The Sunshine Coast School District (SD46) is receiving $1.55 million from the B.C. government’s School Enhancement Program to do mechanical upgrades at Cedar Grove Elementary and Roberts Creek Elementary.
The province announced the spending Tuesday as part of $3.5 million in total funding for facilities maintenance and upgrades in 2018-19 for Powell River-Sunshine Coast.
SD46 will also receive an Annual Facilities Grant (AFG) for $966,354, which is put towards routine school maintenance costs.
Powell River School District (SD47) will receive $370,000 under the School Enhancement Program and $604,278 in AFG funding. The AFG for the constituency is almost $70,000 more than last year, the province said.
Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons said the funding commitments demonstrate the high priority the NDP is giving to education.
“On top of adding more teachers to get back to smaller class sizes, our government is increasing maintenance funding for the first time in 14 years,” he said in a release.
In total, the B.C. government has increased school maintenance funding by more than $20 million over last year, and has raised the AFG for the first time since 2004-05, the province said.
B.C. School Trustees Association president Gordon Swan said the group is “pleased that the government has listened to the needs of school boards and has taken these first steps required to invest in the facilities students depend on daily.”
