Homelinks students may have earned a temporary reprieve on Tuesday after the School District No. 8 (Kootenay Lake) board rescinded an April 22 resolution that secondary students be supported through the Prince Charles Secondary School’s learning centre in the Pathways building by June 2015.
Retiring South Rural trustee Annette Hambler-Pruden made the motion to rescind the resolution because, seven months later, no consultation with Homelinks parents (a stipulation of the April resolution) has taken place.
“The timelines are just too tight and it doesn't include the broader community,” she said at the meeting, seen in Creston via videoconference from Nelson.
Hambler-Pruden said the program currently has 7.75 full-time equivalent students in grades 11 and 12.
“Once the uncertainty of the program is cleared up, there will be a lot of people interested in it,” she said.
The process begins with a facilities review, currently taking place across the district (for which a town hall meeting will be held Monday at Prince Charles Theatre). The review includes everything from the old school board office at the corner of Canyon Street and 16th Avenue to the Creston Educaiton Centre, which houses Homelinks and several early childhood programs.
“We’re not going into the facilities review with any thought of closure in mind,” Rebecca Huscroft, board chair and South Rural trustee, told the Advance yesterday.
SD8 Supt. Jeff Jones said that facilitating the Homelinks project has been “bigger than expected,” and that the open-ended timeframe will be easier on staff.
“We’ve bumped into many, many roadblocks when we've tried to support Homelinks over the last five years,” he said at the meeting.
After the April 22 resolution was rescinded, a motion by retiring Town of Creston trustee Mel Joy was carried, resolving to review the Homelinks and other district learning programs in Creston following the facilities review.
“It broadens it to the family of schools instead of Homelinks,” she said.