By Ella Matte, contributor
View Royal will continue to fund school crossing guards – reversing course after telling the school district it would stop the funding after the current school year.
The town was asked for an estimated $40,050 by Nicole Duncan, chair for the Board of Education of Greater Victoria School District 61. This was $2,450 more than the year before when council approved funding it for $37,600.
Last September, View Royal’s former-Mayor David Screech wrote a letter saying the town had only approved funding towards crossing guard services for the 2022-2023 school year. Screech stated in the letter, “the Town View Royal does not agree that Local Government should be funding crossing guard services in perpetuity.”
But the new council approved funding for the guards at Tuesday night’s council meeting, as well a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) supporting stable funding forward from year to year. Council was all in favour of the motion.
In View Royal, Eagle View Elementary and View Royal Elementary schools “require crossing guards at three intersections resulting in five hours per day in EA staffing cost,” Duncan stated in her letter to the council.
Mayor Sid Tobias told Black Press “there was some challenge of where the money should come from. As you know, the province and the school board have a tricky association with funding and that some school programs had to be cut already just to balance their budget. Some had mentioned that there were music programs that were already cut.”
Meredith Walker is a member of the parent advisory community at Eagle View Elementary school. She says funding for crossings guards is needed because the intersection at Eagle View is listed as “one of the most dangerous intersections in View Royal.”
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