Ready, set, go!
Local athletes are
stepping into the blocks
as the track season gets
going\SPORTS B9

Abandoned |
Why Kitimat’s SPCA i is

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becoming a dumping. -

Anartist’seye | -
.A northwest photographer.
has captured disturbing. - .

pets\NEWS B1

@ but honest portraits
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$1.00 pLus 7¢ GST
($1.10 plus 8¢ GST
outside of the Terrace area}

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\ TEARAG CE

“VOL: 16 NO. 4.

ednesday, April’30, 2003. - =.

School district gets poor grades

Other goals slide

amid budget crunch

By JENNIFER LANG
THE COAST Mountains district is
falling short of its public pledge to im-
prove student literacy and arithmetic
skills, an outside review team has
found. —
The school district's budget crunch

has overshadowed the focus on educa- |

tional goals like improving student
math and literacy scores for the past
two years, district’ superintendent
Randy Smallbrugge-said, reacting to a

report completed by an education
ministry review team that visited the
district April 6-9. :

“We've had to put the budget in the
forefront when we've been having such
huge deficits,” he said. .

The team visited 17 schools and
met with school principals, admin-
isIrators, parents and aboriginal repre-
sentatives.

The purpose of the review - one of
20 the education ministry is conduct-
ing this year - was to Jook at how weil
the district is meeting the goals out-
lined in its accountability contract.

The report says the district is not
meeting expectations on improving
student. achievement 10 key areas —
from leadership to the arnount of par-
ent involvement.

Smallbrugge said the team has of-
fered the district sound advice.

_ “T think it was a very good exercise
to go though,” he said. “It’s not pass or

~ fail. It's simply an indication of where

you areas a district and how you can
move ahead.” |

Smallbrugge stressed the impor-
tance of teamwork.

“Leadership is teamwork. It goes

right from the trustees through admin-
istration to teachers and support staff
in the field. It's everybody,” he said.

The review team said the district
should focus on fewer goals.

' The board championed literacy as
its number-one priority three years
ago, when the education ministry’s an-
nual snapshot of reading, writing and
mathematics skills showed one third of
students weren't meeting expectations
for their grade.

The district put that pledge into
writing in 2001, when the education
ministry asked school districts to out-

4

line their goals and objectives on stu-
dent achievement in accountability
contracts with the public.

The district had also promised to
improve provincial exam marks, First
Nations praduation rates and student
social responsibility.

“They said our goals were too many
and too broad,” Smallbrugge said.

_ The team also recommends the dis-
trict consolidate the methods used to
monitor how well students are doing
and needs to create a well-communi-
cated plan for improving student

Continued Pg. A9

BELGIAN HORSES Dan and Tonka have been inoculated by New Remo owners Trish Coffey-Sturko and Dean Sturko against West
Nile Virus. But they remain worried about the effects of the mosquitoe-spread affliction on horses and humans. The virus, spread by
mosquitoes, is expected to arrive in the northwest this summer.

Horse owners on alert to
threat of West Nile virus

Mosquitoe-borne killer expected to begin its spread across B.C. this year

AT MORE than 1,800 pounds
each and at least six feet high,
Dan and Tonka are magnificent
Belgian horses.
. But their owners Dean Sturko
and Trish Coffey-Sturko are wor-
ried for their future with the ex-
pected arrival this summer of the
West Nile virus to the northwest.

They have five other horses as
well on their New Remo farm, a
low-lying area almost surrounded
by marshy land,

The area is a natural breeding
ground for mosquitoes, which
carry the West Nile virus, and is

heavily populated by crows,
which pass the virus to those mos-
quitoes in the first place.

“It’s just so easy to have stag-
nant water around here all
summer,” notes Coffey-Sturko.

To date the couple has had'a
vet make two visits to inoculate

each of their horses against the.
West Nile Virus. It costs $45-for.

each shot, not counting the vet's
visit fee,

“You want to have them i inocu-
lated a month before mosquito
season so the immune system is
in place,” said Coffey-Sturko,

Horses are particularly suscept-
ible to the virus with some reports
indicating a mortality rate of up to
35 per cent during an initial epi-
demic.

_After being bitten by a mosqui-
to, the incubation period is three
to 14 days,

Signs may include mild. to se-
vere neurological problems up to
an including weakness and lame-
ness. .

Even though they have taken
inoculation precautions, Coffey-
Sturko and her husband remain on
high alert,

We earn more with rising education,

A PERSON'S chances of earning
higher wages increased according
to their level of education, indi-
cates data from the 2001 census
conducted by. Statistics Canada.

For the Terrace area, people
with a university education or de-
gree earned an average $52,401 at
census time, compared to $24,620
for somebody who did not gradu-
ate from high school.

For those who did graduate |

from highschool and who have

some post secondary education, .

the average wage was $25,910.

A person with a trades certifi-
cate or diploma earned an aver-
age $36,339.

