| Five schools to be closed

New one will not open

By JENNIFER LANG
TWO TERRACE elementary schools will
close and a third under construction won't
open in September as part of measures to chop
the school district's budget by $3.5 million.

Trustees voted Mar. 26 to close both Park-
side Elementary and Copper Mountain Ele-
mentary.

A third, Mountainview Elementary, a new
scheo! that’s: being built‘on the bench in Ter-
race, will not open for the 2002-03 school year
and there’s no word on when it might open.

Up until last week, the only school closure
being contemplated in Terrace, at least pub-
licly. by the board, was E.T. Kenney.

Stewart Secondary School in Stewart, and
two elementary schools in Kitimat, Alexander
and Cormorant, will also be closed,

School board chair Linda Campbell blamed
the looming deficit on declining enrolment and
salary increases for. teachers that won't be
covered by the education minisiry. Skyrocket-
ing benefit payments are another factor.

Closing schools will save approximately
$400,000 in staffing, administration, utilities
and maintenance costs per school, she said.

Campbell said the board found it difficult to
come up with a rationale for opening Moun-
tainview.

It’s costing $3.2 million to build and is
three-quarters complete, on track to open in
September.

“If we're closing schools right now, how can
you justify opening one?”

When the provincial government approved
Mountainview Elementary, the population on
Terrace’s bench was booming.

’ The board decided to close Capper Moun-
tain because trustees say there is enough room
for those students at Thornhill Primary and
Elementary, she said. :

The drastic action closes one-quarter of the
district's elementary schools and only solves
part of the district's financial problem.

Another $1.35 million in cuts still have ta
be made.

The board learned just before spring break it
has until April 27 to pass a balanced budget.
That's sooner than the June deadline it antici-

eget ad inbgetis sane:

THE NEW $3.2 million elementary school on the bench is about 75 per cent complete,

but won't see children any time soon.

pated.

Staff layoffs and larger class sizes will be
considered next.

Campbell said district enrolment declined
by 1,000 full-time students in the past five

years to under 7,000. It expects. to lose another

250 students by September.

It's not yet known how a one-time pravin-
cial grant to the district of $496,979 an-
nounced Thursday will affect the Financial si-
tuation.

Copper Mountain and Parkside Elementary
school parents and. staff learned just days ago
their schools were being considered for clo-
sure. Both were included in an inventory of
schools that looked at school populations .and
the number of classrooms being used.

“It found the equivalent of 66 empty class-
roams district wide — and that’s at current
class sizes.

Meanwhile, high schoo! students in Stewart
— a town that’s lost a quarter of its residents
due to a decline in mining activity and the
Skeena Cellulose crisis — will jain elementary
students in one building, Stewart Elementary.

Stewart resident Angela Brand, a mother of

two young children she says represent the |

town’s future, urged the board to keep the ele-
mentary and secondary school open. She said

many people can’t walk away because they’ ve
bought homes and businesses,

“Please do not count us out,” Brand said.
“If we cannot coun: on education as something
to offer people moving to town, it will be very
hard to rebuild our future.” ae

No schools in Hazelton or Kitwanga will be
closed, Hazelton schools are operating at.ca-
pacily and it’s too expensive to bus Kitwanga
students elsewhere, Terrace trustee Diana
Penner said, ;

She defended the decision to mothball the

new school on the bench, even though Uplands -

Elementary has. 394 students, making it: the
biggest elementary school in the district. —

“If we had opened Mountainview we would
have taken pressure off that school, but it
would not be at capucity.We need to beat
capacity, dollar for dollar,” Penner said,

Penner said she considered turning in a de-
ficit budget that maintains schools and pro-
grams, a move that could get the board fired.

But in the end she decided trustees would
be able to make cuts that have fewer negative
impacts than bureaucrats dispatched by Vic-
toria.

“T think IT can look at my community with
more of a heart than somebody coming in with
no vested interest,” Penner said.

TWO Terrace-area school
trustees didn’t take part in
last week’s board decision
to close five schools.

The motion passed with
just seven of nine trustees
voting.

Thormhill trustee Gary
Turner and Terrace trustee
Hal Stedham had to de-
Clare a conflict-of interest .
at the March 26 board
meeting, board chair Linda
Campbell said.

Both men have family
members who are school

Two trustees don’t vote, cite conflict

ie ge

district employees.

The two trustees re-
moved themselves from
the vote based on recent
legal advice.

The district recently
sought a lawyer’s opinion
on the issue, Campbell
said, adding a 1998 legal
opinion also factored into
their decision.

