By ROY WOOD

The school board is taking its plea for consistent and predictable funding directly to the minister of education, citing the premier’s claim that BC’s economy is leading the nation.

Trustees of the Okanagan-Similkameen school district will send a letter thanking Education Minister Mike Bernier for the money announced this summer to keep Osoyoos Secondary School open.

However, the letter added: “Although this has been very positive, we are hopeful that this is not just one-time funding, but that these additional dollars will now become part of the consistent, stable and predictable long-term funding that we will be able to rely on.”

Parents, students and others in the community depend on the school board to provide well-planned, quality education programs, the letter continues. “For us to be able to provide this we need predicable, stable and sustainable funding especially in an environment of ever increasing costs.”

The letter points to a claim by Premier Christy Clark that the BC economy is tops in the country and that increases in tax revenues will be “sustainable over time.”

The letter continues: “Investing in classrooms and educational leaders, we believe, will ensure the continued success of our students.”

Elsewhere at Wednesday’s meeting, trustees offered similar ideas to be brought forward at an upcoming BC School Trustees Association issues session.

“The challenge (for school boards) is to plan long-term when (funding) is all so unpredictable,” said board chair Marieze Tarr.

She also pointed out that BC has the second lowest per-student funding level among the provinces.

It’s been 14 years since the district received money to upgrade school buildings, she said, and the condition of most of them has been classified as poor or very poor.

Trustee Rob Zandee suggested that provincial funding should include an “escalator” to allow for inevitable increases in utilities and other costs.

Tarr added that while the district welcomes new programs introduced by the province, such as the recently announced compute coding course, the ministry needs to provide funding for the extra training ad other associated costs.