Students taking part in the Thompson Rivers University welding program this year will be limited to participating in Hope until at least the end of next year, meaning Agassiz is out of the running to host the program once again.
At the Fraser-Cascade school board meeting on May 7, the board approved a motion to have the program’s mobile welding trailers at AESS from August until the end of the program in February. This would have been the first time the trailers would have been located in Agassiz, as it was also the first year there were equal numbers of students from AESS and Hope Secondary in the program.
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However, at the school board meeting on May 27, the board had to rescind that motion.
“We were very hopeful that the program could be delivered in Agassiz at AESS to support fair access throughout the district,” superintendent Karen Nelson explained at the meeting. “We said that when there were equal number of students at either end of the district we would have it in Agassiz, and there are this year.”
However, she added, Thompson Rivers University wasn’t prepared to move the trailers to Agassiz this year due to funding, travel and personnel issues. The trailers will remain at Hope Secondary as they have in past years, and transportation will be provided for students coming from Agassiz.
“I’m disappointed in” the University’s decision, Nelson said. “We did talk long and hard with them, but we’re not able to convince them.”
The mobile welding trailers will be at Hope Secondary starting in August this year, until the end of the program in February 2020.
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