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School board gets chance
to plead its case to MLAs ©

"THE COAST Mountains
_School District 82 board met
for the first time with all three
Members of the Legislative
‘Assembly (MLA) © within
ithe district boundaries in
‘May, giving it the chance to

loutline the state of of public

leducation here.
- The ‘meeting -between
MLAs Robin Austin’ (Skee-

fina), Dennis MacKay (Bulk- °

Cley Valley-Stikine) and Gary
Coons (North: Coast) and

. Pow members took place.

at the Terrace campus of
t Northwest Community Col-
lege and lasted two hours.

t

: The. meeting was - ar-

b

ranged at board chair. Lor-

“rie Gowen’s urging because:

(she sensed the’ politicians
- needed’ more: background
‘information on the particu-
‘Jar difficulties; faced by the
rdistrict.

- “I asked for the meet-
ing,” said Gowen, adding it

“+ accomplished her. goals. “Tt.

was: really good.” cok
=) Gowen. said the ‘MLAs

Were each‘ given extensive“

» information packages.

oF han ~~,

Lorrie Gowen’
The packages included

the presentation made by the |
district.'review team, com-"

‘mittee structures, statistics
-on First Nations and French
Immersion, the district ac-
countability contract, infor-
mation stemming from. the
consultation on the ‘school
calendar, enrolment num-
“bers from 2001 to present, -
: Foundation . Skills’ Asses-

ment results from 2000 to”

, Present, figures on class size

Ranier; pops in-

‘WHILE THE ‘school board was able to meet with the three
| ! MLAs in its area, it also had: a chance to speak to education

( | minister Shirley Bond.

. Bond was in Terrace this past Monday, June 5, as part of |

acommitment she made to visit every school district within

tthe province.

-workers.

er aliiatatnededaamireda sia’ wre

b

- Bond visited several. local schools, met with ‘the board
and spoke to ‘Union officials_w who represent school district .:

—_——_:

Stewart’s school district trustee, Craig Caruso, .was disap-
pointed Bond only visited Terrace.
“Without accepting the vastness of the. geography and the :
| diversity of the communities and ‘people of our region Vic-".

‘ttoria will never understand the very real challenges we face

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and composition and district

implications with the pro-’

posed Bill 33. .
Gowen says the meeting

was important because the ©

MLAs are in the same arena
as those making decisions

that affect funding.

While. the provincial
Liberal government has in-
creased per pupil funding,
Gowen said, the.local dis-
trict’s unique geographical

factors have not been taken
‘into account. ,

“Money for infrastructure

has not increased,” added

- Gowen,
' Austin says the meeting

‘was a welcome exercise but

that many of the district's -

grievances were well known
to him.
“I have brought this to

“(Education Minister) Shirley

Bond,” Austin said of such
things as higher heating and
_ transportation bills than oth-
er districts incur.

‘Those costs, along with -

‘declining. enrolment, *lead
the district to once again

adopt the four-day . school |

calendar for 2006-07, added’
-Austin, saying even a modi-

fied five-day week would
have needed cuts to other
services.

And Austin says Bill 33,

. passed into legislation earli-'

er this month that puts a hard
cap of three special needs

_ students per class, as well as

limits to class sizes in grades
4-12, will challenge the dis-
trict financially.

“Who’s going to pay for. -
it?” said Austin, adding pro-
posed NDP amendments to ©

the bill were rejected.

. The board chair, however,
says the meeting was not.all
about what isn’t but what is

happening here with public

education.

“We wanted to let [the
MLAs] know how the stu-
dents were doing,” said

Gowen. “There are lots of

good things happening.”
‘The board and the MLAs

have plans. to meet two- to”
“three times a year to build
‘on this first session:

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June 7, 2006 - AQ

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| People say eee eee
-teachingo our kids i ts) one o

‘But what the government pays.

Isr’ t it a job worth paying fairly?

- Teachers are > working hard to i improve. Our kids deserve the best education
our students’ education.

: possible.

§

They need teachers who are paid ©

teachers in BC has not kept up with
inflation, with other professions or
with other provinces.

fairly and treated with respect.

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