$ - Friday, September 2 24, 1993 - ~ North Shore News . | WAS READING A BOOK N THE public school of hard knocks, West Vancouver has just learned an important lesson from the Sentinel] De- velopment Office’ fiasco: 2 publicly ‘funded institution can’t be run on blind ‘faith. ‘The concept ‘of a high school’s principal "and parent advisory committee coutrolling a fund) set up to generate $6 million seetas ‘outrageous, but for the past two years the West Wancouver District 45 School Board has sat on the darkened sidelines, as that scenario unfolded. . The! “‘seeding’’ of the development fund ‘with international students’ fees to offset the cost ofa professional fundraiser’s sala- wy was plainly wrong.” 7 At Monday night’s. board meeting, one - parent suggested that blame lies not only » with the board, but also with parents. - Sentinel principal Petar Lefaivre, the ar- _ chitect of the fundraising office plan, . .-OEGRET TRIALS... THE PRESS 1S STIFLED. STF! promised great things for Sentinel school. Outlined in a draft report appropriately en- titled ‘Fhe Dream,’’ Lefaivre detailed plans for a $1.5 million library resource centre and a $2 million performing arts centre. The dream was shared by many West Vancouver parents, some of whom con- tribuied to the $63,480 raised through donations. Feeling ill-served by provincial school funding formulas, West Vancouver residents tried to side-step the concept of equitable funding by tapping their own wealth. Bui somewhere between theory and prac- tice, the integrity of the West Vancouver school district was tarnished. Inherent: to the role of a trustee is guarding the public trust. Today, that trust has also been tarnished. a “—~“"“"TETTER OF THE DAY - Must prepare students for real world Dear, Editor!” At “this moment, 1 sit in a’ beir first full: day of schcol in " September was the 8th. Is it any wonder that once the ‘.-students enter the workforce they are overwhelmed with the amount bewildered « ‘State of absolute amazement and downright anger. My ‘| two high- -school-aged children have just informed me that they will not be at school on Friday, Sept. 17, as there will be a professional day. To aggravate the situation even more, they will be released from ‘school at 1:20 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 16. All this to accommodate ‘a , “teachers’ retreat!’” ' I can’t believe this is possible. The high school students had their last day of exams on June .15, and This is almost three months ‘of. non-schooling. Now, when we get back, to ‘the administrators can-hardly wait to send the children out of ‘school again. It would have made far more sense to allow the students to get — back initio a proper rhythm of learning after such a long break. i 1 just wonder who decides when and where professional days are placed, perhaps some input should be received from parents; after all, we and other taxpayers are footing the bill for all these escapades. not of work required of them? In the real world it is a 7% or eight-hour new school year, the teachers and ‘day, five days a week,. with a two-week vacation after one year. Our schools should be preparing the students for the real world, a make- believe paradise, where five hours per day is the norm, and three months vacation . the standard. . Wake up, parents, before it is too late. Our children’s education is going down the tubes at a fast rate. i : Jan Hills North Vancouver . ..Peter Speck Managing Editor. Timothy Renshaw Associate Editor. . ....Noel Wright Sales & Marketing Director Linda Stewart Comptroller .Doug Foot North Shoro Nevs, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph If of the Excise | Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 0087238, Maiting rates available on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be aoe panied by a stamped, seil- ; addressed envelope. Publisher . Newsroom V7M 2H4 Display Advertising Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classified Advertising 986-6222 AS ONCE OF IOITN ACD WELT MAOUVEN 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. 980-0511 Distribution 986-1337 Subscriptions 986-1337 Fax 985-3227 Administration 985-2131 MEMBER Gy us This newspaper contains tecycled libre North Shore managed 985-2131 SDA DIVISION 61,582 (average circulation. Wednesday. Friday & Sunday) ‘ Entire contents © 1993 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. KEEPING UP with the Joneses is our folksy measure of bow we're doing money-wise. The Regina-based Canadian Taxpayers Foundation recently looked at how Canada ranks on the ‘‘Joneses’’ scale debt-wise. The scorepad shows a govern- ment's average total debt over two recent years as a percentage of its territory’s Gross Domestic Pro- — duct (GDP), the annual value of all goods and services produced. It's like measuring one’s total debt incurred for day-to-day food, household, car and personal ” expenses — but excluding the mortgage on the home — as a percentage of one’s total annual income. In this context, of course, the “Joneses’’ are the very last role models Canada would wish to | match. They are the 56 countries on the Federation’s 1992-93 Gov- ernment SIC List —~ and finan- cially sick they indeed are. “SIC” stands for ‘‘Severely Indebted Category.”’ The top 14 consist exclusively of such familiar Third World basket cases as Guyana and Nicaragua, whose total debts are 801% and 741% of their GDPs respectively, along with Mozambique (409%), Tanzania (252%), Somalia (237%), Zambia (215%) and Sudan (177%). But wait! Right behind Sudan at No. 15 comes Newfoundland with a 160% debt-to-GDP ratio — . worse than 23 other Third World countries ranging from Syria and Panama to Uganda, Burundi and Ghana. After that the Canadian pro- vinces show up thick and fast. Taking 23rd, 26th, 28th and 30th plices are New Brunswick (122%), - Nova Scotia (120%), P.E.I. (116%) and Manitoba (112%). ' Quebec (112%) comes in at No. 31 and Saskatchewan (108%) at No. 33, both relatively deeper in the glue than Angola, Italy, Bolivia and Morocco. . Bringing up the rear of the sick parade at No. 45, No. 46 and No. | , 53 in that order are Ontario (73%), B.C. (71%) and Alberta * (50%). Canada overall (85%) is No. 40 on the list. The 13 financially sick. . countries that, even so, are LESS sick than we are include Argen- tina, Poland, Bulgaria, Peru, _ Mexico and Brazil. But there’s more to Canada’s debt crisis than its placings on the SIC List and the individual debt-to-GDP ratios of the pro- vinces. HITHER AND YON Our companions in misery are: concentrated in just three regions of the world — Africa and Cen- ©. tral America. In Europe only [ta- ly, Poland and Bulgaria make the SIC list; in Asia only Mongolia, Afghanistan, Myanmar and the . Lacs-Cambodia-Vietnam triangle. ’ Color us all in on a world map and Canada sticks out like a sore- thumb. All the more so when you real- ‘ize that Canada has less excuse than eny of thein except Italy for } facing bankruptcy. ©. ) In half. of the 56 on the list the. “low”? per capita income is not more than $635 U.S., despite which the debt situation in 11 of - those impoverished lands is shown “improving”? or “stable.” * By contrast, Canada aud its provinces, with a ‘high’? 1991 per capita income in excess of $7,910 U.S., all have a “worsening” debe with which to tackle it. Unless we quickly find politicians with a plan and guts to do so, the bailiffs will, soon be at Canada’s door. |. And when that happens, don’t -- expect ANY goverament to create | a single new job until at long last - °°; we begin to pay our way again. eoo ot : WRIGHT OR WRONG: Knowing without doing is like plowing: . -- without sowing. EWS photo Brad Ledwidiga | WEST VANCOUVER seniors 5 (including left to right, Bea Brathtlen, Dorothy Ash and Jean Carriere) got tegether on Thursday, Sept. 9 for their annual tea party at the West Vancouver Seniors’ Cen’ tre.