WHEREAS Community Schools have provided a valuable service to diverse groups and individuals; AND WHEREAS cuts to funding and a change of mandate from the Province have forced Community Schools to cut many of their programs that benefited the broader community: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Union of BC Municipalities urge the provincial government to restore funding levels to allow Community Schools to have the flexibility to provide services to the broader community.
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION Government supports the idea of schools acting as a resource for the broader community, and new ways are being explored for school facilities to be more broadly available for programs that benefit the wider community. Funding formerly associated with community schools has been restored; however, school boards have the autonomy to decide how best to use it. Community schools funding, once provided to about 90 of the approximately 1500 public schools in the province, has been combined with funding for a group of school-linked programs such as school lunchbreakfast programs and youth and family workers to make up CommunityLINK funding. School boards receive CommunityLINK funding based on a formula that is a combination of the funding they used to receive for the group of programs and an index that captures community vulnerabilities. In the 200405 school year, the Ministry of Education added 10 million to CommunityLINK to restore former funding levels to school boards. Boards have the authority to decide which programs they want to fund through CommunityLINK to support vulnerable children. Some have continued to fund individual community schools, while others have moved to a zone model where a group of schools become a family of community schools.