Message from the Minister of Education, Rob Fleming

Welcome to the new school year; I hope you enjoyed a safe and restful summer, and are looking forward to another year of supporting B.C.’s schools and students. It’s a great time to be a part of B.C.’s education system, with an additional $1 billion invested in the system now to support students than there was just three years ago. This year, many of you will have construction projects underway in your school districts thanks to $1.6 billion in approved school capital projects to ensure students, staff, and teachers learn and work in safe, modern, and comfortable environments. This includes a total of 24 projects that will bring 10,000 new student spaces to fast-growing B.C. communities to help get students out of portables and into proper classrooms as quickly as possible. With strong partnerships at the school district level, we’ve been able to approve seismic upgrade projects at twice the rate of the previous government, funding 39 projects that will make more than 23,000 student seats safer in the event of an earthquake. We have relieved the fundraising burden on parents and are investing in the health and well-being of students with the new annual $5 million Playground Equipment Program, funding 101 new playgrounds to date. We will continue to invest in maintenance programs like the School Enhancement Program, the Carbon Neutral Capital Program, the Bus Acquisition Program and the Building Envelope Program, and I encourage you to continue to use these funding sources to improve your facilities this year. We also increased the Annual Facility Grant by $5 million in 2018 – the first increase since 2004.

We will continue to invest in new schools, expansions, seismic upgrades, property purchases for future schools, and maintenance through our three-year $2.7-billion capital budget. This is the largest capital plan for education in our province’s history, and it puts us on a path to deliver better education to B.C. students.

Students should not have to miss school, extracurricular, sports, or social activities simply because they can’t afford or don’t have access to menstrual products. Under a ministerial order that was amended in April 2019, all B.C. public schools will be required to provide free menstrual products for students in school washrooms by the end of 2019. This is a common-sense step forward that is, frankly, long overdue. We’ve invested $300,000 in start-up funding to support districts as they implement this change in schools, and will continue to work with school districts to make sure students get the access they need.

We know there is much more to be done, and we are committed to continue working to give students the world-class education they deserve. As professionals responsible for building and maintaining B.C.’s schools, I invite your feedback and perspective on how we can work together to deliver a better K-12 education system for everyone.

I wish you all the best for the year ahead. I look forward to another year of working hard to make improvements in our education system to support all students as they strive to reach their goals. n

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