Can Cortes Island students continue their schooling in Powell River?
Cortes Currents
English - November 12, 2021 11:52 - 5 minutes - 13.2 MBNews cortes island discovery islands quadra food security energy indigenous nations Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Nine Cortes Island students are waiting to hear whether they will have to move to Campbell River during their high school years. This has been the norm for many Cortes families. Others sent their children to a boarding house in Campbell River during the week. The parents of nine Cortes students found another option. They send their children to a Powell River school two days a week, through the Partners in Education program (PIE), and teach them at home the other three days.
This involves a quick boat ride across to Lund, where their children board a school bus.
However the Ministry of Education is streamlining its independent learning programs. Powell River is in a different school district (#47) and it is not certain that Cortes Island students, who are in school district #72, will be allowed to attend in the 2022/23 school year.
Cortes students will be allowed to continue enrolling, if Powell River can become a provincial online learning provider. Unfortunately, it is not yet known if the Powell River program qualifies, or if this is even a possibility for a small rural school.
The podcast incorporates interviews with two of the mothers and an email from the BC Ministry of Education
Can Powell River's Partners in Education program qualify as an a provincial online learning provider? - Photo by Aleksandra Kornilova on Unsplash