Persistence is an option Kelowna-Lake Country MLA Norm Letnick continues to employ to seek capital funding for the replacement of Rutland Middle School.
With a new education and childcare minister appointed to cabinet by Premier David Eby, Surrey-Green Timbers riding MLA Rachna Singh, Letnick took the opportunity to seek a meeting in the near future to reiterate the importance of local spending priorities.
“You raise these issues every year as part of the budget planning process, and this coming year there are capital spending needs for the Central Okanagan School District, in particular with regards to Rutland Middle School, ” Letnick said.
“Every MLA is doing the same thing but you have to continue to advocate on behalf of your constituents. We have been successful with the new middle school in Lake Country and commitment of funding for a new Westside secondary school.
“The battle goes on and you never quit.”
He also acknowledged a new school board may also bring a change in capital planning priorities, although the replacement of Rutland Middle has been the top school replacement priority for many years.
“We just have to keep the faith. I hear from parents and so do other MLAs and school trustees about the need to replace Rutland Middle. Everyone here wants the same thing,” he said.
“It is a matter of continuing chasing for those scarce dollars allocated for across the province, and continue to advocate for a share of those dollars to come here.”
For more than a decade, the school district has attempted to resolve the aging Rutland Middle infrastructure problems with a school replacement.
A search for a new school site failed to find a suitable location, and attempts to have land removed from the Agricultural Land Reserve for a school site were turned down by the Agricultural Land Commission.
Another proposal to disperse Quigley Elementary students to other neighbouring schools and repurpose the school as a new middle school were also rejected by the ministry of education, which has placed greater capital funding priority on building new schools in enrolment growing areas.