School District 72 Holds First Board Meeting Of The New School Year

School District 72 held its first board meeting of the new school year on Tuesday, September 5, 2023.

Board Chair Kat Eddy started things off by welcoming students, staff, and families back to school, while also welcoming the district’s new superintendent, Geoff Manning.

She also thanked Dr. Jeremy Morrow, who left SD72 for Comox Valley Schools at the end of last year.

After a challenging 2021-2022 school year due to increased sick replacement costs following the COVID pandemic and inflation, the district delivered a balanced budget for 2022-2023 through $2 million in reductions and a draw on the district’s emergency contingency funds.

To help rebuild the district’s emergency contingency, the board agreed to leave $1 million in unrestricted reserves and direct $244,418 of the operational surplus to the emergency contingency.

The board then agreed to use the remaining $230,000 of operational surplus for proposed initiatives which included $30,000 to hire consulting services to assist with improving health and safety compliance, $100,000 to restore previously cut funds for strategic priorities, $50,000 to renovate the highly used Robron meeting room, and $50,000 to start saving towards the replacement of CIMS (the district’s financial, HR, and payroll software system that is nearing end of life).

You can watch a recording of the meeting on the district’s YouTube channel.