A8 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 30, 1997

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one 3
It’s a blast
AN EXPLOSION near the south end of Lakelse
Lake last Thursday was the result of blasting
being conducted by a class of Northwest Com-
munity College students. The month-long course,
sponsored by Human Resources Development
Canada, helped 14 unemployed people get train-
ing as driller/blaster's helpers. “It's a great way to
get your foot in the door,” said Dave McPherson,
one of the students now seeking work in the field.
That's instructor David Storey checking
detonators set in a rock face,

student dip
is bad news

THE SCHOOL BOARD has to deal with other matters in
addition to a $750,000 budget shortfall.

Assistant superintendent Skip Bergsma thinks the school
district might be 100 students short of the miinistry’s
projected figures when schools re-open this fall.

If that happens, the district will lose another $300,000 in
revenue, That’s because the government gives money to
the district based on the number of students it has.

“‘Mr. Bergsma has been pretty dam accurate every
year,’ said Terrace tnistee Roger Leclerc. ‘He could
show the ministry a thing or two about head counts,”

In order to cope with the anticipated shortfall, Bergsma
has drafted a contingency plan.

Al the start of the school year in September, the district
will hold off on hiring three teachers — one in Kitimat and
three in Terrace, The district will also hold back 10 per
cent of its supplics budget.

Kitimat teacher’s union president Neil Worboys
wondered why the board would opt to save money by
reducing teachers rather than administrative staff.

Bergsma explained that the four teachers in question
hadn’t been hired yet, so no one would be laid off.

‘We're not talking about taking slaff away thal is com-
mitted to specific schools,’ said Bergsma. ‘If the pupils
show up, they may be hired.”’

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cy
Ay

Board ready
for surgery
to cut budget

By CRIS LEYKAUF
YOUR DAUGHTER’S favourite music program or
planned computer purchases could be eliminated from her
school next year.

School board trustees have to slice about $750,000 in
spending to fit the $51.8 million budget they've reocived
from the province for the school year beginning this fall.

This’li be the first big test for the school district which
was created when the ones for Kitimat and for Terrace and
points north were merged late last year. Trustees have
given themselves until May 7 to come up with a plan.

Making cuts will be difficult, says assistant secretary-
treasurer Ron Bernt, as 83 per cent of the money already
goes to wages and benefits while bussing, utilities and
other necessities take a huge chunk of what’s left.

‘There’s not much in the way of discretionary monies,”
said Bernt. ‘The government has not laid a particularly
easy task on school boards,’’

Legally, the board had to submit a balanced budget to the
provincial government by April 27. And technically it did
that. But the work of actually deciding what programs will
stay and what will go in order to get a balanced budget still
has to be done.

‘The board is allowed to do this because a final budget for
the 1997/98 school year doesn’t have to be submitted until
February next year.

But trustees want to make cuts as soon as possible be-
cause decision have to be made soon about plans for the
fall. They have to determine how many teachers will be
needed, how many supplies will be bought for programs
and what programs can go ahead,

There are also contractual obligations — teachers need to
be notified by a certain date if they're going to be laid off
for the next school year.

Yet trustees last week disagreed about how quickly deci-
sions had to be made. Terrace trustee Stew Christensen
suggested the May 7 deadline, bul Kitimat trustees Peter
King and Linda Campbell disagreed.

King suggested that rather than set a time deadline, the
board could look at the old Kitimat board’s practice of is-
suing a type of fake layoff notices to teachers to meet con-
tract deadlines,

Although no one was laid off, the notices provided insur-
ance for the Kitimat board should it not need, or be able to
afford, the numbers of teachers originally forecast.

After debate, and irate comments from the audience —
which included teacher’s unions representatives —- the
idea was dropped,

But after the meeting district superintendent Frank
Hamilton said, ‘when the board does examine the budget
there may be at some future date some layoff notices.’”

Teacher wage increases already agrecd to in existing
contracts and a decrease in the amount of money per stu-
dent the province is giving the district are the two main
reasons for the $750,000 gap.

And the projecied deficit doesn’t include any of the items
the budget advisory committee has recommended, Those
are an additional elementary school counsellor at a cost of
$85,000, a technology technician in Kitimat to maintain
computer networks at a cost of about $60,000, resources
for a. Punjabi language program — $2,500 and $25,000 in
contractual increases for administrators, If those items are
added to the budget, the deficit grows to over $900,000.

*‘TE things continue on the same track they’re on now,”
said secretary-treasurer Barry Piersdorif, ‘‘then we will be
in deficit. We must make changes in operations.”

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