JUNE 18, 2000 casei Bright Lights ooo 12 Celebrations 28 Classifieds 38 Crossword oo0 bk? Talking Personals *e* 38 HON Ppkcatin Comgry Furesner Peter Scavi 1935 Lonsaaie Avenye North Viaencouwer SC VY Hs Canaaan Puobcanons Mol Sales Product Agreeewent ho 087258 The Voice of North and West Vancouver since 1969 North Vancouver school support gets reorganized for fall dan-Christian Sorensen Contributing Writer NORTH Vancouver School District 44 is cleaning house. The school board handed pink slips to its 366 special education aides (SEAs) and) supervisi aides scattered throughout the district on The widespread Havotts are being made to accommodate 2 provision in the CUPE provin- cial collective agrcement hammered out last week, said district superintendent Robin Brayne. Under the terms of the agreement, all CUPE instructional staff must be guaranteed a mini- mum four-hour work day, w ates into a minimum 20-hour work week. make room for the changes, the i “layoff and recall” clause collective agreement. However, after all is said and done and recall notic tour in. July, approximately 75 and out o come Septembe The district currently has a number of SE that work 14- to 16-hour work weeks, depend- ing on the nature of their assignment. The S: are paid an hourly wage of $18.54 plus benefit: “Fourteen hour jobs just don’t exist: any more,” said Brayne. Under the collective agreement, the new job classifications will be based ona new standard of 20-, 25-, 27-and-a-haif or 30-hour work weeks, “The hours are all still there in the they just have to be organized in those units then the (SEAs) are called back into them,” s Brayne. For example, ifa school currently employed four special edu- cation aides at 10 hours cach, under the reorganization scheme those 40 hours would have to be fused into two 20-hour posi- tions, with the two senior SEAs sliding, back into plac ? He added that the massive layoff is more favourab’ tackling the reworked hours schedule on a piecemeal basis as will prevent more senior SEAs from “bumping” other junior staff members. Marey Adams, who works with special needs students at Balmoral junior secondary, is one of the SEAs being left in limbo. She fears that she won't have a job to come back to when the new school year begins in the fall. She's third from the top of the totem pole in a department of cight. She’s also worried that the decrease in SEAs may leave some students without the quality of care they’ve become accustomed to the SEAs “We've got one litte boy who's autistic and so he needs con- Fashion p18 Sienna clothing store a potpourri of textile art I be recalled stant one-on-one care,” she said. “If th 1 don’t know how some of these kids tion.” Brayne added that the district is predicting a decrease in the number of students requiring SEA supervision this fall, which contributed to the layotf decision. “We don*t require as many hours of SEA time for next year based on changes in the number of students,” he said. Approximately 75 district students requiring SEA supervision will cither be graduating or moving on to other districts this fall. For the time being, all Adams can do is wait and hope that shel make the curt. She said that when she thinks back on her year-and-a-half at Balmoral, she'll remember the special needs students she worked so closely with and made a profound dif- ference in her life. “The kids I’ve worked with are absolutely phenomenal,” she said. “I've learned so much from them about patience and goodness and it’s been a totally life-changing expe- rience for me. I hope Pit be back.” parm off Team training for the Sea2Summit adventure race Sports p37 Www.nsnews.com NEWS photo Mike Wakefield MARCY Adams, who works at Balmoral junior secondary school, is one of 366 special education aides (SEAs) that North Vancouver Schoo! District 44 has given layoff notices to as part of a district-wide reorganization scheme. While many of July, approximately 75 will be out of a job this fall. Teen found guilty in stabbing of friend Anna Marie D’Angelo News Reporter adangelo@nsnews.com KONAAM Shirzad blamed everything that was wrong in his life on his former best friend Dan Duval. That's why the then-16-year-old Shirzad snuck up behind Duval on July 14, 1999, and stabbed him twice in the back with See Attack page 4 * make no monthly payments until September 2000! | #125-949 W. Srd St. North Van o: sicex soun of capmeno Mam aye