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FOUR-YEAR-OLD Winnie the West Highiand Terrier takes a break from his daily walk on one of the benches along Grand
Boulevard in North Vancouver.

North Vancouver District 44 withdraws from B.C.

NORTH VANCOUVER School
District 44 (NVSD) officially with-
drew its membership from the B.C.
School = Trustees sociation
(BCSTA) at its March 30 school
board meeting.

NORTH VANCOUVER
SCHOOL BOARD
By Kevin Gillies

The board followed through on a 1993
decision to discontinue its membership in the
association, The original motion had been
Suspended t until] March 1994,

North Vancouver followed Surrey School
District 36's lead when it withdrew earlier

this month,

The Education Ministry's capping of
administrative expenses for the 1904-95
school year nuide leaving the organization an
easier decision to make, =

With its withdrawal District 44 will save
the annual membership ees of at feast
$60,000, i

Coquithan School District 43 is currently
considering withdrawal as welll

The BCSTA originally; had membership
from all of B.C.'s 75 school districts and for
the membership fee, school districts received
legal advice. education forums and access to
education speakers. :

In ihe past two years, 10 school districts
have withdrawn from the organization for
various teasons to form the Council ef B.C.
School Districts (CBCSD).|

The most common reasons for withdrawal

were high membership fees and dissatisfacy
tion with the decision-making proces

Board chairman Pat Heal said the mone-
lary issue was District 44's main motivation
for feaving the organization.

“Also, to us, it's making a real political
statement to BCSTA that they are not dealing
with Lower Mainland concerns and issues
that we bring to the table.” she added.

For at least two years, Lower Mainland
School boards have expressed conceras that
they have not been adequately represented by
the BCSTA and that the organization catered
more to rural school districts, which have dit-
ferent needs fram urban school districts,

Heal said that District 44 was considering
joining the CBCSD.

She said the BCSTA's refusal to endorse
recommendations from the Education
Ministry's report of the Technical

School Trustees Association

Distribution Group (TDG) was an example of
the inadequate representation of urban con-
cerns.

“The president of the BCSTA made a
statement that B-C. school trustees were
agamst the (TDG) report and, basically the
whole Lower Mainland (would have) gained
from that report because it tegitimized what
we've been saying for the last years.”

The TDG report recommended a restruc-
luring of the fiscal framework that ultimately
would bave shifted funding from rural boards
to urban boards.

But BCSTA vice-president Bill Brown
said representing the needs of 63 different
school beards is difficult,

He added that the BCSTA did endorse the
TDG report but felt that shifting funding fram

See Funding page &