To the Editor,
Re: Parents angry over logo cost, Sept. 18.
Thank you for publishing the district branding decision that was made by the school board and trustees.
I need to add my voice to the outcry. I think the first thing the school board and the trustees should think about before they spend any money whatsoever on anything is how does this directly affect the children in a positive way.
They need to hear from us as parents on our extreme dissatisfaction on wasteful spending.
This logo could be designed for free by a student. It could be a contest and a local company could choose the winner.
There isn’t any need to employ an expensive Vancouver company. The schools in Nanaimo are not a big corporation. We are a community.
It would mean so much more to us to spend the money on artists in the schools, or books for the libraries, or just about anything that would actually benefit the kids directly.
I think there are too many trustees, and positions in the school board that are useless in regards to directly making our children’s education more meaningful.
I’d rather the principals were able to hire people who are experts in math or science or art or literature to come in and engage the children in workshops where they actually do something and, heaven forbid, learn. The $24,000 would go a really long way in this.
I also think the board could do as good a job with six trustees instead of nine. The money saved on salaries could go to the classrooms for supplies or classes in visual arts and drama, both of which are sorely lacking within the current curriculum.
We are a lovely community in Nanaimo. Let’s all band together and make some changes that will be good for our children, and not support the ridiculous bureaucracy that the school board and the trustees have become.
Valentina Cardinalli
Nanaimo