The Rainy River District School Board will be holding its regular monthly meeting tonight at the North Star Community School in Atikokan at 7 p.m. (EST).
On the agenda is a proposal to support the initiatives of a northwestern school board consortium determined to make access to the Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION) as cost-effective for northern boards as it is for southern ones—and to allow Internet access through the network.
ORION is a new high-speed optical network connecting 50 Ontario institutions and organizations in a effort to bring leading-edge network capability to the publicly-funded educational and research community.
This northern school board consortium also is applying for funding from the “Connect Ontario: Broadband Regional Access” (COBRA) program to help cover the costs of connecting the boards to the closest hub of ORION—in Thunder Bay.
COBRA funding would cover some of both business plan development and infrastructure costs to bring broadband access to the boards.
Also on the agenda tonight is a motion to decide whether the west-end communities of the district should be designated a low population area, allowing them to provide one more trustee than the traditional representation by population equation would allow.
Education Director Warren Hoshizaki said the board must revisit this question every election year.
“It’s a legislative responsibility,” he said. “Trustees have to decide if they want to designate the west end as a low population area.”
By a pure representation by population determination, there would be three trustees from Fort Frances and two from the west end of the district, noted Hoshizaki.
However, due to the size of the area covered by the west end of the district and its relatively low population density, a unique situation is created.
He said in the last two election years, the board has allowed one extra trustee from the west end—giving them three reps and Fort Frances two.
The sixth trustee is from Atikokan while the final one represents First Nations communities.
The board also will hear reports at tonight’s meeting from the J.W. Walker building committee, the Special Education Advisory Committee, First Nation Advisory Committee, and the anti-bullying committee, among others.
It also will be mentioned that the meeting between the Town of Fort Frances and the board on the future of old Fort Frances High School, which was to have taken place last month, has been rescheduled for March 19.
The board also will recognize the excellence of the Later Literacy program at Atikokan High School and the Educational Support Personnel at the North Star Community School during tonight’s meeting.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
