How to attend a New Westminster school board meeting

Here's what's coming up at New Westminster school board

Tonight marks the final full board meeting before voters head to the polls — tune in via Zoom at 7 p.m.

Money, enrolment, school space and more money will be up for discussion at the Tuesday, Sept. 27 New Westminster school board meeting.Getty Images

Tonight marks the final full school board meeting before the civic election – and it’s going to be a big one.

The School District 40 board kicks off the 2022/23 school year with a virtual public board meeting tonight (Tuesday, Sept. 27).

Among the items to watch for in a jam-packed 152-page agenda package:

Money: How much money does the school district get from the province? How does it spend that money? Which costs are going up more than the funding accompanying them? You can find out all of that and more when the district goes through its statement of financial position.
Enrolment: Yes, enrolment in New Westminster schools is going one way, and one way only: up, up and more up. Enrolment in SD40 stood at 6,521 students; by 2035, that’s expected to hit 8,421. Needless to say, that continued growth has serious repercussions for school space in a district that’s already overcrowded.
Short-term capacity review: Speaking of space, the district is reviewing how best to use its facilities while it awaits completion of a new elementary school in its Fraser River zone (the centre/western part of the city). Superintendent Karim Hachlaf will offer up a look ahead at that review and on plans for the new (as-yet-unfunded) school tonight.
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation: The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is being marked with a school holiday on Friday, Sept. 30, but this week sees local students undertaking a variety of initiatives related to reconciliation. Expect to hear more about some of them tonight.
Student and Family Affordability Fund: Remember that extra money announced by the B.C. government on Aug. 29? It’s intended to support students and families who have been affected by global inflation and cost-of-living challenges. New Westminster is getting about $700,000 of the $60 million that’s being doled out provincewide, and tonight the board will look at how that money will be spent (spoiler alert: universal fees and fundraising $220,000; nutrition $325,000; local customized supports $153,000).

Next week (Tuesday, Oct. 4), current trustees will meet for two committee meetings: for their in-person education committee meeting at Herbert Spencer Elementary School at 3:30 p.m., and then for a virtual operations committee meeting online at 6:30 p.m.

The civic election is Saturday, Oct. 15.

The sitting trustees — who were elected in 2018 — will have one final full board meeting Oct. 25 before the new board is sworn in in November.

Four of the seven sitting trustees are running again: Danielle Connelly with the New West Progressives, and Dee Beattie, Gurveen Dhaliwal and Maya Russell with Community First New West. You can find out more about them, and the newcomers running for school board, in our candidate Q&As.