May Day is taking a backseat to more pressing matters - including budget woes and a bid to develop a long-term directions plan - for the New Westminster school district.
The board of education voted unanimously Tuesday night to postpone a consultation process with the public on ways to improve the long-standing community event in the future.
"Our budget issues supercede everything," said trustee Lisa Graham, a lifelong New Westminsterite and self-proclaimed May Day fan, who first brought the idea to consult with the public to the board table last year. "For over a decade we've been either in deficit or in deficit-recovery mode, and I think we need to be focusing on a strategic plan."
It was trustee James Janzen's suggestion that the board hold off until it dealt with the larger issues, noting that any changes wouldn't impact this year's May Day anyway.
"We are not contemplating making any significant changes to May Day for 2013/14," he said. "I don't think it's a high priority."
May Day is an annual event where local school children celebrate the spring season. It has been going on in the Royal City for more than 140 years - one of the longest running in the Commonwealth.
The event is "enshrined" in school district policy, superintendent John Woudzia told the board at its committee meeting.
The issue of May Day came to the forefront in 2012, when teachers at Lord Tweedsmuir Elementary sent a letter to the board saying teaching May Day dances is taking up too much learning time for students who aren't directly involved in the annual community event.
Teachers with multi-grade classrooms have a difficult time keeping all of their students engaged while teaching the dances to the students who actually need to learn it, the letter said.
To prepare for May Day, teachers in New Westminster are expected to show Grade 3 students folk dances and Grade 4 students a ribbon maypole dance.
At around the same time, there were also rumblings that some teachers at Lord Kelvin Elementary considered May Day a low priority for the parent advisory council spending.
May Day is a partnership between the district and the city and a handful of other civic groups. The district oversees the majority of the daytime events, while the city manages the evening activities, according to Woudzia.
The May Queen and her suites as well as the Royal Knights are made up of students from the district's nine elementary schools.
The rain for the past several years - there has been one dry May Day out of five - has also put a damper on the festivities, with some older students wanting to stay home "sick" and out of the rain.
The plan is for the district to revisit the consultation next year, though the board did pass a recommendation that the May Day committee attempt to identify financial efficiencies, where possible, with respect to this year's May Day.
