With a number of local schools at, near or over capacity, the Kamloops Thompson School District will be watching this year’s provincial budget with eagle eyes.

Speaking on the Woodford Show, Trustee John O’Fee said that there are a number of students in parts of the city where there’s no school space, and vice versa.

“There’s always unlimited wants and limited means, but I think that we’ve demonstrated that there are some situations within our district that are a priority,” O’Fee said. “Ultimately, South Kamloops needs to be reconstructed.

“Essentially, it’s been that was for a long time. It doesn’t meet current codes in a lot of ways. It’s ultimately a project that’s quite frankly a number of years down the line.”

O’Fee adds there are other more pressing needs they’re hoping to see some investment into soon, including in Valleyview, Westmount and up in Sun Peaks.

“Valleyview is a real pressure point for us, Westmount is also a pressure point,” O’Fee added. “We’ve just had a delegation from Sun Peaks that’s a growing area with over 100 students.”

“They’re really in portables now and spread about, and they’re looking for a proper school facility so. It’s certainly a good case to be made to make some investments in the Kamloops area to bring in some new facilities for students.”

Finance Minister Carole James has said the budget will have plans to reduce poverty province-wide.

To that, O’Fee says education is the great equalizer.

“Our friends south of the border have a much wider gap between rich and poor students in terms of their academic performance,” he noted. “We’ve always taken the approach that every kid should get the same funding, every school district should get the same funding.”

“So it doesn’t matter if you’re in Lillooet or Kamloops or West Vancouver, your teacher is paid the same, your school gets the same sort of capital and that’s proven itself to be a great thing for society generally.

O’Fee is hoping the government will find some solutions in this budget that will address the many issues in the Kamloops-Thompson School District.