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SEPTEMBER 1, 1999

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Training
targeted

in Scout
fatal

Kathacine Hamer
Contributing Writer

TRAINING and
equipment given to
a Boy Scout who
died in a hiking
accident last
December were far
from adequate,
according to a
recently-released
coroner’s report.

No blame was directly
apportioned in the death of
I]-year-old Philip McLeod
during a Dee. 20, 1998, hike
in Lions Bay.

Burt coroner = Sherry!
Yeager did forward a number
of safety recommendations to
Scouts Canada executive

director Alamin Pirani.
Those recommendations

See Safety page &

Katharine Hamer

Contributing Writer

NORTH Vancouver School District 44 is
still cussling with B.C.’s education ministry
over funding to help reduce class sizes for
the upcoming school year.

A collective bargaining agreement signed in August 1998 by
the British Columbia Teachers Federation and the Ministry of
Education commits all school districts in B.C. io reducing class
sizes for primary grades (kindergarten to Grade 3) from 28 to 23
pupils per class,

Last year, with a government subsidy of $510,000, North
Vancouver was able to hire nine new teachers and cut kindergarten

Humphreys p17

Feeling very cosmopolitan
working on her new TV series

Sparis 025

Lacrosse Indians lose
cup game in Burnaby

Savouring North
Vancouver’s
Flavour of India

Table Hopping p22

Cheeky chums

CHELSEA Craighead (left to right), Hana Davis, Vanessa Cardoso and Sandra Bartlett show their Tic Tacs and the T-shirts they won
from Ing Direct at the Deep Cove Daze community festival last Saturday. The annual event celebrates life in the Deap Cove area.

Education ministry short-changes
District 44 in class-size funding

and Grade | class sizes by three students.

This year, however, the government has miscalculated: as part
of the agreement, North Vancouver should have been allotted
funds for an additional 17 teachers, but the school district was told
there was no moncy for any new teachers and that it would instead
have to cut last year’s new teaching positions back to 8.5 — half'a
teacher less than 1998. Once the Ministry of Education realized its
error, said North Vancouver deputy school superintendent Paul
Killeen, ir offered the school district an additional $240,000 to
hire four teachers. But as Killeen pointed out, that still leaves the
school district 13 teachers short of its requirement if it is to con-

tinue to reduce class sizes.

Approximately 4,700 children are enrolled in primary grades in
North Vancouver schools for the 1999-2000 school year.
effectively means there will be 28 students in each Grade 1 to 3
class.

Kilicen and school district superintendent Dr. Robin Brayne
travelled to Victoria on Monday to plead their case. As yet, they
have no word as to whether additional finding is forthcoming.
Killeen and Brayne have a meeting scheduled with the deputy edu-
cation minister on Sept. 10, three days after the school term
begins.

“What ['m most worried about is disruption,” said Killeen,
“especially with primary kids. If the money comes through during
the school year, we'll have to reorganize classes, Parents won’t like
it if their child starts the year with Miss Smith and then two weeks
later gets moved to Miss Brown’s class. But it’s unavoidable.”

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