School District 57 will start meeting with the district's far-flung schools to develop a strategic plan for rural education.
The board set aside $20,000 at Tuesday night's meeting for the plan, which will include conversations with Mackenzie, McBride, Valemount, Pineview and Glenview schools.
That recommendation came from the board's new "ad hoc" committee on rural education. It said an approach that mimics past community consultation meetings "will provide the best information."
Trustee Sharel Warrington spoke strongly in favour of the recommendation.
"I think the ad hoc committee on rural education will serve the needs (of the rural schools), give them voice and an opportunity for them to express the needs of their unique communities."
Stormy Lake Consulting will be brought in to facilitate those meetings, as it did before with those for the strategic plan.
"They will definitely serve the purpose of the committee very, very well," Warrington said of the consulting group.
The money comes from a fund set aside in 2013 focused on the "development of a strategic plan" for the district. Of the original $100,000, $46,600 remained at the end of June this year.
Rural education has been an acknowledged concern for the district, which organized a rural education forum in October to discuss the unique needs of those schools.
In recent months the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George and Mackenzie Mayor Pat Crook have both sent separate letters calling on trustees to commit to creating a position on the school board for a rural representative by the next municipal election.
