School District No. 46 (SD46) is changing the way it distributes Community LINK funding in the 2012/13 school year, leaving community school co-ordinators unsure of the future of some programs.
The Community LINK (Learning Includes Nutrition and Knowledge) funding is meant to support vulnerable students who may be at risk in terms of academic achievement and social functioning.
In the past, the five community schools on the Coast (Gibsons, Sechelt, Halfmoon Bay, Pender Harbour and Roberts Creek) have each received $47,000 from a $235,000 budget to hire youth outreach workers and provide programs like after school child care, breakfast programs, Roots of Empathy programs, summer camps, homework clubs, youth drop-ins and restorative justice programs.
However, in a meeting with SD46 on May 15, community school co-ordinators heard the money will soon be split between all 12 schools on the Coast.
"What that will look like and how it will be spent from September 1st is still unknown right now," Roberts Creek Community School co-ordinator Stacia Leech told the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) during their May 24 corporate and administrative services committee meeting.
She and Chatelech/Sechelt community school co-ordinator Heather Gordon attended the SCRD meeting to inform them of the change and urge them to look at how it will affect programs run through partnership with the SCRD.
Programs like youth outreach are partially funded by the SCRD, Town of Gibsons and the District of Sechelt to the tune of $65,000 yearly. Other programs jointly funded include Roots of Empathy, restorative justice and summer camps.
SCRD staff estimate roughly $225,000 is designated from their budget to help run community school programs each year.
SCRD directors were surprised to hear about the upcoming funding change and noted they were never consulted about the decision.
Pender Harbour director Frank Mauro moved that the board draft a letter asking SD46 to delay the change until they can have a board-to-board meeting to address the issue.
"[We need] a meeting if it can not be delayed. Something has to be done immediately in that we have a quarter of a million dollar commitment to these schools," Mauro said.
All directors were in favour and board chair Garry Nohr asked that the letter also remind the school board that the SCRD took on the role of topping up school district funds for community school programs in 2005 when the funding was lost from the provincial government.
SD46 superintendent of schools Patrick Bocking said he was not aware the funding change might require discussion with the SCRD.
"I'm not sure that there's usually conversations between SCRD and the board in terms of budget lines that they have, if they consult with us or we consult with them. To be honest, I haven't heard that, so I'm not sure," he said. "We haven't done that in the past, as far as I know."
He said the change is meant to get the funding out to more schools in order to address the needs of vulnerable students throughout the district.
"The reason for distributing it amongst all schools is because some schools were receiving quite a bit of money and support and others were receiving none or virtually none," he said. "So that obviously isn't fair. This is a district fund, so district funds need to support all our students. That's one thing we're trying to address."
He said the other issue is that principals, while ultimately responsible for the funding, often have no say in how it is spent.
"Some of them have but some of them haven't, and so we've got it so that principals will now have much more of a role in making sure the money does go to the students it needs to," Bocking said.
SD46 will now meet with principals and with community school co-ordinators to discuss how the funding change will play out. Bocking expects to have solid plans in place before the school year ends.
"We're certainly respectful of the community schools and their concerns and we are looking for a way to make it work for everyone," he said.
- With files from Ben Ingram
