LOCKERS at SOSS

(Dear Parent/Guardian – SOSS students)

“Providing lockers for our students is one of the ongoing challenges that we have faced here at SOSS since the fire in September.  We do have a limited number of lockers that we have assigned to students, using a lottery process, but many students still do not have access to a locker.  I realize that this has created hardships for some students.  It is certainly difficult for students to have to carry heavy backpacks for most of the day.  In addition, finding a safe place to lock up valuables has been challenging.

This has been a topic at almost every one of our PAC meetings this year, and we have yet to find an easy solution.  Given that we are facing the same situation next year, while we are waiting for the new school to be completed, I am going to call a meeting for all parents and guardians to discuss the issue and see if we can find a workable solution.  This is not an easy decision and I want to offer all parents/guardians as well as school staff, coaches and students to have input. This meeting will be May 15, 2012 6:00pm in the School atrium.

I wanted to provide some background information before the meeting.  The only viable place to put banks of lockers while we are waiting for the new school is in the small gym (West Gym).  While this space has room to accommodate enough lockers for all students, there are ramifications for in terms of financial costs and teaching/ coaching space.

The lockers would have to arranged in banks and attached to the existing gym floor.  This floor has been resurfaced numerous times and so only has a minimal layer of wood left.  After the lockers are removed, we would have to repair the gym floor so it can be used once again as a teaching space.  After speaking to Mitch VanAller, he estimates the cost of this to be approximately $70,000.  We would also have costs for installing and removing the lockers.  These costs would come from the budget for the new school building.

Our PE teachers and coaching staff have been very accommodating during the construction.  If you recall, the old gym was closed a semester early so we could accelerate the construction timeline last year.  This was a serious disruption to our PE and coaching programs, but the teachers and coaches made it work.  They were further displaced by the fire.  The PE teachers do not support using the West gym for lockers.  However, I do have enough teaching space to offer all of our PE classes next year (using the large gym, weight room and outdoor space) if our solution is to put lockers in the West gym.  It might be more difficult to accommodate coaching needs, depending on the number of teams that run next year.

Again, this is a difficult decision.  I hope you will come out to the meeting , provide input and help us find a solution.” – SOSS Administration

Released by PAC SOSS
for more information contact Margie Mathieson mmathie@telus.net

Photo supplied by wikipedia