The New Westminster school board is approaching its final meeting of the school year — and it looks set to be a busy one.
The school board was thrust into an unaccustomed spotlight last week with revelations that trustee Dee Beattie had used a fake Twitter account to troll parents, COVID awareness advocates and others.
On Friday, Beattie admitted culpability and announced she would take a medical leave of absence.
With both the New West school board and the district parent advisory council (DPAC) now calling for Beattie’s resignation, it seems likely the issue may come up at the meeting — which is set for tomorrow (Tuesday, June 20) at 7 p.m
Beyond that controversy, the meeting agenda is a full one.
Here are some of the highlights:
Major capital plan submission: District seeks $300M
The New Westminster school district is putting together its 2024-25 major capital plan submission for the Ministry of Education and Child Care — and it’s seeking a whopping $302,489,714 in capital funding in 2024-25.
That includes $60 million to buy land, $114 million for additions (including Queensborough Middle School and a larger-than-planned expansion to Queen Elizabeth Elementary School), $44.6 million for replacement/renovation of the Hume Park Elementary site, and $83.4 million for a new middle school on the west side of the city.
There’s a full report coming from secretary-treasurer Bettina Ketcham.
Decolonizing the school library at NWSS
New Westminster Secondary School teacher-librarians Lisa Seddon, Sarah Wethered and Jenny Chang are scheduled to give a presentation about their work transitioning the library’s non-fiction catalogues from the Dewey Decimal Classification to a modified version of the Brian Deer Classification.
It’s a move to acknowledge Melvil Dewey’s problematic history and the issues with the Dewey classification system when it comes to equity-seeking groups and Indigenous people.
Extreme heat: School closure procedures
The board will receive a report about changes to the school district’s administrative procedures to spell out how school closures would work in the event of extreme weather — adding extreme heat to the existing procedures around weather-related closures and spelling out procedures for schools to follow regarding extreme heat.
Fuel Up: SD40 lunch program update
Rick Bloudell, the district’s manager of community projects and partnerships, is slated to give an updated about the district’s school lunch program.
The presentation is set to cover the program’s immense growth — from 71,207 lunches in 2021-22 to a projected 86,454 this school year — and the large increase in subsidized lunches provided.
It will also look at an upcoming switch in providers, from Simply Foods to the Lunch Lady.
Reports on all of these issues can be found in the agenda package for the June 20 school board meeting.
The meeting is set for Tuesday, June 20 at 7 p.m. You can attend online via Zoom or in person at the school board office at 811 Ontario St. Meeting links and information can be found at the School District 40 website.
