News Item

February 13, 2012

News Release - 2012/2013 Budget Building Process

The Board of Education in Cowichan has launched a budget building process for 2012/2013 which intends to meet the goals in our Strategic Plan after seeking the views of our families and employees as well as community members. Our Board believes budgets should be a matter of profound public participation and must be created to reflect the expectations all of us have for quality learning and working conditions.

To this end, we have directed our Budget Committee to gather the information our board will need to make rational choices as we work. This will rest heavily on surveying the many realms in our district to ask questions which will allow us to come to grips with the following:

Current levels of service in the district

Impacts of previous cuts to services and programs

Additional resources which will supply quality learning and working conditions in our district

We will be assembling teams for this purpose and in addition, trustees will seek out staff, parents and students to participate in the budget process at their liaison schools. We hope to explore every area in our system using a simple survey to guide our research and our conversation. There is no area of district function and no voice among our families, employees or our communities who will be left out of this process.
When we have listened to our valley, our board will be in a better position to create a budget which serves our children and our staff. We encourage you all to take part in this effort.

Remember - this year the budget begins with you.

We want to ensure everyone who is willing to speak with us gets an opportunity to do so.

The work starts by mid February and will be completed by the end of March.

Any questions or concerns please contact:

Our Finance Committee Chair, Ellen Oxman 250-748-0321 ext 201 or budget@sd79.bc.ca

Find us on Facebook at The Budget Begins with You

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Media Contact:
Eden Haythornthwaite, Chair
250-709-7975
School District Website: www.sd79.bc.ca