Operations
The SD8 Operations team works to provide and maintain a safe, efficient and clean learning environment for students and staff at all of SD8 schools and facilities and the safe operation of school buses to ensure students arrive safely at school and back home again each day.
The team is responsible for:
- Student Transportation (busing)
- Facilities Maintenance (including carpentry, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, grounds maintenance, radon testing and water lead testing)
- Custodial Services
- Facilities Planning (short- and long-term)
Student Busing
See detailed information on SD8 bus routes, code of conduct, bus passes, winter bus routes and more:
Maintenance
School and facility ventilation systems in SD8 meet requirements for regular inspection and maintenance, and SD8 tracks and reports on additional mitigations that have been put in place to ensure safe, reliable ventilation that promotes student and staff safety.
Radon Testing
The Interior Health Authority (Interior Health or IHA) created a program to test for and mitigate radon to assist school districts to meet the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation. The Regulation contains legal requirements that must be met by all workplaces under the inspectional jurisdiction of WorkSafeBC.
Although there is no mandatory province-wide radon testing requirement for BC school districts, the BC Centre for Disease Control does provide a testing guideline, and Health Canada recommends action if levels exceed 200 Bq/m³. Interior Health’s recommendation is to conduct a radon full re-test every five years or after major renovations that could impact radon levels, such as HVAC changes or structural modifications to the lowest occupied levels.
Radon testing is performed using a long-term monitor, such as an alpha track detector, placed in the lowest daily occupied level of a site for a minimum of three months which needs to include the winter months from November to April. A test duration of at least three months provides initial data, with longer tests of up to a year offering greater accuracy the longer they are conducted. The detector is then sent to a lab for analysis, providing a long-term average radon level.
School District No.8 (Kootenay Lake) began this recommended program in 2023. Each year, SD8 tests one-third of our schools, which exceeds the recommendation of testing every five years. As of 2025-2026, all of the child care spaces will be tested annually to support child care licensing requirements.
Radon Test Results
Water Lead Testing
The British Columbia Ministry of Education requires that all public and independent school authorities test their school facilities' drinking water for lead once every three years, testing at least one-third of facilities each year. School authorities are required to develop their own testing program in consultation with the Regional Health Authority, reporting results annually by February 28. Elevated lead levels, above Health Canada's guideline of 0.005 mg/L, must be reported immediately, and strategies to reduce exposure to acceptable levels must be implemented, with results communicated to the school community.
School District No. 8 (Kootenay Lake) tests all taps, bottle fill stations and fountains that provide drinking water to staff, students and visitors.
All SD8 sites were tested for lead in water in 2023-2024 and 2024-2025. Beginning in the 2025-2026 school year, one-third of district sites will be tested annually. Following an initial water test, if a site has failed, a second test is done after running water for five minutes. Tests are sent to an independent lab for results that meet chain of possession requirements.
Locations that fail to meet the Health Canada guideline for lead in water are remediated by replacing the water fixture, replacing the filter in the case of bottle fill stations, or the taking the water fixture out of service. In some cases, bottled water is provided to students and staff as necessary until repairs and retesting can be done to show water meets Health Canada guidelines.
Water Lead Test Results
Facilities Planning
Facilities planning includes long-range facilities plans and capital operations plans and budgets to meet student and staff needs now and into the future.
