Public should have input on how school sale money spent
Dear Cowichan school board trustees:
Hiring more teachers and education assistants, along with emergency school upgrades only, must be our board’s priority once our aging Cowichan Secondary School is sold on the open market.
While assessed and market values of our yawning site and school building are currently unknown, our school board will reap millions of dollars for local use — including hiring urgently needed teachers and doing dire reparations.
Educating students is our top priority, not hiring more administrators nor doing questionable school refurbishing.
Ultimately, those spending priorities must be asked of taxpayers once trustees bank our high-school sale proceeds.
But before that, it behooves our board to wisely stage more, well-advertised talks with all taxpaying citizens — as owners of our old high school — about our site’s pending sale.
Input from local politicians — whose zoning bylaws arguably dictate future CSS site uses — and Cowichan Tribes’ leaders will also be welcome.
Such inclusive talks were sadly not held publicly before our board renamed our new high school Quw’utsun Secondary School.
The more democratic voices and ideas, the better — setting shining examples for our pupils.
Yours in lifelong learning,
Peter W. Rusland
North Cowichan