HALF of the students who attended the Teen Le last year couldn't come this fall because the district arning Centre get kids that have dropped aut. to-return to the school system. was unable to District officials say they're following the racommendations of an get grants for them. The school uses innovative means to try to audit that didn’t support the creative procedures. -een Learning Centre failed - to reform problem students Auditors said the special school was disorganized, missed out on grants and didn’t actually require students to attend. Backers say it’s still a success. - By ALEX HAMILTON HALF the troubled students who attended the Teen Learning Centre last year weren’t al- lowed to return this fall because the school district bungled its record keeping, Staff at the special school on Greig Ave, have ‘spent: this: fall working to address the stinging criticisms of a ministry audit for the benefil of the remaining students. © - -The ministry special education team con- ducted an audit here las!. winter and found only 36 ‘out of 72 students registered at the Teen Learning Centre (TLC) met the ministry’s re- quirements to attend the school;..- ~ _ Te rdedive pectal ‘tludition. dollars’ tor’? Grade'8 ‘to! 10’Sfudents to?attend:the TLC; the ‘= district: must have documénted proof ‘that each” student has a severe behaviour disorder, mean- . ing. they have antisocial or extremely disrup- tive behaviour~in: the: regtilar school environ- ment. 0 ae ’ The’ district must-also have individual edu- cation plans for each student and documents demonstrating ‘the~district has exhausted its own. resources to manage within the typical ‘range of special education interveations. Andrew Scruton, assistant superintendent, said ‘in.many cases, students met the: minis- try’s criteria for having severe behaviours, but the district didn’t have the proper. paperwork done to prove.it. ~~ a ‘Sertton said it?s difficult to explain why the paper work wasn’t done last year for 36 stud ents who were attending the school, ° “I think we expanded very quickly aad in. expansion. you want to.get the. programs. in place for the kids and you may overlook the paperwork,” Scruton said. --The 36 students who. failed to qualify for “ministry education-dollars this -year were left to find alternate means for -an education this September. * Scruton said the district has tried to accom- modate ‘these students in other proprams where: possible, but. the reality is there isn’t another ‘school in Terrace suited to their needs.. Scruton admitted .that. since: many of these students were expelled or suspended from school, or have a number of profound. social problems, it is difficult for them to re-enter the regular school system at Caledonia or Skeena, THE SCHOOL district is develop- ing new suspension policies and intervention plans to keep stud- ents from dropping oul of high school. — . Sharon Beedle, acting superin- tendent, said the district needs to keep more them. drop out. stead of suspending or expelling She said teachers must make sure work meets students’ abilitics so youlh don’t pet frustrated and There is a waiting list at Lakelse Junior High, the alternative school, and correspon- dence school, which requires heavy self-disci- pline, could be difficult for many of them to complete. “Hopefully we can serve them in regular school, but the reality is, we could miss system,” he said. “We deliberately did not have an altendance policy.” Instead of focussing on allendance, teachers were more concerned with connecting students with something positive and reconnecting them with community support networks. Due to the audit, altendance will be moni- some,” said Dawn--Martin, acting director of tored and programs will be more regimented student support services. , Aside from not having the student’s school history paper work done, auditors were very critical of the way the TLC was being run and called for a dramatic restructuring of the school, : ne abe this year. “Thal way students will get used to more structure so the transition to Secondary school won't be as difficult. “We're going to work really hard to get cone sino ostudents back into high school,” Martin said. , Ney steep ue bit > atdiacerrpry, gee, TERR ye 5 wp, : we 'As'd'resultOf!the audit, studgats allending,,, .... Martin’ said the school’ two outreach work. programs and’ more regimented classes. _In the report, auditors stated they were con- cerned with the TLC’s program delivery, lack “We wanted to make the school somewhere we could re- connect students with the school system. We deliberately did not have an attendance policy.” - Andrew Scruton, of involvement with outside agencies, inade- quale documentation of attendance and pro- pram directions. he TLC this year will find, stricter academic, : ers, who worked with correspondence stud-' ents, had to been laid-off this year‘due to the luss of the 36 students. That means any students who are recluse or withdrawn won’t have anyone visiting their homes and encouraging them to return to school. As a result