School board seeking four-year funding commitment
Posted Sep 30, 2011 05:27:03 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Halifax Regional School Board is asking for a significant change to the way the province provides money for building and maintenance.
It’s a request that the provincial education minister says she can’t accomodate – at least, not all of it.
Board member David Finlayson points out that although the province controls school openings and maintenance budgets, but it’s the boards that determine school reviews and closures.
Finlayson is asking the province to give the board full responsibility for all those duties – and to provide a four-year commitment for construction, maintenance, additions and alterations.
“Streamline all the different funds of money, from the capital to the maintenance to the A&A and make that into one plan so that we can all see that it’s very visible and the community knows when that money is coming and we have commitments to four years down the road,” he said.
But Education Minister Ramona Jennex says a four-year commitment to funding just isn’t possible right now.
“We’re not at that point yet,” she said. “Things are pretty unstable in the economy, as you know, you never know what’s going to happen.”
Jennex says she’s open to discussing the fine points of the motion with the board.