A person with a college certifi-
cate or diploma earned an aver-
age $33,143.

Across B,C., people with a uni-
versity certificate, diploma of de-
gree earned an average $44,066,

less” than the Terrace. area ayer:
“age.”

The. national “figure.

“oni
- $48,648. which was also less than

the Terrace area average.

Broken down by age category,
people in the Terrace area be-
tween the ages of 45 and 54 with
a university certificate, diploma
or degree: earned an average
$58,534,

That’s more than people be-
tween 35-44 who eamed an: aver-
age $47,567.

People. between 35-44 who did

“not have high school graduation
earned’ an average $37,686. while
those between 45-54 earned -

“We're wondering if we'll have
horses this time mext year,” she
said,

There’s no way they can con-
trol mosquitoes and there's no
way they can control the crow po-
pulation.

The number of crows in the
New Remo area has some: calling
it “Crowtown,” says Sturko..

The couple estimates their
horses are worth nearly $15,000 in
all, making for a substantial in- °
vestment.

They’re also worried not all

Continued Page A2

stats show |

$31,444.

Men with a university certifi-
cate, diploma or degree earned far
more than women with the same
education.

Census data shows men.earned
$68,579 a year while women
earned $38,539.

Men who did not graduate from |
high school also eatned more ~
$31,357 — than did women who |
_did not graduate ~ $14,283.

For.more. statistics on employ-

-ment and education; Sée page AS, -

g

Runway push
about future,
‘not WestJet’

By JEFF NAGEL
PEOPLE here are getting the wrong idea that the air-
port’s planned $2.5 million runway extension is all about
attracting WestJet, airport officials say.

And that in turn drives fears that they are willfully
pursuing a course that may hurt homegrown airline Haw-
kair and the local jobs it supports.

Both are untrue, says Terrace-Kitimat Altport Soclety
president Fraser Mackie.

He said Hawkair's success is the pride and joy of the
airport. “It would be the easiest thing in the world. to
leave the runway at 6,000 feet and let Hawkair run,”
Mackie said. “But that’s a small town mentality.”

He and outgoing airport manager Rick Reed were re-
sponding to city council comments that the runway vi-
sion has been poorly communicated.

A visit late last fall by WestJet president Clive Bed- |
doe, who said the discount airline would require a longer
runway to serve Terrace, was the catalyst for action
now, they say.

Prior to that the runway extension had not been on the
airport's five- or 10-year capital plans.

By January, a tentative plan to extend the runway
from its present 6,000 feet to 7,500 feet was in place.

Mackie said it makes sense to pursue it now for a
variety of reasons — notably the present low interest rates
— not just the possibility WestJet might come.

He said the primary goal is to position the airport so it
can support jet service in future years ~ regardless of
who provides it. “If we don’t have another 1,000 to 1,500
feet of runway in the future we're pretty well going to be
a Dash-8 airport,” Mackie said. '

Air Canada Jazz switched from jets to the Dash-8 tur-*
boprop aircraft it now runs here last fall, Mackie ‘noted,
and concerns over its future have been heightened by the
carrier's move to file for bankruptcy protection, “WestJet
is the first carrier to tell us they won't be in at 6,000
feet. Air Canada is about to tel] us that I suppose.”

Not, he says, that the airline won't serve the airport,
but that service will no longer be jets,

Air Canada is phasing out its old fleet of Bae-146 jets
and replacing them with Bombardier regional jets (RJs).

Mackie says those newer jets will not land on Ter-
race’s 6,000 foot runway, and that will become the trend
with the entire next generation of commuter jets, includ-
ing the newer heavier models of 737 jets.

“To look forward to the future of jet transport in Ter-
race and the corresponding competitive edge that will
give us, we need to expand the runway,” he said.

“It’s for the future economic viability of the airport
not to attract WestJet.”

Mackie said officials with Air Canada Zip, a compet-
ing discount carrier to WestJet, have also been here to
check out the airport.

Mackie said people also think the runway extension
will mean costly changes to the new Instrument Landing
System, which was just put in place.

The cost of moving the localizer beacon to a new po-
sition when the runway is extended will in fact be less
than $100,000 of the $2.5 million total extension cost, he

‘said,

Reed said he’s certain there is no risk of regulatory or
technical problems that would prevent the airport from
using the ILS with the longer runway,

Reed and Mackie say the airport is also serious about
other opportunities, such as direct tourist charter flights
run by Lufthansa from Germany direct to Whitehorse,

The runway extension to 7,500 feet reflects what: Ter-
race will need to serve those types of large. wide-bodied
.757 or 767 jets in the future, they say.

__ “If you want to talk about Westel, they said only add
1,000 feet,” Reed said. “But we didn’t look at it that
way. We looked to the future.”

Mackie said they have no guarantee Westjet will
come in the first place or if they do come that they will
~ stay if passenger counts here fail to meet expectations.

But he said that doesn’ t change the airport's firm be-
lief that a longer runway is the right thng to do,