of the audit, the TLC’s two full time teachers and two full lime support staff will also begin working more closely with community agencies like the Ministry of Children and Families, the Kermode Friend- ship Society, Drug and Alcohol workers and probation officers to help children. “The schools and agencies must work to- gether for a plan to help that child succeed,” Martin said. “That wasn’t happening on a for- The report stated that instead of operating mal basis.” as a temporary program set up to get students back: into their regular high schools, failed ai getting many students back system. ; Auditors wrote: “The TLC is acting, in most cases, in isolation from the schools and, as a result, there appears to have been very little communication ‘or exchange af documenta: tion.” - _ Auditors were also very critical of the spor- adic attendance patterns of students. ~ However, Scruton said attendance wasn’t strictly enforced at the school for a reason. He said the school was acting as an outreach pro- ‘ful But for the TLC to work, Martin said, the the TLC whole communily will have to work together into the to help students succeed. “We have to work together to support them and given them the tools to live successful lives,” Martin said. Despite the auditor’s report, Marlin said the TLC has provided a valuable and much need- ed service over the years. “The TLC have a staff that’s extremely de- voted to kids,” she said. “They give 100 per cent.” She added that the TLC was very success- in what it was doing — making contact gram to draw students who weren't attending with dozens of youths who were not attending school back into the classraom. school, many who were living on the street, “We wanted to make the school somewhere and Starting them-back in school and on the we could reconnect students with the schoo! road to completing their education, New rules aim to keep kids from dropping out students in school in- Behavioural action, she said. “"We need -to be problems must also be deall with in different Ways, not in suspensions. Suspension will be a last re- sorl, rather than a first or second Beedle said. She said schools in the district are looking at different alterna- tives for students who skip oul. Those include Saturday school or having the students’ parents come creative,” to school for the day. - Aletter to the editor What to do with Th Dear Sir: After the 1999 municipal elections in Ter- race, | am left with many thoughts to ponder. One thing that keeps rising to the top is How could it have failed? How could the referen- dium on the multiplex have failed? There. is some comfort in knowing the. tax- payers of Terrace voted in favour of laking this community forward. i vee ° What’ l find difficult to understand is how a minority, a-user group which was going to pay only 30 per cent of the cost, could deprive the majority who was going to be- responsible for the 70 per cent. The ts something wrong. After Ustening to wit, Talstra's-comments in regards ic ihe failiere of the multiplex referen-. dum, 1 must concede that] agree with his po- sition. “It’s time the City of Terrace re-evalu- ales its relationship with Thornhill." With the failure of the amalgamation vote and now the multiplex it is plain to see that Thornhill is against regional development, Does Thornhill feel threatened, possibly jea- lous of what is provided in the city,.or are they so stuck.in their ways. that they don't. want to see the area prosper. Who knows’. - The time may be right for the city to ap- proach the province and make application to annex portions of Thornhill, one area at a time, possibly starting with the commercial development along Highway 16... .- 0. Vm sure it would not be long and the resi- dential areas would be knocking at thé door to ornhill? become part of the city, if from nothing else, relief from their residential property taxes. With the provincial government's present fi- nancial state, and the lack of community spirit shown by Thornhill, this. may be the situation the government has’ been looking for to force Thornhill out from under the umbrella of the tegional districl and into a situation which they find more. manageable. - For the residents of Thornhill, there is one thing they must always remember, no matter how much they dislike being associated’ with . Tettace, their mailing address will always be Tértace, B.C. S. Ireland, Terrace, B.C. The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December 1, 1999 - AS CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD The Mail Bag ‘No’ vote a shame Dear Sir: My husband and | have been residents of Thorn- hill for seven years now. There are many endearing qualities about the area - nice big lots, low traffic flow, friendly neighbours, not to mention an excel- lent golf course. However, (here seems to be a resounding opi- nion that the status quo is a good thing. We dis- agree. Every community has to progress, even if that progression requires the inevitable increase in taxes. , It is very unfortunate that Thornhill residents