index ® Automotives i Classified Ads B Ecolnfo Editorial! Page @MHome & Garden @ Mailbox Paul St. Pierre @ What's Going On... . Weather Friday. rain and windy. Saturday, periods of rain. Highs near 10°C. Second Class Registration Number 3885 Love those letters! WE LOVE your letters. In fact, we love them so much that start- ing today, the Friday edition of the North Shore News will feature a special expanded letters to the editor and editorial opinion sec- tion on page 7. In addition to more letters, Fri- day’s page 7 will include opinion pieces, extra cartoons, survey results and guest columnists. We hope that it will provide a larger and more lively forum for the opinions and insights of North Shore News readers. We welcome your submissions. Friday, February 1, 1991 - North Shore News - 3 Pape Aw ke NEWS photo Nell Lucente SENIORS APPEAR on the horizon at Hollyburn Ridge curing a day trip last week. The North Shore Neighbourhood House is offer- ing two additiona! cross-country trips for seniors — one in February and one in March. For information, call Ruy at 987-8138. But North Van union head disputes Board boss’ figures NORTH VANCOUVER District 44 School Board (NVSB) superintendent Robin Brayne has estimated that agreeing to all the con- tract demands of the North Vancouver Teachers’ Association (NVTA) would cost the board approximate- ly $17 million. By Surj Rattan News Reporter But NVTA president Linda Watson has disagreed with Brayne’s figures, saying they are outdated and based on the open- ing demands of the teachers’ union. The final total, she said, would likely be far different. Both the school board and the teachers’ union are currently in- volved in contract talks, and the union has initiated a work-to-rule campaign that limits teacher in- struction time. In a Jan. 15 memo sent by Brayne to school trustees during an in-camera, mecting, the super- intendent stated that the union’s demands would cost $17 million, which he estimated would con- stitute an increase of about 20 per cent over the board’s current budget. The increase, he said, would probably not be absorbed by the 1991-92 block funding allocated to the District 44 board by the pro- vincial education ministry. Stated Brayne in the memo, “‘It is unreasonable to presume that our 1991-92 block funding will improve by that much given the fact that the 1989-90 to 1990-91 improvement was only 5.6 per cent.” On Tuesday, Brayne said the $17 million represents ‘‘outside costs’ and not just wages. He added that the Public Sector Col- NORTH VANCOUVER SCHOOL BOARD lective Bargaining Disclosure Act requires all items in dispute to be listed and affixed with a dollar figure. The current school board budget is $86,323,854, and the board is required to adopt its new budget by April 20. According to District 44 ad- ministration figures, the average teacher's salary in District 44 is approximately $45,000, including benefits. Teachers in District 44 will work a 195-day year in 1991. Of that total, five will be professional days. Watson disputed the $17-million price tag in Brayne’s memo, but said she did not have a union estimate for the total costs of its North Vancouver School Board superintendent Robin Brayne .. figure is 20 per cent over board’s budget. demands. “We don’t have the capability to cost-out to the nearest dollar,’’ she said. ‘‘] would think a far more reasonable settlement will be reached.’”* NVTA president Linda Watson .. “reasonable settlement will be reached.”’ Watson added that the NVTA’s work-to-rule campaign was iaiti- ated because the union was unhappy with the slow pace of contract negotiations. Under the campaign, North Vancouver teachers arrive for work a half hour before their normal instruc- tion time begins and leave a half hour after it ends. Traditionally, teachers arrive at school earlier and stay later, depending on their work load. Brayne conceded that the job action was legal, but he said that, with negotiations continuing five days per week, he could see no reason for it. “It is noteworthy that teachers in Vancouver, Richmond and West Vancouver have not seen the need to issue strike notice and consequently are not applying job action in support of their contract demands,’”’ Brayne said in his memo. “Why the NVTA has taken job action in the form of non-atten- dance at administrative officer- called meetings, a paper strike and limited instruction, is a question only the NVTA_ can _ answer,’’ Brayne said. ‘Typically, job ac- tion is taken by a union when contract talks are at an impasse or See Teachers page $ WV teachers’ union head strikes back THE GLOVES came off Monday night in the long-sim- mering dispute between the president of the West Van- couver Teachers’ Association (WVTA) and West Van- couver District 45 schools superintendent Doug Player. **Outrage’?’ is how WVTA president John Luccock described the reaction of his teacher col- leagues to Player's assertion that a WVTA presentation in mid- January was ‘odious, misleading and incorrect.’ The WVTA and District 45 are currently locked in contract negotiations. In a letter to the District 45 school board, Luccock severely criticized Player, alleging that Player has inflamed the salary issue, put out wrong information and broken an agreed-upon pro- tocol with the WVTA. Said Luccock: ‘*The teachers of West Vancouver ... have asked me to express their outrage at the in- By Patrick Raynard Contributing Writer appropriate, misleading, erroneous and mischievous remarks made by the superintendent during the WVTA’s budget brief presentation at the board meeting on Monday, Jan. $4 which appeared in an {North Shore News) article the following Wednesday. “The figures given by Mr. Player as the average teachers’ salaries were much exaggerated and inaccurate. His number of professional days was misleading. “We would submit that the fig- ures used by Mr. Player were put out to get the public excited about WEST VANCOUVER SCHOOL BOARD an already sensitive issue, that of teacher salaries and negotiations.’”’ At the Jan. 14 meeting, Luc- cock had told the board that ‘‘this district has more administrators than are needed to run the district, and if we had fewer ad- ministrators we would have the money to hire more teachers.’’ Player had shot back that Luc- cock’s statement was ‘‘odious’’ because Luccock had misied the board with incorrect information on the number of administrators in the district and the amount o} classroom teaching the ad- ministrators do. Player had reminded the board See Union page 5 WEST Vancouver Schoo! Board superintendent Doug Player ... accused of breaking protocol.