Amid a barrage of funding announcements in the 琉璃神社 area, local MLA鈥檚 Norm Letnick and Steve Thomson met with the Central Okanagan School District Wednesday morning and gave the green-light to two important school projects in the Central Okanagan.

The pair met with three members of the school board, including board chair Moyra Baxter, who was contacted Tuesday and told the government was going to make an announcement about two schools in the district: Rutland Middle and a new school for Lake Country.

Both have long been on the board鈥檚 top five capital project list and are in the final stages of approval from the province. While the Wednesday announcement wasn鈥檛 final approval on the projects, it is being seen as good news by the school board, which has been pushing for the projects for years.

鈥淭his is good news,鈥� said Central Okanagan Public Schools superintendent Kevin Kaardal. 鈥淭hese are important steps in these projects coming closer to being realized.鈥�

The Liberal MLA鈥檚 informed the board that the projects were moving ahead. A project report for a new middle school for Lake Country is currently under review to advance to the final funding decisions in the coming months, while a project report for moving Rutland Middle to Quigley Elementary will be submitted to the Ministry by September to enter the next stages of approval.

School board chair Moyra Baxter agreed it was good news for the projects.

鈥淩utland we鈥檝e been waiting for so long and last year the ministry took a look at Rutland (moving to Quigley) which we had put forward as a proposal. This is some movement and now we can move forward and hopefully within three yeas have these projects completed which would be wonderful so I will keep the fingers crossed.鈥