Cashing in
Last week, Carleton elementary school essentially won a lottery when education minister George Abbott announced it was one of 80 schools in B.C. to land a playground grant in the final round of playground funding from the provincial government.
The grant, worth $50,000 to Carleton, caught the school community by surprise.
Principal Tim Krug told me Parent Advisory Council chairwoman Ella Ngo had talked with members of the District Parent Advisory Council about getting playground funding, and Carleton's previous principal, Pat Munton, had been an "incredible advocate" when the school wasn't included on a previous list of schools being awarded grants. But Carleton hadn't been notified cash would be forthcoming.
"Our accessing this funding at this time is incredibly fortunate as I had just reported out at our last PAC meeting that one of our playgrounds is now scheduled for removal by the summer of 2016," Krug told the Courier. "This playground is extremely popular with our younger students and this funding will definitely help in its replacement."
Carleton elementary, located at 3250 Kingsway, has about 330 students in kindergarten to Grade 7.
Parent groups are charged with raising money to replace playground equipment, which requires an enormous effort over several years to collect enough to cover costs that can range from $20,000 to more than $100,000.
Carleton PAC meetings, however, usually only draw four or five parents, of which three are actively involved in fundraising, according to Krug. Ngo, a mother of four with another child on the way, spearheads fundraising drives and recruits students to help. She's organized movie nights, a garage sale, a carnival and a sports day concession, among other events to collect much-needed money for the school. "We have moved our PAC meeting times from evenings to during school hours but have yet to be able to increase our parental numbers," Krug said. The school's goal next year is to attract more parents, but both Krug and Ngo are aware many Carleton parents work shift work or work varying hours, so attending parent meetings or taking part in fundraising efforts is difficult.
There are also language barriers-many parents don't speak English, Ngo said. "I try to translate as much as I can for some of the parents who do show up," she said. The parent group has been saving a portion of the school's annual casino funds allocation for several years to use to help buy playground equipment- there's about $14,000 in an account, but now that Carleton has been awarded the provincial playground grant, Ngo hopes that money can be used to spend on technology for the school.
The grant announcement, meanwhile, was welcome news. "I'm happy but I'll be happier when we actually see the money in out account," she said.
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