The Central Okanagan Parent Advisory Council (COPAC) has joined an alignment of voices advocating for the province to provide funding for the purchase, maintenance and relocation of school portables.
COPAC representatives introduced a resolution at the recent annual general meeting of the BC Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils calling on the Ministry of Education and Childcare to absorb portable infrastructure costs.
Currently, school districts must assume the cost for portables from the operating grant received from the province based solely on student enrolment.
Simon Adams, president of the Central Okanagan Parent Advisory Council, said he was told that the cost amounted to $9 million to Central Okanagan Public Schools over the past five years due to a surge in enrolment which has pushed the school district beyond existing classroom student capacity.
“Those are dollars taken straight out regular operating funds, dollars that otherwise would be directed to supporting students with special needs, investing in learning academies or generally advancing the public education of students in our community,” Adams said.
Other reasons behind the resolution, Adams said, included the realities of surging growth in the Central Okanagan, and across B.C. in general.
“The population of B.C. grew by three per cent in 2022, marking the highest annual growth rate in our province since 1996, and B.C. has four of Canada’s five fastest metro areas – Kelowna, Chilliwack, Kamloops and Nanaimo – all of which have seen 10 per cent or larger population growth from 2016 to 2021,” he said.
Also acknowledged by the resolution is the budget fiscal challenges school districts face from refugee, new immigrant and newcomer students in already strapped operating budgets.
Adams said the resolution was adopted at the convention with overwhelming support from the 220 members in attendance, a reflection of how the portable funding issue affects other school districts.
While the BCCPAC board will take up the portable funding issue with the provincial government, it does so with the collaborative support of the BC School Trustees Association, which passed a similar resolution at its recent annual general meeting, and senior school district administrative leadership.
“This is the first time I have seen alignment on an issue between the PACs, trustees and senior district staff leadership all pulling in the same direction at the same time,” he said.
The portable funding responsibility abdication by the province dates back to when the Liberals were in government in the early 2000s, but the recent NDP governments have continued the same funding policy.
Adams said portables are part of the short-term solution toolkit for dealing with spiking student enrolment, but their use has evolved into a longer-term solution.
“There is no clear evidence on the short, medium or long term horizon for how the province plans to address the issue of growth,” Adams said.
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