Rural education, sustainable funding and School District 57's vulnerable students were among the topics trustees raised in a private meeting with B.C.'s education minister Monday.
The district's seven trustees presented on seven areas of concern to Peter Fassbender after the Innovation Forum was held in Prince George on Monday.
"It was a very respectful meeting, but we didn't pull any punches," said chairperson Tony Cable. "We were honest and up front. Basically we covered all the issues that were concerning us."
That includes Bill 11 - and the fear that it's an attack on the autonomy of democratically elected boards of education - as well as raises for administrative staff, which are at the same levels as 2009.
The most promising item was around the unique problems faced by rural learners and access to education. Cable said Prince George will host a rural education forum in October to address these issues.
Brenda Hooker noted some schools in Prince George are over 100 per cent capacity, while some rural schools are at 35 per cent.
"We're never going to achieve those 100 per cent capacity rate in our rural schools because of declining enrollment," Hooker said.
"That really impacts our capital funding. We were really able to get (that) message across."
Cable objected to Fassbender's comments at the forum that the government has increased funding to education.
"That answer's always given and indirectly the Ministry is giving more: the more they gave was to cover contracts that they negotiated with other groups," Cable said. "They're not covering MSP premium, and hydro rate (increases)."
"What we say to that is each agency, each branch of the government, each public body has to make priorities. We would like the priority to be public education," Cable said.
It's what Hooker called a "philosophical difference" in the approach to education.
"(Fassbender) said pretty much 'the money is the money' and until the province is in a position to really be able to provide more funding, we kind of have to make do," she said.
"That was somewhat the theme of the forum too... being innovative with the resources we have."
"For me it's about choices. It's about the choices government's making with the funding they have," said Hooker, who is chair of the finance committee.
Hooker said she felt the district was recognized for its hard work and that Fassbender "was very receptive to our input."
Bob Harris echoed her comments.
"It's one of those meetings where there won't be any promises made but we made the points we wanted to make," said Harris of the meeting with Fassbender and local Liberal MLAs Shirley Bond and Mike Morris.
It made for a better opportunity at communication, he said.
"There's sending letters and then there's meeting people face-to-face," he said.
"The important thing is we got the information out that we wanted to and conveyed that as accurately and concisely and forcefully as we could."
Both Harris and Tim Bennett said they got the expected responses out of the meeting.
"I think any time you have the opportunity to sit and talk and share your concerns directly with the minister and our MLAs is a positive thing," Bennett said.