voted down the multiplex. We believe the facility would have given aur kids an increased opportunity to participate in organized sports and other activi- ties. a The fact that it was voted down here perhaps says a couple of things, Firstly, voters in Thornhill are an older crowd whose kids are all grown up and no longer need recreational facilities, They may have selfishly decided that since they may person- ally have no use for the multiplex, they don't want to pay for it. . Kids need organized programs, kids need hock- ey. Now you can bet tomorrow. they'll gripe about all the youth hanging out at the mall, and later, just wait and see, what a hangout the Mac's store will be. ‘Secondly, if there are as many young families in Thornhill as we think there are, these people simply aren't showing up lo vote. Not even when it could possibly have such an affect on their child- ren. What they fail to see is that this multiplex would have benefited the community as a whole. Not only would there be jobs created during con- struction of the project, but jobs created for the long term, as parks and rec staff levels would have to increase. ; This project was a tough sell in Thornhill, and [ feel it should have been promoted more (ie: better media coverage of the upcoming community meetings). The only advance notice that I can re- call was in the paper the same day of the meeting. By the time we had sat down to read the Standard, the meeting was over. We also feel, had the emphasis on price been represented as a per-household cost increase to taxes rather than the ballot figure of $ 7.6 million, the project would have had a better chance of passing in Thornhill. Old folks like Les Watmough have a tough time understanding that you can't put up a structure like that for ihe same kind of dollars they could in “his day”. Rest assured, sooner or later, Terrace/Thornhill will get a second sheet of ice, but it will cost more than average $100 per household the $7.6 million would have worked out to be. Don and Shelley Fisher, Terrace, B.C. __. Proud to vote ‘no’ Dear Sir: ' “Tin proud to say that’l am one of the Thornhill" °' voters that sunk the multiplex, at least for the time being. My reason for voting “no” was not primarily the higher tax burden on Thornhill people, contrary to what Les Watmough may say. Quite frankly, I find it morally obscene to spend millions so some _ people can play when there are hungry, poorly clothed children and families living here. While sixty or so extra dollars a year might not seem like much, I expect many landlords will pass that increase to their tenants, who may already be stretched to the limit in providing shelter for their families. [ doubt that most of the disadvantaged children in the area would benefit from having the extra sheet of ice or a convention centre. I wonder how ardently people would campaign and how many would vote yes if we were borrow- ing $7.6 million for subsidized housing, school feeding programs and high-quality affordable day- care. Somehow we've gotten our priorities wrong. I'll vote yes for the multiplex when the food bank closes due to lack of business. Anneke van Keulen, Terrace, B.C, Recycling needed Dear Sir: Re: Vi Timmerman’s letter on recycling. (Nov. 10, 1999). Right on Vi! I am new to Terrace and I was quite surprised that there is no serious recyc- ling here. I came from an area that has been recycling for quite some time and when initially started showed a phenomenal reduction of material going into the dump almost immediately. This noticeable reduc- tion was the result of approximately one quarter of the populace. Can you imagine the reduction of material if everyone were so inclined? Unfortunately the majority still find recycling too complicated to participate in but are the first to cry foul when the air starts to stink. Be that as it may I’m still removing labels washing and squashing. It not only takes up consid- erably less space in the container but there are no enticing aromas to attract our four-legged friends. As for leftovers there aren’t any. Bither F eat them or the K-9s do. And incidentally I also stoop and scoop and I have seen only three other people do this in the four months that I’ve been here. The City of Terrace doesn’t even have to build a recycling station because as Vi aptly pointed out, Kitimat needs more material to keep their fa- cility operating, What the City of Terrace should supply, how- ever, is a truck for me to transport said material to Kitimat for recycling. And I'll do it for half the price someone else would. So Vi, keep up the positive and environmentally sound thinking. Too bad there aren't more of you out there! Have you ever thought of running for of- fice? . M. Logan, Terrace, B.C, THE TERRACE Standard welcomes letters to the editor. Our deadline is noon Fridays; noon Thursdays on @ long weekend, You can write us at 3210 Clinton St, Terrace, B.C, V8G SR2. Our fax number is 250+ 638-8432 or you can email us at standard@kermode.net eters must be signed and must have a phone nun- : Fr .