Photo: Contributed

The Central Okanagan Board of Education is renewing calls for municipalities to be more sensitive to the distance between cannabis retail stores and schools.

The board's planning and facilities committee will be asked at a meeting Wednesday night to voice its concern over a recent decision by West Kelowna council to give initial approval to a B.C. government cannabis store in close proximity to George Pringle Elementary.

The government store, if given final approval, would be located in the Westbank Town Centre, just 158 metres from the elementary school.

The distance is far less than the 500-metre distance requested by the Board of Education in a letter to the city last fall.

West Kelowna only requires a 100-metre separation between cannabis shops and elementary and middle schools and 250 metres from high schools.

The committee is being asked to send a "letter of concern" to the City of West Kelowna and to reiterate its preference for a minimum separation of 500 metres from all schools in the city.

The store, which would be the sixth in the city, must still go through a public hearing process before council is able to give final approval.

Initial approval narrowly passed in a 4-3 vote last week.