in the saddle

A look at a sport run on
four legs that draws its
origins from medieval
combat\SPORTS B5

Changing times

Day care centres are
battling to survive as
government cutbacks trim
subsidieS\NEWS A5

No kidding
This year’s youth art
exhibit had a phenomenal

response with the
public\COMMUNITY B1

$1.00 pLus 7¢. GST
($1.10 plus 8¢ GST
outside of the Terrace area)

OL..15'NO.-10-

Wednesday, June 12; 2002".

Union slams drug education plan

Parents win lengthy battle
over RCMP-taught course

By JENNIFER LANG
THE APPROVAL of a parent-championed anti-
drug program raises troubling questions on who
decides what children are taught in the class-
room, the Terrace teachers’ union says.

The school board approved the program last
week, after hearing a final pitch from a parent
group, prompting the union representing teachers
in Terrace, Kitwanga, Hazelton and Stewart to
file a grievance.

In doing so, the board ended years of debate
between lacal teachers and proponents of the
Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or DARE,
Program.

The Terrace and District Teachers’ Union has
long argued the 16-lesson program, taught inside
classrooms by uniformed police officers, violates

the collective agreement.

“Qur position is you need a qualified teacher
to teach the DARE curriculum,” TDTU president
Frank Rowe said. “You can come into our
schools any time you like. You just don’t come
in and do our jobs.”

Rowe said the board’s June 4 decision also
violates the School Act because it means an out-
side group is being allowed to determine what
will be taught inside classrooms.

TDTU president-elect Richard Eckert said the
decision raises concerns about community groups
imposing curriculum on schools.

“During this whole debate, teachers have
been coming up with rational and reasonable ar-
guments,” Eckert said.

What happened last week, he said, just proves
people who yell the loudest get their way.

“They said, “We want il, so we’re going to get
it’",” Eckert said, “That’s what happened.”

A District Parent Advisery Council delegation
asked the board to implement DARE, even
though the district’s education committee failed
to endorse the program May 15. Instead, the
committee recommended the district develop its
own drug and alcohol awareness program.

DPAC representatives came away from that
three-hour-long discussion determined to push for
DARE, treasurer Linda Marshall recent!y told the
Terrace Standard. ,

“We have very strongly said this is what we
want,” she said. “The union is saying ‘No’.”

Board vice chair Peter King moved to imple-
ment DARE where the necessary resources —
trained DARE instructors ~ are available.

The Terrace RCMP detachment currently has
two members who have received the DARE
training, meaning it can be offered here as soon
as September.

“My feeling on the DARE program is anything

is better than nothing,” King said, adding the
district does have some programs, bul he doesn’t
think they go far enough.

“Until something better comes along, | think
we should proceed with it,” he said. “At the end
of the day it’s up to the board to make a deci-
sion. You always hope that you have a buy-in
from everyone.”

The DARE program was developed in Los An-
geles to deal with drug and gang-related pro-
blems in schools. It’s now expanded to nearly 30
countries across the world and is taught in aeigh-
bouring school districts.

Two private schools in Terrace, Centennial
Christian School and Veritas School, have used
the DARE program, ,

It’s targeted at the Grade 5 and 6 level and
covers drug and alcohol use, violence, and issues
of self esteem, topics the teachers’ union says
are in some cases covered by existing initiatives.

Decision
time for
Stewart
school

PEOPLE IN STEWART
will meet with school
board officials tonight to
discuss which of the
town’s two schools will
close next fall.

The Coast Mountains
School District had origin-
ally planned to close Ste-
wart Secondary School
and relocate the students
in the town’s elementary
school.

“As we went through
the consultative process,
we started to notice there
was probably more bene-
fits to closing the elemen-
lary school than keeping
the secondary school
open,” school board vice
chair Peter King said.

Closing the high school
would have meant instal-
ling showers in the ele-
mentary school and reno-
vating washrooms.

As well, part of the sec-
ondary school would have
remained open so students
could access shop facili-
lies.

King said the board also
learned the high school is
often used by the com-
munity and serves as Ste-
wart’s public library. .

It’s now a matter of
choosing which one will
have the smallest impact
on the community — and
make the mest financial
sense, King said.

The board has waived
the 60-day public consul-
tation period at the request
of the community and the
teachers’ union.

“] think they understand
that a school closure is ne-
cessary,” King said, add-

M@ Ready to ride
ERIN HARVEY, 6, is a colourful blur as she takes her favorite tricycle out
for an afternoon ride on the Grand Trunk Pathway. JOANNA WONG PHOTO

ing people in Stewart have
asked the board to fast |
track its decision, “We're
trying to make the best of
a bad situation in the
district.”

New school band
proposal floated

Trustee leery of band aid when schools closing

By JENNIFER LANG
A COMMUNITY group that runs a Grade
7 band program in Terrace may have to
wait until July to find out if the school
district is willing to.enter into a cost-shar-
ing plan. a

The Dare to Dream Foundation had
hoped to learn by June 7 if the school
board will agree to spend $11,000 a year
for the next three years on band in Ter-
race.

