally responsible with moderate enrollment growth in a school to be a fair decision to make. If I were elected as a school board trustee I would be interested in working towards capital projects to improve our existing schools as well as a possible new school if it were deemed viable. Ultimately it comes down to how do we best support the students learning experience in School District 73.

John O'Fee

As you may know, school districts do not set local property tax rates and receive their operating and capital money mostly from Victoria. Unlike some compact urban districts, Kamloops faces unique challenges because of our rural/urban blend. Taken as a district, we appear to have plenty of space but when viewed within regions, we have clear space demands. Our school board will have to work with all locally elected representatives to advocate for needed capital investment.

Joe Small

We definitely have a problem in several areas of our city with overcrowding in our schools. What we need in order to alleviate this problem is new schools in several of our expanding urban areas. (i.e. Juniper Ridge, Pineview, and Bachelor Heights). To make this happen, we need to continue to lobby the Provincial Government, not only for Capital Funding, but to get them to look at Kamloops' enrolment separate from the rest of our large school district. When looking at our district as a whole (rural and urban), our enrolment issues looks manageable. When looking strictly at Kamloops' enrolment, one can quickly see that overcrowding in our schools is becoming an increasing problem that is not going to solve itself over time.