he propagand. barrage organized by the puts out more blarney on this

- Friday, February 8, 1985 -

NV teachers have nothing t to d cry abou
Ere,

North Shore News

by Doug

education industry intensifies, and continues

to be boosted by

“Heinrich Bombs At Box
Office,’’ yells the Morning
Wimp, which is more con-
cerned with fluff than fact.
And with one exception, the
Sun, too, is too lazy to do a
job on all the (crap that’s be-

. ing peddied.: +
Your.‘agent. did a bit of
work on® this subject last

the media.

week. And now Ross Regan
of North Van comes up with
further facts. This trustee has
played practically every posi-
tion on the school field, in-
cluding education ministry
official, and knows what he
is talking about.

The first basic is teachers’
pay. Organized teacherdom

THIS: “WEEK Crossfire
‘turns. to the’ ‘question: of
the future use: of Pauline
Johnson School, with
representatives © of the

_F rench: and.

“presenting their cases

By JOANNE MACDONALD

Canadian: ‘Parents’ for §

It’s still
COLLEEN SIBBONS,

President, : wy Parents :
“for. French -

-should:. be-: used, as -a.
“school because’. it. is a
‘school: ‘The: French .Im-
“mersion ‘program in West
; Vancouver is.’ expanding
‘and ‘the only school large
enough and available to
this, “program “is
Johnson: ::.

- whole, ‘thing: has. become
‘an. emotional issue: with

“thas been looking: fora
facility “for about “20
years. But they didn’t re-
‘alize that Pauline
.Johnson was needed as a
_school, A. survey done
about. two or three™ years

MICHAEL EVANS

Council : -.
'

‘Pauline
Should be used as a cul-
‘tural centre, not only
. because the need for such

a centre has been
documented for - more
than 30 years, but also
because’. the many. and
substantial benefits to the
community of such a cen-
tre could be secured now
at a reasonable cost met
principally from the
private sector.

{f the school board
would cooperate now and
make a few minor, even
needed, readjustments the
necessary classroom space
for the expansion of the
French Immersion pro-
gram could be achieved.

“Nine | locations have
been studied by various

‘Pauline: Johnson:

“think the:

“our “group. “But I can...
“understand thé other side,” :
“becatise the: Arts Council

A chance for arts

president, WV Arts:

Johnson’

a schoo!

ago in.the area showed
students in French Im-
mersion at the time were
from that catchment area
and at least 77 per cent
would have to be in a
school in that area. Anda
Gallup Poll showed last
year that throughout
Canada the percentage of
people that would want
their kids. to be ia French
Immersion was very high.
In West, Van. right now,
the percentage of ‘people
putting . kids:.in French
_Immersion kindergarten
is about:.30 per cent,
which is higher than most
“places in Canada. :
““In--these times of
restraint we feel that very
‘careful decisions have to
be made with respect to
the use of existing school
assets,’’

bodies, ;.e. the arts task
force, the. library board,
the arts council. All of
these sites have. been
evaluated against a set of
objective criteria
developed by professional
design consultants. On a
points basis, the site
alone at PJ scores high.
But when you include a
structurally sound
building, the interior
spaces being highly suit-
able for the intended use,
and which can be easily
integrated with a new
theatre and gallery, you
have a highly cost-effec-
tive Opportunity,
There are many
possiblities for other pro-
grams and.we have
challenged the board to
examine them. Unfortu-
nately, the board has
adopted a brittle and
defensive position.

. ths. If they get it, (it must be

. Note, too, that North Van

‘around doing things other

Collins

than could be poured into an
Irish bog. It pretends that
money isn’t the main issue,
while howling that teachers

are practically in the %

poorhouse. But if it's a
poorhouse they’re in, a lot of
people out there in the rea/
cold would like to be as warm.

In 1981, average salaries
for North Van teachers were
$29,055. In 1982, they went
to $34,784; in 1983, to
$36,068; in 1984 to $36,536.
From 1981! to 1984,
therefore, their money went
up by 25.7 per cent. Not bad.

For 1985, teachers have
been awarded a 2.5 per cent
increase for the first six mon-

approved by the Income
Stabilization Board) the total
cost will be $496,777. That,
in turn, will mean an addi-
tional 13 teachers will have to
be laid off if the limits laid
down by Victoria are to be
observed. (Additional, that
is, to the 60 who will have to
go anyway.) But there would
still be 807 teaching staff left.

Organized
points the finger at Victoria,
but it’s your bucks Victoria is
trying to save. And the plain
truth is that the demands of
the education industry have
been insatiable. We might

teachers as a group would
rather see another 13 bodies
tossed into the street than
forego the 2.5 per cent.

Even without the 2.5 per &@
cent, the average wage will 2°
this year go up to $36,932 ;

from $36,536, That’s because
of automatic increments,.
which teachers’ associations
rarely talk about.
Pupil-teacher ratios?

In the happy hey-day of

1977 there was one teacher ta:
17.36 students. In 1984 the
ratio was almost the same —
one to 17.30. 1 would. have
been lower, but that figure
includes a couple of dozen
‘consultants’? who run

than teaching. That, and
bloated administrations, is
why actual class sizes average
25 in elementary and 28 in
secondary.

Ross says North Van
teachers, as a body, have
made no move at all to
recognize the need for
restraint. They asked for nine
per cent for 1983 and got
three; for 1984 they wanted
7.6 per cent and got nothing;
for 1985 they wanted eight.

If the education industry
had its collective way, we'd
gO on paying more and more
for less and less. In. 1980,
there were 17,670 students in
North Van. Last year, there
were 15,245. In Vancouver
the drop has been even more
spectacular. Where once they
had 75,000 students, they
now have 50,000.

Too many people have
been conned into thinking
that the only reason there's a
clamp on education is that we
have what some dopey Van-
couver Sun editorialist calis
“a mean-spirited govern-
ment’’. Well, anyone can
spend money when it’s there.
It takes a magician to spend it
when it’s not there.

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