The MLA for Kamloops-North Thompson says he was disappointed to see nothing in the BC budget when it comes to new schools in Kamloops.
Peter Milobar says the only Kamloops school mentioned was the rebuild of Parkcrest Elementary, but he says that is essentially an insurance claim.
“Our enrolment growth has been skyrocketing in Kamloops, and on pace per capita with a Surrey. And we haven’t seen the investments coming back,” he said on NL Newsday. “This has been a problem that has been building over the last four years.”
“Within the district what we’ve seen is a stabilization of the rural school populations, but the spike is actually happening within the Kamloops boundaries, and so that is creating address pressure on these more urbanized school settings within Kamloops.”
SD73 is planning to reopen Ralph Bell Elementary in September 2022, while making adjustments to catchment areas at several other city schools. That’s as Board Chair Rhonda Kershaw says some Kamloops schools will be at 180 per cent of capacity within a decade.
“In our Kamloops area, our capacity utilization heading out to 2030, ten years from now is not good and our schools will be absolutely bursting at the seams, many of them on the South Shore but honestly even on the North Shore,” Kershaw said.
Milobar notes its not enough for the BC Government to “replace a burned down school and call it a day” as he says SD73 is in need of significant investments.
“Four years ago, the Premier promised that there would be no more school portables in Surrey. Well four years has come and gone and Surrey has a record number of portables,” he added.
“You think of the political wins that they need to have in Surrey and they can’t even fulfil that promise down in Surrey. You know, we’re going to keep doing what we can to highlight the importance of needing school capital in Kamloops given what we’ve seen over the last four years with enrolment spiking.”
Sadly no money for the @jjhorgan promised #Kamloops Cancer Centre, no school capital, no enhancements to rural cell coverage( though the Premier has two more schools in his Riding and expanded cell coverage) Heath Auth’s $1.1B cut School Dist’s $53M cut. #bcpoli @toddstonebc https://t.co/kafx0Y7Er0
— Peter Milobar (@PeterMilobar) April 22, 2021
