The local school district has lost its annual facilities grant money, roughly an amount of $293,000, and Walter Posnikoff, School District 10 Arrow Lakes superintendent says this could severely hamper the district if any major maintenance projects come up over the next few years.

“We still have things that break down and fall apart,” says Posnikoff. Currently, the schools in the district haven’t been renovated since the early 1980’s with the exception of Lucerne Elementary Secondary School in New Denver and the newer elementary school in Burton. Posnikoff adds if the cut to the facilities grant is constant, the district will have to begin taking money out of its educational budgets to fix infrastructure and maintenance issues in the schools.

“What will happen tomorrow if one of the boilers at Nakusp Secondary School runs out? We won’t have heat in the school, and then where do I pull the money?” he says.

The grant has been in effect for the past eight or nine years, and the cut to this program was a decision to reduce the provincial budget by $110,000,000.

While Posnikoff states this cut will, eventually, effect the students, B.C.’s Minister of Education Margaret MacDiarmid says the health and safety of B.C.’s students is her number one priority. “We are expecting districts to prioritize their capital projects based on health and safety needs first. At the same time we’re asking districts to defer any projects that could be completed at a later date.”

MacDiarmid continues by saying in the first year of this cut, districts have been asked to use the surplus facility grant dollars for maintenance projects.

“Each school district has separate needs, and the ministry will be working with individual districts to find creative solutions to help projects move forward,” she says.

Posnikoff says the ministry has not yet mentioned any kind of pool of emergency funding for maintenance and infrastructure projects. MLA for Kootenay West Katrine Conroy says she will “continue to work on this issue in the fall sitting of the Legislature.”

“The government said that they were going to maintain education spending during the election. It’s appalling to me that they have misled people. In Kootenay West we will be looking at school districts having to make some very hard choices to protect students,” says Conroy. “The government has taken money away from them that was promised, given and spent on upkeep of school building in preparation for school in the fall. What can school districts do now? I am extremely concerned about what might happen.”

Another issue the district will have to deal with amalgamation. Posnikoff says it is something the school board will have to look at through the fall. “The minister is asking all boards to consider amalgamation again. Just to consider how it would work, how we can become more efficient to put more dollars back into the educational side of the budgets,” he says, adding currently the school district already works closely in a shared financial services contract with School District 20, Kootenay - Columbia. “We’re leaders in that right already. We’ve set up to do efficiencies, and yet I think we’re going to have to look at more of them.”