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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2013 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
SHOWSTOPPERS Snowflake dancers perform for a full house at the old Coquihalla Middle School for the Nicola-Canford Elementary School Christmas concert. The middle school building is temporarily home to the elementary students while their school is reconstructed at its site in Lower Nicola. The Christmas concert, titled “Jack Frost and the Music of Christmas,” featured the snowflake dancers (from Grades 4, 5, and 6) and the snow sprites on Dec. 12. Submitted
School board creates guidelines for gym use By Michael Potestio THE HERALD
reporter@merrittherald.com
The ball is now in the parent graduation committee’s court to decide if the Merritt Secondary School gymnasium will be used for the upcoming class of 2014 prom. School District 58 developed a universal set of guidelines for using its facilities after referring this issue to the building committee, SD58 superintendent Bob Peacock told the Herald. School trustees approved the new guidelines at the school board meeting in Princeton on Dec. 11, he said.
If the graduation committee complies with the guidelines, the group will be able to use the MSS gym for the graduation dance. Peacock said the school district met with their building committee and parents, looked at their guidelines for the use of their facilities, and made changes to those guidelines. Any group that wants to use an SD58 facility will have to meet those guidelines. MSS principal Bill Lawrence said he’s happy with he new guidelines and if adhered to, they will protect the newly renovated MSS gym. Some of the guidelines include
limitations on decorations and liability insurance. Peacock said decorations cannot be hung above the 10-foot mark, nor can they be hung on sprinkler systems. “No longer can they hang decorations from the top [of the] ceiling down, and that’s basically because of the safety factor of getting them up there,” Peacock said. User groups decorating a gym must also provide a plan to the school principal to be approved before they buy decorations, Peacock said. Peacock also said groups that are not covered under a liability
insurance policy will need to have one in order to use a facility. “Liability insurance is probably a big one that we didn’t have in place that we’ve now put in place,” Peacock said. The revised guidelines also include an update to the rules on footwear. Peacock said dress shoes such as high heels will not be permitted in any gym-hosted dances. However, people can remove their shoes and use indoor running shoes inside the gym as an alternative. At the school board meeting last month, student trustee Emily Maloney told the Herald the
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upcoming graduates are willing to take off their shoes in order to use the MSS gym for their prom. “If they have their indoor gym shoes, that would be appropriate for them to be in the gym and be able to dance,” Peacock said, noting heels and outdoor running shoes wouldn’t be permitted. “Whether it’s the grad group or whether it’s another group who’d like to go in and use that facility or any of the facilities, the guidelines are there and they need to go through them and then decide on their own whether they want to stick to those guidelines or find someplace else to go,” Peacock said.
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