Roberts Creek Elementary students Jacob Todd and Katie Kennelly came to the May 10 school board meeting to talk about energy savings their school found through Freezing Friday.
The project, developed by students in the Energy Matters program, saw the school turn down its heat by three degrees on a Friday, which led to a $32 savings for the day. Normally thermostats are set at about 20 degrees in Coast schools.
“It wasn’t freezing. I actually didn’t notice much of a difference,” Katie said.
“We saved 87 per cent on gas heating, and if we did this all month, we could save up to $885.”
Jacob noted if thermostats were turned down by three degrees throughout the year, “we’d save $5,760 for just three degrees lower, so that’s pretty good.”
Grade 7 students at Roberts Creek Elementary and some students enrolled in the SPIDER program designed and took part in the energy-saving initiative, which was submitted to the BC Green Games and selected for an award – a trip to Science World.
Jacob said he’d like to see more schools participate in the Green Games and develop their own energy saving initiatives in the future.
“I think everybody really feels that way at this point because it’s an important issue, but it is an issue we can fix,” Jacob said.
Trustees were pleased with the report from the students, noting a small reduction in temperature at all schools was “really doable” and would result in a huge savings throughout School District No. 46 (SD46).
New Curriculum
Teachers continue meeting regularly to discuss and learn about the new curriculum being implemented by the province. Posters have now been designed and put up in Coast schools to help explain the changes.
“They’re there to provide a start to the conversation in classrooms,” superintendent of schools Patrick Bocking said during his report, noting other districts have taken notice of the locally-designed posters and asked for copies to use as well.
He said SD46 has already implemented some aspects of the new curriculum.
This year core competencies will be assessed on report cards, but it’s something that will be “self-reported” by kids in kindergarten to Grade 9, Bocking said.
Electoral Areas
Trustees voted unanimously May 10 to implement new electoral areas come the next election.
A change had to be made to properly represent the Sechelt Indian Government District (SIGD) at the school board table.
After several public meetings were held with very little public turnout, trustees decided to go with Option B, reducing the total number of trustee electoral areas to three.
The SIGD lands that were missing will now be included in the Sechelt area and Gibsons will be combined with areas D, E and F.
Areas A and B, along with 35 people living on SIGD lands in Halfmoon Bay and Pender Harbour, will make up the final electoral area.
The three new electoral areas will still call for the same number of trustees at the board table.
In the next election three trustees will be elected from the Sechelt area, three will be elected from the Gibsons area and one will be elected from the Pender Harbour area.
Visual Arts
SD46 has been doing “very well” getting music into classrooms through fine arts programing, according to Bocking, so other arts programing will be explored in the future.
“We are looking at how we can make sure that our teachers are supported in the visual arts as well,” Bocking said. “We’ll be developing workshops and putting some resources aside to support our teachers in that way.”
