A public plea to save the Global Ed program won’t resurrect it for this year, but it could have an impact for future years.
Anita Kajla, a former Global Education student from Fulton, has been on a mission to save the program, which was cut for the 2013/14 school year due to a lack of interest from students.
Joined by four other concerned individuals, she made a presentation to the Vernon school board Wednesday to see if anything could be done.
“The meeting itself was great, the speakers I had did amazing and spoke right from the heart,” said Kajla.
She was joined by Ty Cheyne and Blake Balmer (Ellison Elementary students), Brittany Locken (a Grade 10 student from Fulton who had applied for the program), Al Gee (a past Global Education teacher), Annette Sharkey (Social Planning Council, also a past chaperone for the Nicaragua trip) and Maria Besso (Coldstream councillor and a past parent of a Global Ed student).
The board listened to the presentation, which was made public, but due to policy it does not take action or respond to requests at the time.
“Trustees require time to review the request and obtain any additional information that may be required before offering a response to the request which is normally made at a later date,” said board chairperson Bill Turanski.
“The board will be looking at reviewing its policy on ‘optional’ programs.”
Kajla is confident that presentation helped show the significance of the Global Ed program and the impact it can have on students.
“Al Gee’s speech moved the crowd and everyone else in that room, we were in tears by the time he was done,” said Kajla.
“The teenagers I had speaking did phenomenal, they spoke from their hearts, and they clearly stated how the school board’s actions affected their futures.”
