The provincial government is reimbursing $21 million in playground funding to parent advisory council’s (PACs) in 31 school districts, but not this one.
School District 69 (Qualicum) superintendent Jim Ansell noted the news release in Tuesday night’s agenda and confirmed none of the money announced is for this district.
He suggested it might be due to there not being any major recent playground projects in the district but said it was the second bit of new playground funding announced in the last year, which might be a good sign for the future.
PACs have done a lot of work on local school playgrounds like Nanoose Bay Elementary where they opened $90,000 worth of new, wheelchair accessible equipment a couple years ago.
Ansell commented that small PACs frequently spend 10 or 12 years fundraising for a playground.
“Some parents work the entire time their student is in elementary school and never see the benefits.”
