304: Cross-Sector Collaboration Between School Boards and Municipal Planning Departments

September 21, 2022

2:45PM - 3:45PM

Working with community partners, specifically municipal planning staff, is a key part of school board planning. Maintaining relationships between school board staff and municipalities ensures all parties are aligned when planning for future growth and the use of public assets. This has become especially important over the last two years for school boards and municipalities as we have seen significant growth in our communities and schools. Addressing these new accommodation challenges will require increased communication with community partners to ensure we have adequate student spaces available to manage current and projected enrolment growth.

The goal of this session is to continue bringing school board planning to the forefront of the conversation. Through this discussion, we hope to start the process of “silo-busting” — collaboration between different facets of local planning aimed at improving outcomes for our communities and schools. Successful silo-busting could be ensuring school blocks can be requested in a timely manner, sharing building permit data, or identifying opportunities for facility collaboration. The challenges municipalities face regarding housing and servicing tie directly to school board responsibility to provide spaces for more students to attend school; as a community’s population grows, so does the demand for services and amenities.

Planning for this growth together allows us to create complete communities where people want to live, work, and learn. Actions like sharing data and discussing local trends are steps towards stronger relationships that are mutually beneficial. Over the past two years, we have seen what we can achieve when we work together; let us apply that same lesson here to build the best communities we can.
 

Speakers