Go vi budget ‘Robin Hood in re verse’

Wednesday, March 20, 1985

\Newsstand Price 40° Vol. 48, No. 11

34 boards refuse gov't cuts

A whopping, clapping, whistling
crowd stood and applauded Mar. 14 as
the Vancouver school board became the

> 29th district in the province to vote a
no-cuts budget in defiance of Socred
cutbacks.

Since then, the number of boards
submitting budgets exceeding provincial
government guidelines had swelled to 34
by the deadline Mar. 15. Collectively,

those districts represent more than 75

per cent of British Columbia’s students.

Education Minister Jack Heinrich has
until May | to respond to the defiant trus-
tees, who followed the urging in a resolution
adopted overwhelmingly at a special con-
vention of the B.C. School Trustees Associ-
ation two weeks ago.

Altogether the boards exceed ministry
limits by $70 million, which involves among
other items the jobs of more than 1,000
teachers. In Vancouver, the ministry’s cuts
for 1985-86 would cost 480 teacher and
support staff jobs...

Bolstered by speakers from an audience
of 700 that packed the gym of Mount Plea-
sant Elementary School, trustees adopted in
a 6 to 2 vote a “needs” budget that exceeds
the Ministry of Education’s guidelines by
more than $14 million.

While the Vancouver board was the 29th
to go the “needs” route for the 1985-86
fiscal year, there was little doubt that the
trustees of the province’s most populous
school district were the spiritual leaders of
the B.C. fightback.

“If it wasn’t for the Vancouver school
board, other boards would not be taking
the stand they are today,” said parent Sol
Jackson, one of several parents, students
and teachers who lined up at microphones
in the Mount Pleasant gymnasium.
| : ICOUVE! ChY UAH OAH OGy. tS ee 2 ‘ Every one of the more than 30 speakers
Assembly, delivered é er bts hatte tat aaa sa ae uar- praised the board for its past stands against
_ters. The protest was aimed at the weekend ; : school cuts and urged passage of the needs

Mulroney in Quebec, where the proposed $7 mi budget.

Warning Agreement — was on the table. In other vi One Chinese-speaking parent, herself a

fourth annual Walk for Peace Apr. 27, met severa other Canadian peace groups and agreed on aims towards student of the Vancouver schools’ English-

Duilding a national pene? coalition. pale page ee . — ==. as-a-second-language (ESL) program won
: ss a ne oe 0 om the loudest applause when she said she was
“very disappointed” to learn of the cuts and
a possible hike in night school fees. “I’d
really like to thank the trustes for helping us
and speaking up for all of us,” she said
through a translator.

Parent Linda Bradley, whose grade-8

level son has learning disabilities, praised
the Vancouver system’s area counsellor ser-
vice. She said her family had moved to
Vancouver to take advantage of the service,
another area threatened by cuts.
’ Praise and encouragement also came
from several teachers’ leaders, including the
presidents of the Vancouver Elementary
School Teachers Association, the Van-
couver Secondary School Teachers Associ-
ation, and of the elemtnary and secondary
school branches of the Vancouver School
Administrators Association.

“We elected you to stop the government
attacks on our schools. We ask you to give
that message to the government tonight,”
said VSSTA president Mike Gregory.

Trial shows
U.S. erased
Air Force

tapes of
KAL 007

— page 10 —

see SET PRIORITIES page 3