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School district working on video surveillance policy

Notes from the Feb. 6, 2013, meeting of the Revelstoke Board of Education

The Revelstoke School District is developing a new policy on how it will use video cameras installed inside Revelstoke Secondary School and Begbie View Elementary.

“The reason we’re just doing a draft now is because we never had video surveillance before,” said superintendent Mike Hooker. “With our new schools it came as a part of the offer.”

The policy is currently being worked on by a committee and Hooker said the draft wasn’t ready to be made public yet. He did say it would be based on the policy outlined in the BC School Act.

“It won’t be long before ours is ready,” he said. “The policy itself is quite simple.”

The School Act says that video surveillance can be used in schools to protect individuals, their property and school property, but only with prior approval of the school’s planning council.

Hooker said video surveillance is currently being used at RSS after the school community was notified. The video cameras at BVE have yet to be activated.

“There’s pretty strict rules around [how] you use it, but until I have the opportunity to tell the school community how we use it, I just don’t use it,” he said.

Big Eddy Elementary the first to go

Big Eddy Elementary school is the first on the school district’s lists of old properties to dispose of.

As part of the new schools agreement, the school district is required to contribute $2.4 million to the project through the disposal of surplus properties. The district is looking to sell its Big Eddy, Mountain View and Mount Begbie Elementary Schools.

As the first property the school district vacated in 2002, Big Eddy is the first one being looked at for disposal. In a report to the Board of Education, associate superintendent Anne Cooper wrote that a consultant has been hired to work with the district and the city to come up with plans for the property.

The school district is also looking at whether or not they should demolish the school before selling it, or leave the building standing.

All the groups using the school have been moved to other locations. Once a plan for the disposition of Big Eddy Elementary is developed, attention will be shifted to Mountain View, then Mount Begbie.

Theatre fees changed

The fees for using the Revelstoke Performing Arts Centre have changed following feedback from user groups.

The new fee is now $200 plus 10 per cent of the gate for local non-profit groups. For other groups it is $400 for five hours or less and $600 for more than five hours, plus 10 per cent of the gate.

The theatre has been a success so far, with a variety of shows attracting big crowds. Alan Chell, the chair of the Board of Education, said it has attracted some shows that otherwise wouldn’t have come to Revelstoke.

Anne Cooper named to child care council

Anne Cooper has been named to the Provincial Child Care Council, a group that advises the Minister of of Children and Family Development on child care issues.

Cooper, who is retiring as superintendent at the end of this school year, was appointed to the council by Minister Stephanie Cadieux.

“The advice and assistance of Council members is invaluable as government continues to build a quality early leaning and child care system in British Columbia,” Cadieux wrote to Cooper in her letter of appointment.