The Education Services Committee is exploring recommendations for overnight accommodations when it comes to students travelling to different districts.
The committee is looking into allowing students to sleep overnight at SD57 facilities, but will have to make sure the environment is safe before bringing it forward to the board.
“This is something we heard from our rural communities who wanted to be able to travel, especially to Prince George, and compete in sporting competitions and in order to keep the cost low for students, they felt that being able to stay at schools would help with keeping cost low,” says Tim Bennett, Chairperson.
Currently the district offers $10,000 per rural community, $7,000 for secondary and $3,000 for elementary to help offset the costs for hotels when students travel for sports or cultural activities.
SD57 doesn’t want a school to drop out of an activity just because cost are a barrier says Bennett.
“Rather than putting that cost back on the students. The district was able to add that money to the budget to allow students to come to Prince George get a good nights rest, be safe and secure until the district was able to find a suitable location in Prince George for students to sleep.”
For overnights at schools to work, the committee has to go through a bunch of safety regulations to ensure students are safe in the facilities they stay in before recommendation can be presented to the board.
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