10 — Wednesday, March 13, 1996 — North Shore News

School debt
pressure felt

From page 4

command of a large vocabu-
lary. “She's such a joy to
work with,” said Pollock.
Sheila, because of develop-
mental defays in learning,
speech and motor skills, is
slated in the district’s “low
incidence-high cost” category.

Pollock is “very fearful”
the district will cut back on
children in special education
such as Sheila, “They need
the one-on-one and teachers
need the help. To me it is
worth every penny spent. The
kids grow so much.”

Teachers, she added, Gon’t
have the time necessary to

. spend with the kids. They are
dealing with social and
behavioral issues, as well as
the academic requirements.
Without an aide, special ed
students, she said, “would be
put in the back row and for-
gotten.”

Merilees said the district
had 784.5 high incidence-low
cost disabled students, 166.5
low-incidence high-cost stu-

dents, 21 dependent handi-
capped students, and 162
behavior disorder students as
of Sept. 30, 1995.

North Vancouver school
district is trying to deal with a
$5-million debt and an
expected $4-million shortfall
for next fiscal year. Under an
amalgamation plan being
pushed by the provincial gov-
ernment, $700,000 in core
grants for special’ education
programs would be chopped
to $350,000.

The district now has 220 to
230 full-time-equivalent
aides, which is more than sim-
ilar districts due to class-size
limits in collective agree-
ments, said Merilees.

Commenting on trustee
Bob Smith's drive to balance
the school district's budget,
Merilees said his own posi-
tion is that special education
is a core service. Any cuts to
regular services will hit spe-
cial needs kids, and specific
cuts to the special education
budget mean such students
could be hit twice.

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