OSOYOOS TIMES-November 3, 2010

By Paul Everest – Osoyoos Times

School District 53’s Roots of Empathy programs will continue after the district’s board approved measures at its Oct. 27 meeting to allocate instructional funds to the programs.
The programs involve bringing a baby into a classroom in order to foster empathy and compassion in students.
Marieze Tarr, who serves as Osoyoos’s trustee on the board, told the board that she had received a recent message from Roots of Empathy’s provincial office that each of the district’s nine programs would have to pay $250.
Tarr said she was informed that it costs $500 to run each program, but Roots of Empathy’s national office is matching each $250 payment.
The money, she said, is used to pay for the programs’ curriculums and for program-related research at institutions such as the University of British Columbia and the University of Manitoba.
Tarr said it was unfair of the program’s provincial office to ask for the cash so late into the year, especially since the district’s bank account for the programs was recently depleted to pay for the training of another Roots of Empathy instructor.
In the past, the district has earmarked cash to pay for the training of program instructors.
Tarr therefore asked the board for $2,500 so that the district’s programs could run for the year.
The money, she added, is needed immediately.
Of that amount, $250 would go to pay for each of the nine programs with $250 left over for additional operating needs.
Tarr told the board that all of the programs’ instructors are volunteers and there is no provincial funding for volunteer training.
She added that she received a call recently asking if School District 53 would run a program in the Penticton school district since the program was cut there last year.
Okanagan Falls trustee Sam Hancheroff said the money for the programs should be provided by the federal and provincial governments and he asked what would happen if the district refused to pay the $250 and kept running each program.
But the district’s assistant superintendent Jim Insley, said not paying could mean jeopardizing the licensing for the programs here.
Because provincial funding for the programs has been cut, Tarr said program coordinators in the district have been working hard to establish funding for the program through partnerships with community groups such as the Osoyoos Rotary Clubs.
In response to Tarr’s request, Insley said he had money in his instructional budget to cover the $2,500 needed to keep the programs running in the district this year.
Keremeos trustee Myrna Coates recommended that the board also write a letter to the provincial government about how important the Roots of Empathy program is and to let the government know that other districts have had to cut the program due to a lack of funding.
The board also discussed an offer from an Oliver construction company to provide the district with a donation towards a specific project or need.
Superintendent Juleen McElgunn said the company has donated towards scholarships and other projects such as the renovations to the Frank Venables Auditorium at Oliver’s Southern Okanagan Secondary School.
It was therefore suggested that the company could be approached to provide its donation, in the amount of $5,000, to help fund the Roots of Empathy program for another year and to train one more instructor for Keremeos.
The board therefore passed a motion allowing for Insley to allocate $2,500 to the district’s Roots of Empathy programs for this school year.
Included in the motion was the direction for the district to write the suggested letter to the provincial Education Ministry emphasizing the importance of the Roots of Empathy program and encouraging the province to restore funding, as well as the direction to approach the Oliver construction company about donating to the program.
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