7 Lif : ; “ : a ~ VICTORIA resident John Meacham, left, is reflected in the ample chrome of a 1936 Lagonda LG at a vintage car show held at the North Vancouver BC Rail station last Sunday on Father’s Day. i Concerns ra layoff of sch Special needs students hit hard Jan-Christian Sorensen . Contributing Writer ; SUFFER the special needs children. ~ That’s the worry of many following the district-wide jayoffs © fast Friday of aff 438 special education aides (SEAs), special edu- ‘cation assistants and supervision aides in North Vancouv '. The positions were climinated in accordance with a provision in the CUPE provincial collective agreement that now guaran- tees all instructional statf'a minimum 20-hour work week. The school board will recall many of the employees into d job classifications during the summer, but school District 44 superintendent Robin Braynce has said that at least 75 sitions will be permanently eliminated come September. “Judy Thompson, chairman of the North Vancouver chapter of the Learning Disabilities Association, said she’s concerned that the quality of care for special needs students will be dimin- ished by the reorganization, - “We just want to make sure that there is some kind of trained service there for the children,” said ‘Thompson, who also has a daughter in the special education system. “There doesn’t seem to be any plan in place.” She wants assurances that the district will still employ the necessary resources to implement each student’s Individual on Profile (IEP). “.» The IEP determines the number of educational hours each special needs student reccives in the classroom. - “How are they going to implement the IEPs if they don’t “have some kind of support in place?” she said. CUPE Local 389 president Cindy McQueen said yester thar the layoff only hurt students. “(The board) has taken the most extreme measure in imple- » menting this without any regard to the impact on their staffand » students,” said McQueen. . “There's going to be upwards of a hundred less special edu- ation aides and assistants and supervision aides in the schools, so there will be less staff servicing the needs of those students.” McQueen said the board has handcuffed CUPE members because the wholesale layoff scheme effectively prevents any _employees from “bumping” more junior staff members and keeping their jobs. ; However, Brayne said that the bumping process would only cause further disruption to students because it could take as long: as a year or Wo betore staff members finally settled into new positions. . Weldon Cowan, president of the North Vancouver Teachers Association (NVTA), said the rcorganization will have a nega- -tive impact on special needs students and teacher morale throughout the district. “We're hearing reports back from schools that people are horribly demoralized,” he said. sed over ol aides NEWS photo Mike Wakefield JUDY Thompson, chairman of the North Vancouver chapter of the Learning Disabilities Association. “It’s had a crushing impact on SEAs, obviously, and on kids and teachers. - “It will affect the quality of education and have a detrimen- tal impact on some of our neediest students.” However, District 44 assistant superintendent Paui Killeen maintained that the layoff scheme would present the least amount of disruption to students and teachers. “What we wanted to do is to provide the minimum disrup- tion tothe school system and the kids and the CUPE employ- ves,” he “Our number one goal is to provide the service for the kids.” CUPE Local 389 has filed six grievances with the board and has asked the Industrial Inquiry Commission to intervene to assist the union in mediating the situation. School board officials said yesterday they will be meeting Friday. June 23, 2000 —- North Shore News - 3 City wants MP to explain ship decision Anna-Louise Pentiand Contributing Writer POLITICAL rough waters continue to make waves around the Cape Breton project. North Vancouver City is summoning Nort! Vancouver MP Ted White for a day of reckoning for not supporting the Victory Ship Millennium grant application, and for holding up goevern- ment funding for 12 jobs related to the project. A motion put forward by Coun. Bill Bell on Monday night, and unanimously endorsed by council, requests that White appear as a delegation before council to explain his position. The mation states in part: “Whereas our MP Ted Whire, spoke out against a vital Federa! Millennium Graist for the Cape Breton Project which was a factor in the federal government turning down the grant, and whereas such action shows com- fete ignorance of our North Shore nistory ...” White said he will not consid- er appearing before council. He said he is against the project because that’s what he’s hearing from his constituents. “Based on the input that Ive had over the years, people don’t like subsidizing other’s hobbies. It can only be used by wealthy people who dive. I’m pretty sure that one person in 1,000 will have the benefit of it. The fact is, they’re a special interest group and thev’re asking for public money,” White said. The city plans to salvage the engine, and possibly the stern, from the last surviving Canadian- built Victory Ship, constructed in 1944, to feature as a centrepiece in a proposed museum at a cost of $550,000. The Artificial Reef Society then plans to sink the rest of the ship off Nanaimo to create a dive site. The work on the ship was to have begun in June, but has been postponed because of moncy problems. A report presented last week by city director of finance Terry Christie concluded that the grant was lost because of fierce compe tition for the money and lack support from White. . Ina March I North Shore News column, White wrote, “Whilst it is important that we do not forget, it is a bit of'a stretch to apply for a millennium grant for this one.” Though White claimed in a June 18 letter to the News edi- tor that there was only $68,425 available for North Shore pro- jects, that was not substantiated by the Millennium Bureau in Ottawa. “The program was not aimed at creating a regional bal- ance — there was no regional allocations criteria,” said Marcel Gaumond, spokesman tor the Millennium Bureau. But Gaumond said support from a local MP was not part of the criteria, though the more support that could be demon- strated in a community the stronger an application would be. Said Gaumond, “We did accept some projects that did not have letters of support from MPs.” tion White has is that the Artificial Reef is getting the ciry ro pay for things they would have to do before sinking, it anyways, such as removing the asbestos and engine. ; “T think the council is being sucked into this thing,” White said. ‘ ot so, said Jay Straith, president of the Artificial Reef Society. He said the last five ships the society has sunk afl had asbestos in them, and that Environment Canada has been mon- itoring those sites. “[ a know what asbestos becomes? It becomes sand,” said Straith. He said the engine could be degreased and left in the ship. Straith, a former Liberal riding association president, accus- es White of politicizing the project. “He chose to politicize this thing. We have an historically important thing happening here, and we've gone out of our way over the years not to polit this thing,” Straith said. White also didn’t support a request from the Artificial Reef Society to Human Resour clopment Canada (HRDC) for funding of 12 tempora sto help ready the ship to be sunk. MP Ted White: “...peo- ple don’t like subsi- dizing other’s hob- NVC Coun. Bifl Belt invited White to appear at meeting. HRDC spokesman Rick Waters said White’s refusal to endorse the application will slow it down, but not stop it “In order to process this, we have to send it to the minister .” Waters said. 5 in Ottawa to appeal the local MP’s decisic Sev Victory page §