NV drug suspect faces new charges after police arrest Cannabis and smokes seized ONE OF seven men charged following an RCMP under- cover investigation in North Vancouver last December involving alleged forged pass- ports and drug dealing was arrested. Feb. 28 and charged with two new offences. By Anna Marie D'Angelo News Reporter ' Abbas Ghodrat, 41, of North Vancouver, is charged with pos- : sessing cannabis resin for the pur- pose of trafficking and possessing untaxed cigarettes. “Federal Crown lawyer Jay ~ Straith said Ghodrat was picked up by police on Feb, 28 after alleged- ly being found with “boxes and boxes” of untaxed cigarettes, Ghodrat was allegedly observed walking in and out of his North Vancouver home with a box of cig- arettes marked “not for sale in Canada,” Straith said Ghodrat explained in court that he brought the ciga- rettes to his home because of fre- quent burglaries at his store. Ghodrat was charged — last December with two counts of traf- ficking opium, one count of traf- ficking marijuana, three counts of possessing proceeds of crime and one count of possessing marijuana for the purpese of trafficking. For the lates! charges, Judge Jerome Paradis ordered Wednesday that Ghodrat remain in custody. : NV District 44 projects $1 Am budget deficit » NORTH VANCOUVER : Schocl District 44 projects that “it will-be running an accumu- slated deficit of $1.7 million by June 30, 1995, although it is submitting to. the provincial government.a balanced capital and operating budget totalling ‘ 101 million. . : NORTH VANCOUVER . SCHOOL BOARD . ‘By Kevin Gillies : District 44 employee salaries, benefits and. i,:allowances ($86,977,681) accounted for 91% of the year's final operating budget. ~~ “We are fulfilling the letter, if not: the intent, of the law,” trustee Rick ’-Buchols said on Tuesday night after the: document was presented to | trustees’ and the public by District 44’ | secretary-treasurer Len Berg. The School Act, legislation which governs the operation. of. school ‘districts, states that submitted budgets must be balanced. The provincial education ministry dictates that::“Boards may not budget for a 1994-95 deficit. If a district forecasts a deficit at the end of 1994-95, then a request to the minister should be included with the budget submission outlining the ‘reason for the deficit and plans for retirement. No additional resources will be provided to fund deficits.” “Therefore Tuesday’s budget does not offi- cially show the district’s final operating budget for the 1994-95 school year as carrying a $1.7 million deficit: Referring to the balanced bottom line of the “+ submission, Berg said, “This is not where we , expect to be as of June 30,. 1995.”. Said board chairman Barb McLellan: “It is ane a Snaices NEWS graphic Linda Dougias not an accurate forecast, but it is the forecast they (education ministry officials) asked for.” For the first time the board had to submit a second #udget for one school year. The School Act was amended in 1994, requiring school boards to submit budgets before the beginning and toward the end of a ‘given school year. The first budget reflects actual casts and revenues; the second presents projected costs and rev- enues. Buchols posed the question: “If the provin- cial government says we cannot mun a deficit, does that supersede existing contracts?” The question comes ‘three weeks after it was revealed that four administrators walked away from the’ district. with more than $500,000 in sick pay’ and early retirement ben- efits, and in the same year the provincial gov- ernment takes over negotiation of teacher con- tracts from the school boards. © District 44’s 1994-95 final operat- ing budget is the first publicly pre- sented budget with total annual expenditures exceeding the $100 mil- lion. mark. The .operating budget accounted for $95.6 million with the ©: remainder being capital — new build- ings and major renovation work. The board also ‘passed a motion asking Education Minister) Aji. Charbonneau’ to authorize District 44’s operating deficit. The letter is expected to. point out that the dis- -trict’s funding shortfall ‘would not exist if the government had imple- | mented recommendations outlined by the Techaical Support Group’ 'S report of two years ago. The . report recognized funding inequities between. rural. and urban school’ boards, and recommended revamping the Fiscal Framework — the current funding distribution sys- tem. The recommendations would have added an additional $1.5 million to NVSD coffers for the 1993-94 school year-and more for [994-95. However the provincial government did not implement the suggestions, choosing instead to do their own revamping of the Fiscal Framework which amounted to little or no change in funding for urban school boards, according to district officials. For the 1994-95 school year, the combined ‘total revenues of District 44: and. West Vancouver School District 45 surpassed $135 million — almost completely funded by B.C. taxpayers. That equates to more than $5,900 for every North Shore student'and the two school districts receive less per pupil than most districts in the province. Some private schools receive partial fund- ing from the government and wition can be as - high as $6,000 for a 10-month school year. Berg said that although he had not seen anything published on other school districts, he believed 44 districts (of 75) were € running a budget deficit. Dan Sinclair West Vancouver NEWS photo Terry Peters WEST VANCOUVER firefighter Tony D'Angelo attends to a victim Wednesday at a mock acci- dent scene that was part of West Vancouver secondary school's attempt to fight drunk driving. In North America one person dies every 20 minutes in drinking-driving-related accidents. CHANGES TO. FINAL BUDGET CHANGES . BETWEEN North Vancouver School - District 44’s 1994-95 preliminary and final bud- gets include: Fi a $340,000 reduction of equipment and library expenditures to .control deficit growin: a $381,750 reduction of a variety of orreraltare accounts to control deficit growth; @ an increased expenditure of $161,000 for increased English as..a Second Language enrolment (offset by an educa- tion ministry grant), @ an increase in salary and benefit expen,’ ditures of $855,326. a a In the board’s 1994-95 preliminary budget a $91 million operating budget’ was approved with “cost pressures” estimated to be in the $2.3 million range. - Of the district’s $95,622,107 in 1994- 95 operating expenditures: $72,492,788 (75.8% of. district costs) went to salaries, benefits and allowances for classroom instruction;’ - 84 $10,519,830 (11% of district costs) paid, for operations and maintenance of district’ property;- B 37,981,393 (8.35% of district costs) paid salaries, benefits and allowances for: district- and school-based administration; : Hi $3,941,196 (4.12% of district costs) covered instructional services and Sup- plies; ; $686,900 (0. 72% of district costs} went’ ‘to transportation and housing. f Yes, | do. We seem to be the only province that can build a super ferry not using federal governnient funds and backing. ; Bob Benson .North Vancouver City. : My response to the question is: you’ ve got to be kidding.