The more than $1.18 million funding boost for the Howe Sound school district announced last March will "support initiatives to help students learn," announced West Vancouver-Garibaldi MLA Joan McIntyre on Sept. 1. "Special education, the arts and library services will benefit greatly from this increase in funding to the school districts," said McIntyre. Howe Sound School District secretary treasurer Nancy Edwards said the boost is substantial considering that the overall district budget is $31 million."It's definitely giving a huge boost to the system," said Edwards. "That's a significant amount of money."School Districts 45 and 48 received funding boosts totaling nearly $3 million, their portion of a $150 million province-wide increase announced in Jan.And Howe Sound has said it will employ an automated library system for all schools, increase library expenditures and increase itinerant staff in speech language and elementary counseling. The district will also add a teacher to their faculty, reduce average class sizes and increase courses offered to secondary students. "Last year we'd allocate one teacher to 25 or 26 pupils," said Edwards. "This coming year it's one to 23 or 24 depending on what high school."The district submitted a preliminary budget to the Ministry of Education outlining where it intends to allocate the funds, but Edwards is quick to point out that changes may be in order once the district gets final enrolment figures, adding "hopefully it'll be up.
