After a full day in McBride Tuesday, school trustees faced a full night of discussion on rural education after months of consultations led to 14 recommendations.
Sports teams travelling into Prince George can now be billeted at John McInnnis Centre, for example.
"I think that's going to be a real plus for teams in Mackenzie, Valemount and Mcbride," said chairperson Tony Cable, adding the rural schools can also sleep students in their gyms. "That will encourage Prince George teams to come up to tournaments that (rural schools) may want to host.
"It's sort of a two-way deal so it should work quite well."
Finding better modes of transportation for school trips got a second nod. It's more complicated, though, as the district will have to consider creating a society or working with existing groups in order to comply with safety and legal regulations.
It will be worth it, the report suggested, since the costs are extremely high for the remote areas, which pay for a bus to drive from Prince George, do the trip, and then drive back.
"We're going to ask staff to do more work to see what we can do to help out in the transportation area," Cable said. "That's another very expensive issue for the Robson Valley and Mackenzie area."
But some recommendations missed the mark.
School District 57 will retain Prince George in its name at least until it has dealt with the bigger issues. Trustees faced the question of a name change to better reflect the region but elected to push that conversation down the road, if at all.
"It's not going to help the rural students in any way and it would be nice to do but there's always cost involved, and there's a lot of time for trustees and staff to research it and the board just felt at this time there were other issues that were much more important."
After touring both elementary and secondary schools in McBride, trustees ditched the idea of a district principal of rural education.
"It became quite loud and clear when we met with all the different groups that this one wasn't something that they really thought there was a need for and could support. What they were thinking if you're going to spend money on a district principal, they would rather that money be spent on the ground to support teacher assistant, teachers and possibly more admin time for the principal in the school," he said, so that motion died on the floor without a trustee to second it.
Whether there was money for that position or if that funding could be diverted isn't a sure thing, with the district facing a more than million-dollar budget shortfall.
"We still have a lot of work to do," said Cable, noting last year it did find room to hand each rural secondary school $75,000.
"From what we heard that was very useful and it was very helpful to the schools. It would be fantastic to be able to do that but we just can't say at this time."
The province's Next Generation Network will make connections for rural students to video into other classrooms, but trustees heard that approach is only desirable in some circumstances.
"You really have to have motivated students. It's a good possibility but it's definitely not the total answer," Cable said.
The cheapest option came in at a price tag of $100,000 to $200,000 while the Cadillac version edged in on $1 million.
"We're definitely going to try video conferencing but try to do it as inexpensively as we can," he said, adding there's more to consider, like "if we have the money to put towards that, look at the possibilities and where the equipment can be stored."
That decision was deferred to the May 31 meeting, when the budget is also expected to be tabled.
