AIN'T IT the truth? Bad
news has wings. Good news

vag ‘walks, usually left in the

-dust trying to thumb a

~<a fide. The West Vancouver -

_Schoo! Board can make a -

‘falr case — here I plead. -
three-quarters-guilty

. myself — that it gets
‘noticed only at crisis time.

.” There was a big serving of

that in 1992-93. The trustees had

_almost ‘as many hot potatoes as
they had hands; Like: |,

-. "The proposed sale of Hillside
“school property for residential

home developments, hotly

“*. opposed by some area‘ residents. - .

Criticisms of the style and, to

“some extent, the studies, in

© California of superintendent
Doug Player on a leave of

absence.”

‘The grandiose scheme for
raising private money in huge
gobs to fund up-scale facilities at

Sentinel school, ending in col-
‘apse and the exit to the United
“States of the principal. .

And an offshoot controversy
that had the principal's estranged
wife publicly declaring that the
board had given Vancouver -
Canucks hockey tickets to her

ne husband and another principal as .

.an under-the-table sweetener for
the freezing of their salaries, a
claim adamantly denied by the

‘* board of the day that left at Ieast

Publisher
989-2131 (101 )

1139 Lonsdale Avenue -

North Vancouver B.C.
* co M7M 2H4..

Comptrotier
985-2131 {133)

Trevor

Lautens

of biases

this observer unconvinved. - .
Nor has it helped that con-
struction of the replacement
school for Hillside on Caulfeild
plateau has run into delays (open-
ing now is scheduled for.
September 1996 instead of |
January 1996), tougher site-
preparation problems than antici-
pated — the wealthy neighbor-
hood endured dynamite blasts
and dust for far longer than
‘expected last summer — and cost
overruns which are being picked

_ up by the provincial government. .

You see? There I go —reca- ,
pitulating the board's past prob- ..
lems.

The good news is that the
board elected i in 1993 has quietly
been making substantial anges
that have suffered the frequent
fate of good news — being oe
under-reported and unapplauded.

Us chairman for 1995, K Ken.

Chris Johnson
Operations Manager _
985-2131 (141) .

LATTER, VAN enon iad BB

UR BACKYARD stretch of Highway
needs more attention from those who
maintain its upkeep.

It’s popular to call the road as it. leaves
Horseshoe Bay for points beyond, The Killer
Highway. Over the years death has come in
spades along the way, much of it due to rock-
fall from steep cuts into rocky cliff lining the
winding road.

The highways department has slowly
responded to the carnage with an incremental
program of rock scaling and highway widen-
ing. But for most of us the highway is tricky
closer to home.

The need to stop for traffic lights at
Westview is an obvious and recognized haz-
ard and will soon be history as the long-
promised Westview interchange becomes a
reality.

The pattern established is this: a string of

SA AseatD asad AN: SENDERS NRA IANS 2 CORE RATE F

death and i injury is followed by some remedi-
al action. There seems to be an unspoken cost
versus risk threshold of loss deemed to be
acceptable in all of this. Which brings us to
the latest example, Mr. Jamie .Coltart’s
hydroplaning disaster on the highway. near
the Taylor Way exit.

As today’s News story reveals, there was ;
ample concern expressed about the risk posed -
by downpour runoff and inefficient drainage
on the highway.

Nothing was done to rectify the specific
drainage hazard at the site of Coltart’s mis-
fortune until a year after the accident.

He’s now a quadriplegic.

How many other sacrifices to safety are
driving out there now?

We have a vight to drive on well- -designed 7
roads.

Anything less is negligent.

miata ix

Haycock, points out:

Ttetn: It didn’t make headlines
last September when the board
moved its monthly meeting from
Monday to Tuesday nights to
avoid conflict with council mect-
ings and thus encourage citizen
attendance,

That had been a plank in the

election platform of Coun. Andy

Danyliu, and a pet beef of this
column, The board got.no acco-
lades when it made the change.
Item: The reform-minded

board — new members elected in
1993 included Haycock, Clive
Bird and Michaci MacDougali —
has ended controversial merit pay
and bonuses and special perks

. (like hockey tickets) for employ-

ees, and, unlike North Vancouver,
does not offer buyouts for admin-
istrators’ unused sick days. That
caused an uproar recently when
North Vancouver's school board
paid a total of almost $300,000 to
four administrators for preciscly
that. a,

Item: The board's finance
committee has opened up the

‘ budget-setting process to the pub-

lic. One such meeting was heid

this week. A. praiseworthy reform.’

Item: While I noted recently |
that some senior staff were given
raises of around 10%, only one
{was in that neighborhood, and
“that involved an upgraded assign-

ment. Others ranged from 1.52 to.

7.63% and in some cases also
involved higher duties to fill in:

Timothy Renshaw
Managing Editor

985-2131 (116)

Nori Shore News, founded in 1969 as an Administration

Linda Stewart
Sales & Maskating Diroctor
980-0511 (319)

for Player.

Item: The board is reviewing
the whole process of recruiting,
paying, training and evaluating its
administrators.

Item: Part of that review
inciudes the contracting of a busi-
Ness management group to pre- -
pare a questionnaire on the per-
formuace.of the board's adminis-
trators, with the support of the
top one,-Player. The general tone
is that under Haycock, in real life
an administrator himself — for
the University of B.C. library —
the trustecs seem to be reminding
the staff who's in charge around
here. ;

At the same time, Haycock
defends the administration,
Player, he believes, is the lowest-
paid school superintendent i in the
Lower Mainland. As are West
- Van. trustees, he thinks: at about
$8,000 per year, they're not
exactly getting rich for a job that
is both far more complex and
more time-consuming than he
expected. Haycock is more open:
‘and more education-savvy than

most who serve in that role. This

”’ board deserves credit for bringing

the process closer to taxpayers.
Quite ajob.

» Oh yes, and a pretty thankless
one. Haycock quickly found that
the work of chairman is not only
a further load added to being a
trustee, but that it's also ‘‘far
more abusive.” We live in
demanding times.

Peter Kvametron:
Display Manager
980-0511 (103)

Classified Manager. -
886-6222 (202)

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Ski hills also
responsible |

Dear Editor: |. :

Fam writing this letter. about the
issue of skiers having to pay for their
own rescues... .

I think that if. skiers pass across a:
rope or a boundary sign they do so at
their ‘own risk and should be, Charged
for it. -
But if a ski mountain’ ‘toes not

bother to put ropes across the bound...
aries or even any signs, the mountain
should take responsibility and pay for
‘the costs of the skier.’ :
1 write this because recently a;

friend ond! skied’ off the mountain =|”

and the ski patrol) were sent out to find

us, .

If we had taken only a few hours
more, we would have been charged
for our rescilc. :

The area of the mountain, where ©
we got lost had No ropes across it or
even any signs. ° 7

If there had have been even one

. Sign we would have never gone down.
there and then .we. wouldn't have
needed to be rescued.

So if skiers should have to pay for:
their rescue, the ski mountain should —
at least take the time to post boundary :
signs or ropes. |:

Thank you for your time. ;
Ryan L. Wettlaufer .

North Vancouver

“Valerie Stephenson © Trix! Agrios

“Promotions Manager °
985-2131 (137}

“MEMBER

“SDA DIVISION -
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