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8 - Sunday, October 29, 1989 ~ North Shore News

WEST VANCOUVER SCHOOLS
Asians outnumber Europeans in ESL program

ASIAN-LANGUAGE STU-
DENTS outnumber European-
language students almost six to one
in the West Vancouver School
District’s English as a Second
Language (ESL) program, the
school board recently learned.

By PATRICK RAYNARDL
Asians, at 140 out of 169 stu-
dents, comprise 83 per cent of
ESLs, while European-language
students make up only I5 per cent,

at 25 out of 169.
“*Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean,

and Farsi (Iranian) are the biggest
groups,’’ said George Stewart,
supervising principal of speciat
education, ‘‘and, of the total of
169 ESLs, 108 are new this year.”’

Further, ESL enrolment overall
has almost tripled since 1985, and
most of this fall’s entrants are
Asian-language students concen-
trated in four schools east of the
board office on 21st Street.

Sentinel Secondary School, and
Chartwell, Westcot and Ridgeview
elementary schools are teaching
140 of the district's ESLs, or 83
per cent, Stewart said.

“Our philosophy is that we serve
the students in their heme

‘PARK FOR PEOPLE — NOT PROFIT’
City aldermen slam privatization plan

“PARKS ARE for people, not for
profit,’? Ald. Barbara Sharp told
fellow North Vancouver City
Council members during a discus-
sion of the provincial govern-
ment’s three-year privatization
program for parks.

By CORINNE BJORGE
Contributing Writer

And council responded Monday
by unanimously calling for public
meetings and action from the pro-
vincial government to ‘‘reclaim’’
maintenance contracts in the
parks.

“Private operators do not have
the authority to enforce the Park
Act which had enabled the gov-
ernment employees to issue tickets,
request ID, or evict
troublemakers,” said Sharp. And
this has resulted in ‘‘noisy, late-
night parties, filthy washrooms,
unattended fires, special fees being
introduced and no protection from
future environmental problems,’’
she said.

Ald. John Braithwaite said he
wasn’t against the idea of private
parks, but didn’t support privatiz-
ing contracts.

“¥ don’t mind if a private oper-

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ator wants to buy land and charge
fees, but I don’t support the gov-
ernment in this direction,’’ said
Braithwaite.

Sharp criticized the lack of
pudlicity for the government’s
decision.

“The government did not adver-
tise the trausfer of park operations
to the private sector. It is a pro-
gram that has been implemented
very quietly,** said Sharp.

Ald. Stella Jo Dean agreed the
government had moved too fast.

“T’m not against the principte of
privatization, but the park
(maintenance privatization) was
done too quickly «2d without the
necessary safeguards,’’ said Dean.

And Sharp said while the initial
motivation for contracting out
maintenance was to save money,
she said the government appears to
be losing money in its deals.

**An operation that was valued
at between $2 to $3 million was
leased for 50 years for $500,000 to
Gibson Pass Resorts Inc.,’’ said
Sharp.

And, said Sharp, the govern-
ment did not include ali the
miairitenance costs in the new con-
tracis. .

“Taxpayers still fund snow

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with additional

(neighborhood) school. We don’t
encourage them to move from one
school to another,’’ Stewart said,
adding that some parents choose to
buy homes in certain schools’
“catchment areas’’ because of the
ESL programs offered there.

The news follows on the heels of
concern expressed by parents and
some board members at a
September board meeting over the
increasing number of fee-paying
foreign students (in a program dif-
ferent from ESL) being educated
in the district.

Hong Kong and Japanese stu-
dents make up nearly all of the
foreign students, the September

clearing costs and other services
provided to the private operator at
Manning,”’ she said.

Sharp said the provincial gov-
ernment should follow in the steps
of other provinces that kave

reversed private contracting in
their parks.

Both Ontario and Manitoba
have reversed their earlier decisions
to sell contract services in their
parks, said Sharp.

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meeting was told, prompting some
parents to coumplain that the
district was deliberately recruiting
Asians rather than Europeans.
Schools superintendent Doug
Player, who took over his position
last summer, said he was concern-
ed about the district teaching
foreign students at all. He said that

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the $5,500 fee the district charges
for each student raised questions
about whether the district was
“seriously in the business” of
educating foreign students.

ESLs, meanwhile, are blending
in well, Stewart said, because ‘‘we
have an orderly system in the way
our schools integrate.’’

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