Neighbourhoods of Learning initiative gets some funding 'oomph'
By Andrew Zwicker
Three neighborhoods in our region have recently learned that their neighborhoods of learning projects will be getting a financial boost. The Rossland grant which was submitted by the City and supported by the School District was a matching grant of $10,000. The City of Rossland had previously set aside $10,000 for a planning charette which will now be used to back the NOL planning project.
School District 20 submitted three applications of $10,000 for projects in Rossland, Webster Elementary and Glenmerry Elementary. The Rossland and Webster projects were approved outright. The Gelnmerry Elementary project was approved in principle pending further documents and information being provided.
As reported earlier this spring in the Telegraph, the School Community Connections program (a partnership project between the Ministry of Education, UBCM (Union of British Columbia Municipalities) and the BC School Trustees Association) is strongly backing the neighborhoods of learning (NOL) concept and putting some serious dollars behind the effort. For 2010 the SCC program offered $30,000 to each school district which NOL projects could apply for funding to move their efforts forward.
According to the grant application, “The Rossland Neighborhood Learning Centre Planning project is intended to identify and involve potential stakeholders in a Rossland Neighborhood Learning Centre project as part of an overall vision of building a resilient learning focused community that views our schools as assets, embraces education for all stages of one's life and moves our community and schools from a student focus to a student, family and community focus."
With the first cheque for $7,500 now in hand, the City is moving forward on the next steps of the project. The City is currently accepting applications for a Neighborhoods of Learning Planning Coordinator position. The part time position will run from August through December of this year.
By the end of December, it is hoped that Rossland will have devloped a full plan outlining exactly how a NOL project would work in Rossland. The proposed plan will first outline a vision and work to gain community buy-in. Moving forward, a full research project (starting with the identification of all potential stakeholders interested in co-locating in Rossland schools) will ultimately lead to a plan outlining possible configurations and renovations required to match community groups with space available. If no potential stakeholder are identified, a central component of the projects evaluation will be to discuss the barriers to co-locating and how those barriers might be overcome.
The coordinator and group behind the project will have until June 30th, 2011 to complete their report. At that time, the remaining $2,500 of the grant will be issued.
SD 20 Superintendent Jean Borsa was delighted to have all three NOL projects in this region accepted and looks forward to seeing them in action.
“Oh, it's always wonderful when you get grants approved,” she said. “This is just great. I'm hoping for ideas about how communities and schools can work together to create neighborhoods of learning. It'll likely be different in each community, but the whole idea is how can we best utilize the space we have to benefit our students, our families and our communities. If it helps us keep schools from closing that is good too, but I think most of the focus is on how do we provide services to our communities through a neighborhood hub located in our schools.”
