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Board looking for money to continue study

The school board is "regrouping" on the issue of changing its make-up to include more Haida representatives, but chair Andreas Uttendorfer says it's aiming to have a submission in Victoria's hands well ahead of the local elections next November.
"We are committed to follow this and go the last mile, so to speak," Mr. Uttendorfer told the board as it met in Masset Oct. 26. He also said he had heard back from the two band councils on the issue, but was not able to make public their views just yet.
The process is called trustee variation, and one of the problems the board now faces is lack of money. It originally budgeted $12,000 for the process, increased that to $15,000, but to this point has spent $16,320, all but $1,320 covered by off-island agencies.
The board is now asking for more money from both the Gwaii Trust and the BC School Trustees' Association to pursue its plans to change representation, and apparently can do little without more outside funding.
Meetings on the issue were held in several communities last spring. The board plans more, one in the north and one in the south end, but no firm dates have been set.