WV computer buy does not Dear Editor: “EE the money is there to be spent, why not spend ic? would seem to be the question warranting the recent West: Vancouver School Board (WYVSH) expenditure of S138 million on “stte-of-the art computer system (uchnology.” This is cin Outrageous cost for hardware that simply cannot be justified as a cost effective instructional expense, The — provincial debt has increased 44%, ar $7 billion in lit- tle more than three years, thanks to this kind of profligacy, which is only the most recent example of over-spending by ours and other school boards. The criticism tevelled at Ms. (Elizabeth) Cull (and implicitly the Ministry of Education building fund) at the recent BCTV forum could just have well been levelled at at our own board members, for whom the word restraint seems to have little meaning. The Caulfeitd middle school could manage very nicely with 90 new state-of-the-art computers which. would cost the taxpayer about $162,000. (Are the comput- ers presently in the Hillside school to be discarded?) These would equip three computer classrooms. Besides saving the taxpayer unwarranted costs of new comput- ess and ancillary hardware, the new school could adapt the Hillside public address system to the hard- wiring of the new building. Why spend £80,000 on an entirely new system? And $90,000 to move the telephone system from the old school to the new? This figure has to be a touch on the high side. Finally, there is no convincing evidence to suggest that the school needs a Dynacom multimedia sys- tem — $366,500 is simply too high a price to pay for this item. Classroom access to data bases and CD ROM can be gained via the 90 computers mentioned above, Class upset by fish kill Dear Editor: My naine is Abbie Avis. I go to Boundary community school. am in Mrs. Rinkhy and Mrs. Nelson's Grade 2 class. . We had salmon in our class. One night someone came into our class and put soap in the fish tank. It was around 8 p.m. or 7 p.m. We. raised them from: eggs. It was horrible that they all died. Whoever did it, that wasn’t very nice. | hope they won’t do it again. Abbie Avis North Vancouver (LOOK FOR THE... WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29 TO SATURDAY, APRIL 4 compute The WVSB will have difficulty 19 persuading me that they haven't spent at feast 75% too much on new technology. Its pretty: clear they've been sold a bill of goods, as have we. the taxpayers. The fact is, the money is not there. ‘Yom Taylor West Vancouver HES PEM THE WiClireLp. VWRATE RICVY