New school renamed THE NEW school on the bench was given a new name last week by the Ac- tion Coalition of Terrace. About a dozen members of the coalition gathered April 4 and unveiled a sign changing the name of Mountainview to “Roger B. Harris Memorial Ele- mentary.” The re-naming after the Skeena Liberal MLA was done. to note the decision by the school board sey- eral weeks ago to never open the as-of-yet uncom- pleted school, said coali- tion speaker Gail Murray. (The board has since rescinded, at least tempor- arily, its decision to close Mountainview and five other schools in Kitimat, Terrace and Stewart.) “It will sit empty due to the funding cuts his gov- ernment has made to the education budget,” said Murray. She noted that declin- ing enrolments are only part of the reason for the closure decision. Other reasons include the school district getting less money from the pro- vince and having to pay for teacher salary in- creases without any addi- tional financial help, “We are here today to give thanks to Roger Har- MARG Saulnier reads out one of her poems April 4 at a small ceremony held by the Action Coalition of Terrace to rename the unfinished Mountainview school after Skeena Liberal MLA Roger Harris. The school is to be finished this fall but the school board, citing budget cuts, doesn’t want to open it. ris, our MLA, for a lot of empties,” said Murray. Her list included the correctional centre, day care centre at the college, Mammography room at Mills Memorial, plans for a dialysis unit and local sawmills emply with raw logs being exported. Also speaking was local conservationis! Renee Mi- kaloff who said the new government has further cut environmental and parks programs by an average of 30 per cent. She noted that the old provincial government had also cut programs by as much as 50 per cent of what they were in the early 1990s, Marg Saulnier also read a poem, the last line of which indicated. Harris could expect a recall cam- paign to start up later this year. Delay in school closures means additional layoffs By JENNIFER LANG DELAYING a decision to close five schools while a 60-day public consultation process takes place may actually be more agoniz- ing. Forty teachers would have lost their jabs and the district would have saved about $2.2 million annual- ly if the decision had gone ahead. Impending layoffs will be substantially higher be- cause the district won't know until the end of May known how many schools - if any — will close. Terrace’s teachers must receive notice of: layoffs before May 15, while Kiti- mat teachers must be nati- fied by the end of April. District superintendent Randy Smallbrugge ex- pected some employees will be hired back, once a final decision on school closures is made. “We are now being rushed into making a hasty decision,” secretary trea- surer Marcel Georges said. “School closures will now be made after the budget has been passed.” He warned teacher lay- offs will be all over the map as the district looks to make the necessary finan- cial savings. School board vice chair Peter King agreed. “The problem is, when you're laying off people, you're laying off junior people,” King said. “You're literally laying off two teachers for the price of one senior teacher, so it’s just going to decimate the district.” While it’s not yet known what the actual number of layoffs will be, Kitimat trustee Barry Pankhurst warned it will be substantially higher without knowing which schools will close. “Here we would be lay- ing off one in five,” Pank- hurst said. “In Vancotiver it’s one in eight.” If that’s true, then more than 100 teachers here could lose their jobs. While Pankhurst also held out the possibility that the board could back down from school closures, if communities make a strong case, he said the board is now considering every school for closure. “This board has taken the position we would ra- ther have a teacher in the ‘classroom and a janitor ‘cleaning that school rather - than having a school that’s near empty or with no people in it,” Pankhurst said. “The school is just the building. The program is what’s important. People have to realize that.” School district admin- istrators are now figuring out the dates and locations for a series of public meet- ings on school closures. The news comes just days after staff, students and parents at five schools, including Park- side and Copper Mountain elementary, had been told their schools would close. “Now, all those wounds are going to be reopened again,” Kitimat trustee Peter King said. “They have to relive all that pain again.” King said eight teachers can be hired back for every school that closes, He said the school board is considering set- ting up a committee with representatives from differ- ent proups to review the deficit situation. The board had original- ly decided to clase five schools to save $2,276,896 each year in supplies, util- ity costs, snow removal, salaries and benefits, and in some cases, rent. Topping the list were Copper Mountain Elemen- tary, which would have saved the district $480,000 a year, and Alexander Ele- mentary in Kitimat, worth another $500,837, Closing Parkside Ele- mentary in Terrace would save $396,504 a year and combining Stewart Ele- mentary and Secondary schools will result in an- other $431,450 in annual savings, Closing Cormorant ele- mentary in Kitimat would resull in another $280,763 in savings. Closing Lakelse Junior High and the Teen Learn- ing Centre would save $179,434 in rent. DEBRA. Okimi Office Hours General Denti: sn ul Face Ortodos, TW ieRed Sak ie ; dekse , Non Thurs 8:00 a.m, - 4: 20 pm, pAb deddae eek ot. Hsonh 200 AI 9 Pak Ave Terrace, B.C. V8G 1V5 (250) 635-7611 Northwest Stewardship Society Annual General Meeting April 27th, 10 am at the Kitsumkalum Community Centre Hwy, 16 West on West Kalum Road. Call 638-1676 for more information. 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