CAMPAIGN TRAIL
The Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»School Board has received two complaints about trustee candidates campaigning on school grounds. Kurt Heinrich, the VSB spokesperson, said the district doesn't allow political campaigning in schools or on school grounds during school hours.
A formal written complaint hasn't been submitted but if one is filed, Heinrich said the VSB will act on it.
"In that case, the superintendent would speak with the candidate in question and their campaign office, if they have one," Heinrich explained in an email to the Courier. "Our general policy is and always has been that it is not appropriate for candidates to use students as conduits for political campaigns. Candidates are free to engage parents, but must do so off school property."
The district defines campaigning as handing out buttons or political flyers and posting political signs on school grounds. A candidate trying to solicit support from parents for themselves or their party on school grounds is also considered campaigning. But a candidate invited by the union to speak to school staff, as long as attendance by staff is voluntary, on school grounds during lunch is regarded as acceptable if the candidate checks in with administrator and follows normal procedures for all visitors, according to Heinrich. "The key from the VSB's perspective is to avoid any interference with the functioning of schools. We also need to ensure the VSB remains completely neutral during the election campaign," he said.
ENROLMENT DROPS
Registration in Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»schools fell by about 700 this year, according to school board chair Patti Bacchus.
Funding is tied to enrolment. "We're down a total of about 700 in Grade 1 to 12. Our numbers are up, of course, in kindergarten because of all-day kindergarten," she said. "What's interesting is being down generally is not good news financially because you lose funding that you were expecting to have but because we're down over the one per cent level we do become eligible for some supplementary ministry funding."
A program exists that provides protection for districts so they don't get less funding than the prior year if they have an enrolment decline of more than one per cent. "So we're actually in a positive position in terms of funding because these things kick in. it is a concern, of course, that numbers continue to decline," Bacchus added.
The main impact has been at elementary schools. The Grade 5 cohort is low and has been for a few years, although Bacchus isn't clear why that's the case.
Overall, the enrolment drop of 700 is equivalent to the size of a large elementary school or a small high school. Over the years, some have speculated families are fleeing to the suburbs due to high housing costs in Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»or are opting for private schools.
But Bacchus said it's not certain why the numbers have fallen. "We didn't get that level of information [from staff]. I don't think they've done an analysis necessarily," she said.
Trustees haven't been given recent enrolment projections for the next school year. Last year's school closure report noted Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»public school enrolment peaked in 1997 at 57,575 students. In 2010 the count was 51,901 for a drop of 5,674 students between those years.
The report also stated that elementary enrolment is projected to flatten out over the next couple of years and then increase by 2013.
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