That’s half of what it would cost to
hire a part-time band instructor. The foun-
dation and its sponsors, which have been
offering the program at no cast to the dis-
trict for two years, would pay the rest.

“My concern is we're closing
schools,” school board vice chair Peter
King said, “It means we'll have to sit
down and tell parents in one community
their school is going to close while kids
in another school are getting a program.”

The proposal has been referred to the
budget and personnel committees for re-
view,

King said the board usually breaks
over the summer, but has scheduled an
additional meeting in July.

Foundation director Dr. Peter Okimi
said having the school district enter into a
partnership will make it easier to hire
qualified teachers,

Because the program is presently of-
fered by the foundation and not the dis-
trict, the foundalion needs permission
from the teachers’ union

lary school band program in 1998 to save
money.

Without Grade 7 band students feeding
into high school programs, it’s difficult to
sustain interest in-band,.Okimi said.’

The foundation has been offering
Grade 7 band. in Terrace for free since
September 2000,

Meanwhile, high school band programs
have disappeared in Kitimat and the Ha-
zeltons,

About 100 students have signed up
each year for the
program, offered
outside of class
time at Thornhill,
Uplands, Cassie
Hall and Clar-
ence Michiel ele-
mentary schools,
The foundation
has asked the
board to consider
em offcring a three-
met mem year pilot pro-

Peter Okimi = gram in Terrace,
with programs in
other communities to follow after that.

“It's not a lot of money,” he said, add-
ing the cost works out to about $10 per
student each month, “We think this would
be a win-win for the school board, the
communily and the students.”

Pointing to Terrace’s extraordinary
performance at a national music festival

to hire. district staff as
band masters.

the program during regu-
lar school hours will

in May, Okimi said the
elementary band program

masters. . “My concern is we're here has contributed to
Okimi said offering closing schools.”

the strength of the high
school band programs.
Terrace bands earned

benefit students because
it will be easier to altend class and would
have more continuity. with their school,

He said spending some money on the
elementary band program would go a long
way towards healing wounds created in
the past few months due to school clo-
sures and layoffs.

“I think it would help them out in the
eyes of the community,” Okimi said jast
week, “They have to make some tough
decisions,” ‘

Despite vocal apposition from parents,
the school district eliminated the elemen-

Skeena takeback wood i

four golds and three sil-
vers at Musicfest Canada, an achieve-
ment the festival's executive director de-
scribed as “remarkable”.

“One expects a plethora of gold and
silver performances from the huge com-
munities like Toronto and Vancouver
where there are extensive music
programs,” Jim Howard says in a letter he
wrote to regional Musicfest Canada coor-
dinator Marilyn Kerr.

“I hope the people of Terrace realize
the impact that their community support
has on the young musicians.”

n limbo

In March, the school
district announced plans to
close five schools, includ-
ing Stewart Secondary and
two elementary schools in
Terrace, to save money -
a decision that was-rescin-
ded after it turned out a
public consullation period
was required by law.

That 60-day period
ended yesterday, when
trustees met at a closed
meeting in Terrace to dis-
cuss schoal closures.

TIMBER taken from Skeena
Cellulose’s holdings when it was
sold to NWBC Timber and Pulp
won't be freed up for use by
other operators in the northwesl
any time soon.

The province took five per
cent of the allowable cut from
SCI's six licences - just over
100,000 cubic metres of wood a
yeat.

But forests ministry acting re-
gional manager Norm Parry says
NWBC has up to a year in
which to apply to reinstate the

take-back timber by proposing
ati acceptable job-creation plan
using the wood. ;

Skeena MLA Roger Harris
says he thinks it would be diffi-
cult for NWBC to prove it needs
the timber, particularly given the
operations haven’t cut anywhere
close to their maximum cut in
recent years.

“IT think the ministry would
fight against it and 1 would en-
courage that,” Harris said.

_ But he said the one-year ap-

peal period also means the gov-

ernment can’t put that wood in
the hands of other operators in
the meantime.

A group of small-scale log-
gers and mill operators here
have been demanding access to
smaller quantities of wood. City
councillors also asked Victoria
to take back the five per cent
and then turn it into a commun-
ity forest controlled by the city.

Harris said some loca! log-
ging contractors are market log-
ging since the province issued
an order early this year allowing

up to 35 per cent of the logs cut
in the region to be exported,
NWBC has sold its rights to
log timber directly to those con-
tractors, who in turn cut the
wood and sell it on the open
market, he said. |
Harris said that has put some
local people back to work. |
But forest ministry stats indi-
cate less than 800 cubic metres
of wood has been exported under
ihe order as of the end of April.
Victoria also- last week \re-

newed an order allowing the ex-

port of deciduous trees cut in
this region,

It allows the export of up to
40,000 cubic metres a year of
cottonwood, aspen, birch and
alder, ministry official Kerry
Readshaw said, in amounts of no
more than 5,000 cubic metres
per permit.

The same order was issued
Isat year, resulting in export of
around 23,000 cubic metres, she
said, The timber is exported to

Alberta mills. better equipped to

process deciduous wood,