A7 - Sunday, January 16, 1983 - North Shore News 8 mailbox DX Mill rate Union not ‘I ‘dirty pool’ Dear Editor: We were recently quite shocked to read that lower assessments in the District may not result in lower taxes because the mill rate may be raised. This certainly sounds like dirty pool. In 1981 there was a 30-45% (and higher) increase in assessments while the school budget called for an approximate 12% increase. 1 made enquines as to whether the mill rate could be adjusted dewnward to give the required 12% increase. I was told that the mill rate was already set and could not be changed. This is certainly part of the problem we have now. The schools received a windfall — gave the teachers an 18% increase (22% with the normal yearly = ad- justment) — probably in- creased the administration staff. No doubt they made sure the budget was fully used so they could apply for another increase. Now they want to raise the mill rate when assessments are down! Nonsense! Someone is being less than honest. Obviously, if there is no way that the mill rate can be lowered when assessments are increased, then there had damn well better be no way it can be raised when assessments are lowered. After spending 15 years in the District 1 have come to the conclusion that the municipal budget has been fairly responsible, while the school budget has been highly irresponsible, par- ticularly in times of declining enrolment and schools being closed I certainly hope the ratepayers don't accept this Catch 22 situation without a fight. - Gordon A. Castle y North Vancouver Dear Editor: ] read your article of January 5, 1983 with con- siderable distress. Had Mr. Bill Bell contacted all the parties involved - the West Vancouver Municipal Employees’ Association, the West Vancouver School Board, and the West Vancouver Teachers’ Association, as well as representatives of the Hillside Parents’ Association - before launching himself into print, perhaps a more balanced and less. in- ftammatory form of reporting might have been achieved. 1. This Association does not wish to “intimidate” people, nor do we wish to prevent parent volunteers from coming into the schools to do yobs normally done by parents the Call Back programme in’ elementary schools, certain specified library duties (so long as the paid library aide is not displaced) help with sports events, field tnps. and so on. Our concern is simply that parents (who would not be volunteers if they depended on paid employment) should not displace our members, many of whom are widows and/or single parents who depend on their jobs to support themselves and their families, and many of whom have been serving tna the West Vancouver school sys.em for many years. 2. By having an assortment of volunteers coming and going in schools, you cannot achieve the continuity and consistency in assistance to your children) which has been supphed by the paid aides This is) why the teacher aide positions were crealed ino the first) place many years ago | might also add that, contrary to what some West Vancouver parents beheve, parents did not perform aide yobs on a voluntary basis before paid aides were introduced into the school system. Ap proximately seventeen years apo, when the very first paid aide was introduced in West Vancouver, parents simply did not enter the schools except. for occasional parent-teacher interviews, consultation with the principal, sports days, Christmas concerts, and the occasional open house. Also, over the same period, the educational system has become much more com- plex, and many technical skitts—are now required of paid aides, which the normal! parent volunteer does not 3. Itis nice that parents want to help in ae difficult situation, but this should be done by appealing to Education Minister Bill Vander Zalm for a revision of his thinking. It is most unfortunate that in_ these umes of inflation” the Ministry has actually cut the dollar grants to school districts, resulting . in severely reduced services to the children of the province. 4. Each school was given the option of how to use the severely reduced aide hours available to them. In most cases the schools chose to use aides for lunch room and noon hour and recess monitoring duties rather than in classroom assistance and preparation educational material I suggest this is a rather strange set of pnorilies. S. School boards were allowed by the Ministry to decide on the method of culting costs when the cuts were announced. In West Vancouver the Board decided as a first step to terminate the positions of all teacher aides (a few later being rehired with reduced hours) Ido not beheve that owas the intention of the Ministry that teacher aides should bear the whote brunt the of ot cuts ds oat a wonder Why ‘cold, snobbish’ store clerks? Dear Editor 1 would lke to comment on some salespersons at tudes Why. many when there are seo people dooking for yobs. do some styrg: employ doa? e Do we. as regular paying customers, have the right to complain to the management’ My mother and | were having such ao onice time shopping, we met such mice helpful people Hut in’ the same ostore there were salespeople who just dad thei gob. no cxtry lke a | a a ask if we needed helps couldn t really tell af they prejudiced were tired, wl yust downright snobs | would Ibhe one was a popular super market and the other a well kKoown fabne store I hope all thas letter whe they I fo mcnmtion salespersons toad glam *-- and hase mac an Lo Nahwanmie North Vancouver NOW! 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I appreciate that Mrs. Audain is reported to have said that parents only wished to do the jobs volunteers normally do. However, the tone of the article by Mr. Bell, the inflammatory headings, and the reporting from one side of the case only, are very distressing to the Association and its members. : Blair Anderson, President West Van Municipal Employees’ Association For two to eat at the (2 block off Lonsdale) ROL. cee SH) = ay Oo ox a) i 2] C4 ud) Oo = 2 ‘ S) o ‘hd O x > Ea) w e4 tu Oo = > a SENIOR CITIZENS SPECIAL FOR 1983 Discount on all Body, Painting and Mechanical $50 pF RITCHIE Service Centre 1525 Welch St., N.Van. 987-7111 6 0ozN.Y. Steak Sandwich Dinner $11.9011! you can't afford not BLACK SHEEP NOW LIVE ENTERTAINMENT TUES.-SAT. from 8 P.M. 121 East 12th St | North Van OPEN: from tl 30Mon Sat Open at 4pm Sundays & Holidays PARTS & LABOUR! 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