“There was a perceived
conflict of interest,”
Campbell said, adding the
district could be financial-
ly liable if Stedham and

From front

“What's the
whole point of hav-
ing a trustee if
they don’t have a
vote?”

Turner took part in the de-
cision to close schools.
For example, Campbell
said, a laid off employee
could mount a legal chal-
lenge arguing a trustee’s
family member benefitted

Hal Stedham

from the board’s decision.

“You could end up put-
ting all those teachers
back into the school and
paying for them.”

The failure of Terrace
trustees to vote has an-
gered some parents.

“What’s the whole
point of having a trustee if

they don’t have a vote?” .

demanded Tracy Felhauer,
chair of the Parents Advi-
sory Council at Parkside
Elementary.

The Coast Mountains

More cuts may be needed

and many parents can’t af-
ford their fees anyway.

She noted the education
ministry returned $43 mil-
lion to districts last week
after saving more money
than it needed to.

“Maybe they’re feeling
a little bit of pressure and
maybe if the parents keep
up the fight, things will
change,” she said.

Parkside parents fought
to save the school just two
years ago.

Leslie Ljungh, Parkside
PAC co-chair, said parents
may have been compla-
cent — since the school
didn’t appear on an initial
list for possible cuts -— and
didn’t appear in large
numbers to press their case
at a March 13 school
board meeting.

She said parents at E.T.

Kenney, a nearby primary
school that had been fa-
cing closure, made it clear
the board would face
fierce criticism if it closed
that school because of its
high proportion of aborigi-
nal students.

“At E.T. Kenney, they
made it about race issues
and lifestyle issues,”
Ljungh said.

“The schoal board just
doesn’t want that on their
shoulders.”

Terrace and District
Teachers Union president
Frank Rawe is among
those calling for a deficit
budget.

“This board of trustees
is nothing more than Lib-
eral hatchetmen,” Terrace
and District Teachers’

Union president Frank
Rowe said.

“Tt doesn’t

matter who’s holding the
knife if it’s stuck in your
back,”

The school closures an-
nounced so far will disrupt
classes across the district
because laid off teachers
may bump out other less
senior teachers at schools
that don’t close.

And Rowe is bracing for
more bad news as the dis-
trict looks for another
$1.35 million in cuts to
make before Aprit 27.

“The only way they’re
going to achieve that is
through staff reductions
and the only way to do
that is through increasing
class sizes,” Rowe said.

He said the announced
closures were traumatic for
many. “Teachers were ac-
tually throwing up and
crying,” he said.

school board’s decision to
close Copper Mountain
and Parkside Elementary
along with schools in Kiti-
mat and Stewart came just
two days after a town hall
meeting in Terrace.

But Campbell is ada-
mant that school trustees
did not make up. their
minds on which schools to
close until March 26.

That’s when the board
held an in-camera meet-
ing.

“We did not have any-

hand,” Campbell said from
her home in Kitimat
Thursday.

She explained the board
wanted to leave enough
time to inform employees
before the information be-
came public at tonight's
board mecting in Kitimat.

“T think it’s our duty as

a board to let our employ- |

ees know first,” she said. ©

It’s not known if the de-
cision to close schools was
unanimous. Votes are not
recorded unless trustees

thing decided before specifically request it.

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carried out April 8 - April 19, 2002. This
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ensure the best possible water quality is
maintained. During this procedure, water may
appear colored or cloudy. You are advised to
run your water until it clears. Your ongoing
cooperation and understanding is appreciated.

The Family Place
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This 6 session course is designed for those who
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Sessions run
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The Family Place
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INVITATION |
. PROVINCIAL REVIEW OF >
SRADUATION REQUIREMENTS

NORTHWEST Regional Think Tank

Intended Audience: Business, Industry, labour
representatives, Career Preparation advisory
committee representatives, career coordinators,
post-secondary representatives, secondar
principals and vice-principals, district staf,
trustees, Teacher Union Presidents, social services
agency representatives.

RE; PROVINCIAL REVIEW OF GRADUATION
REQUIREMENTS

The Ministry of Education is currently conducting
a province-wide review of graduation
requirements and is committed to looking at ways
to expand opportunities for success for greater
number of students and to increase the number of
students who achieve graduation.

A number of think tanks are being held

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Northwest Regional Think Tank

Date: April 6 an

Time: 9:00 a.m.

Location: Old Kalum School

3211 Kenney St., Terrace, B.C.

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Contact: Ms. Spalding Regional Coordinator
(Northwest) at 635-4931 Local 247 for more

information.

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Application forms can be obtained from: Nancy Wilcox,
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Applications must be submitted no tater than 4:00 p.m.,
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