City contemplates partnership with SD 20
By Andrew Bennett
Last week Coun. Jill Spearn said that she had met with the Neighbourhoods of Learning Committee—on which she is the city liaison—to “dialogue about options that we would like to start to consider, regardless of how the community meeting goes tomorrow night.”
We reported on that community meeting here.
“It’s important that we strike up a conversation with school district staff,” Spearn said as she raised a motion to council that city staff meet with SD20 staff to discuss scenarios by which the city can “financially support” K-12 education in Rossland.
“The mayor met with the chair,” she said, “and the board feels we can have a conversation and work something out so we have K-12 in Rossland.” She added, “We’re not excluding the status quo.”
Coun. Kathy Moore raised a concern that these talks may be “premature,” and asked, “Why not wait until they cut us?” She asked if this wasn’t “jumping the gun.”
Mayor Greg Granstrom replied, “We’re not saying this is a fait accompli. We’re sitting down with their staff to discuss the issue. It’s positive. It shows we want to work with them.”
“I don’t think we’re jumping the gun,” he explained. “We’re trying to be proactive.”
Spearn added that, with more than 175 written submissions to the board, “they know where we stand as a community,” but the “financial bottom line” has left the board weighing “K-9 versus K-12.”
“We need the conversation, how are we going to make [K-12] work?”
