LOCALS GET A SAY Doors open to school board budget sessions IT COSTS more than $50 million to educate students for a year in the Terrace and Kitimat school district. And this year for the first time the Terrace community gets to have a say on how that money is spent. The only problem is there isn’t a lot of leftover money to make any decisions about. After the Terrace and Kitimat school districts combined in December, the newly lected trustees promised to make the dis- trict mare democratic. Part of that promise resulted in a budget ad- Visory committec, made up of parents, teachers, support staff, native representatives, principals, trustees and some school district admin- istrators. In the past it was the trustees alone who decided how the district’s mozey would be spent. They still have the decision-making power, but now it’s casier for the community to make its wishes known. The budget committee meets for the first time on April 8 to see what it can do with the $51.6 million the provincial goverment is giving the district for the 97/98 school year. The money represents an tinted, Barry Piersdortf increase of about $492,000 from last year’s Terrace and Kitimat budgets, On the surface that sounds like good news, but it’s not. And secretary-treasurer Barry Piersdorff says there’s little discretion as to where that money can be spent. The money also has to spread a little thinner, since the student population has increased by 68 full time students. The government has tight controls on how it wants the school district to spend its money. So it ‘‘targets”’ moncy for specific things, like special needs and aboriginal education. So while the budget bas increased $492,000, the amount of money targeted for special programs has in- Parents pan extended day Skeena school plans debated THERE ARE lots of questions but not few answers about a replacement school for Skeena Jr. Secondary. A year ago the school district was promised nearly a mil- lion dollars to plan a replacement for the aging building. The moncy was to pay for architect fees and design con- sultants. But it was put on hold as part of a capital spend- ing freeze the NDP government put in place soon after being re-elected last year. ’ The purse strings started to loosen in March. But the pro- vince said school districts that want to build new schools will have to bring in an extended day at the new school, scale back construction costs aad plan a smaller building. At a mecting Jast week sectetary-treasurer Barry Piersdorff said hé hadn’t received any further guidelines from the minister. “We don’t know what the minister intends,”’ said Piersdorff. His calls to the minister’s office were not ans- wered last week. During the mecting there was confusion about how ap- propriate an extended day would be for rural communities such as Terrace, which bus many of their students. Piersdorff explained the government hoped te save money by extending the school day by one hour, That meant the school could offer one more hour of classes dur- ing the day, theoretically increasing student capacity by 25 per cent. However, he questioned how well such a system would work in Terrace, saying it might be more appropriate for schools in the lower mainland. That’s because it might be difficult here to remove 25 per cent of students from the building, so more could come in. “The system will not work here,”’ complained one of the 20 or so people who had come to the meeting. Aside from the extended day issue, there are a number of things that need to be decided, Where the school should be located and what grades should be in it are two examples. No decisions were made by the old replacement com- mittee — they had just started exploring what their options were, The last time that body met was last June. The school will either be located in its present location, which will probably mean building over the track facility, or on the bench, on a 28 acre parcel of land bordered by ML Vista, Bailey, Soucie and Marshall. That land belongs to the provincial government and the district has first dibs on it. Should it decided to locate the new school there, the land the old school was on will revert back to the provincial government. The grade ranges at the new school could also impact the other schools, possibly changing Caledonia Secondary and Thombhiil Jr. Secondary to 8-12 schools. “You need to determine what it is you want to end up with,’ said Christensen. Keeping the current Skeena build- ing is also an option, he added, Keeping in mind the government's current penny pinch- ing mood, the school district is inviting anyone with any ideas for the new school to submit them to Harold Cox at the district office. The community advisory commilice meets at 7:30 p.m. on April 8 at the board office. REWARD YOUSELF CALL TODAY for a FREE infarmation package about joining “Teant Balance” For close to a decada the BaLanca Fashian's Program has proven to ba successful for hundreds of BaLance Associates and we ara now extending this opportunity near you in the Terrace area. Enhance your lifestyle and add to your income whila having fun selling Canada's leading lina of quality cotton casual wear, made by Canadians for Canadians. Balance Fashions Inc A Proud Canadian Company creased $518,000, says Piersdorff. And that means the shortfall must be made up somewhere else in the system. The majority of money the school district spends goes to teacher salaries, bussing, maintenance and targeted areas. ““There’s = very _——siittle money left over at the end of the day,’” says Piersdorff. For example, in the up- coming year the district must deal with a combined increase of $300,000 for teacher salaries, he says. That increase was approved during the last set of province-wide teacher nego- tiations. Maintenance costs — in particular utility bills — have gone up as well. When the budget com- mitiee meets next Tuesday, it won’t be decided what to spend where, Says Piersdorf£. ‘Right now the issue is dealing with expectations. Starting one program means dropping another,’’ he says. Amalgamating the two districts was supposed to save money. And the pro- vince has cut some of its grants to the district, and will likely cut more in the future. But Piersdorff says he doesn’t know if the district will see any other savings from amalgamation, When asked about the possibility of additional ad- ministrative staff layoffs, he says more might still be coming as a result of com- bining the two offices, There is some good news for the budget committee, There were no cuts to spe- cial education programs as @ result of combining the two districts. That was a big fear prior to amalgamation. However, Piersdorff says the district, in particular the Kitimat half, was already overspending the targetied amount. The budget advisory com- mittee mectings are open to the public. It starts at 7:30 p-m. at Caledonia on April YOUR: COLLEGE IN YOUR COMMUNITY | “ATTENTION ACTORS, DANCERS, MUSICIANS, SINGERS Cold Dark Matter productions in association with the Terrace Little Theatre are holding auditions for CRUEL TEARS This is a 3 Act Musical which will be performed dur- ing Riverboat Days Week, 1997. 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