@ ~ Sunday, February 19, 1995 — North Shore News

Chi

SYSTEMIC CHANGE is needed in
the public education system if it is
to improve and keep up with the
changing, (imies, according — to
Canadian Association for Change
in Education (3.C.) founder Neil
Godin,

By Kevin Gillies
Contributing Writer

Godin, who addressed approxi-
mately 20 North Vancouver parents
including North Vancouver School
District 44 ° chairman — Barb
McLellan Thursday night, formed
the association to lobby Victoria to
enact legislation to allow the forma-
tion of charter schools.

B.C. Education Minister Art
Charbonneau is against charter
schools.

Charter schools operate like tra-
ditional schools — run by parents
and teachers — but do not fall
under the jurisdiction of school
boards or the teachers’ union.

“We're not anti-teacher,” Godin
said. “We're anti-monopoly.”

He claims that the major prob-
lem with today’s public schools is
“the practice of hiring according to
seniority instead of suitability.”

The North Vancouver Teachers’
Association was unavailable for
comment to press time. .”

CHARTER SCHOOLS advo-
cate Neil Godin spoke in
North Vancouver Thursday.

The lack of competition in the
public school system has allowed
complacency, an overgrowth of
bureaucracy and misuse of educa-
tion funding, as well as falling edu-
cational standards, he said.

B.C. taxpayers paid $287.6 mil-
lion to run the public school sys-
tem’s administration for the 1994-
95 school year while cutting back
on educational programs, the pur-

municipat affairs —

THE FOLLOWING i is a brief sum-
mary of agendas for North Shore
municipalities and school districts.

/

North Vancouver City
Council: Monday, Feb. 20, 7:30
pm: , Rezoning 107 West

Esplanade; Delegation, Cloverley
Area Residents’ —_ Association;
Waterfront Noise Study, Lower

* Lonsdale Planning. Study — build-
ing heights;. Youth Access Centre,
Housing ~ for Persons ~ With

Disabilities — city responses;
Volunteer Opportunities for Youth
Projects; Proposed child care policy
and plan; Fee increases; Heritage
designation bylaw.

North Vancouver District
Council: Monday, Feb. 20, 7 p.m.:
Heart and Stroke Foundation dona-
tion; Business plan: -Establish
Quality Assurance Committee;
Argyle Road parking.

Now the Nokia 100 pocket-phone is only $99
_ when you sign up with BC TEL Mobility
before February 28th, 1995.
For $49.95 a month you also receive:
¢ Unlimited local calling for the first 50 days and 50 nights.
* 50 minutes of weekday business airtime.
* Unlimited local calling every weekend.
* includes 36 months of detailed billing.

t/

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Board: Tuesday, Feb. 28.

rter school
ead seeks chan:

chasing of books and the matate-
nance of schools.

Charter schools receive their
funding directly from the provincial
government to spend on their own

iar bypassing the schaol dis-
trict, Each school is run by a “board
of directors” made ap of parents,
teachers and the school principal.

The boards are responsible for
hiring and firing as well as setting
curriculum and fiscal priorities.
They must operate within the
guidelines sct out in the School Act
and provincial curriculum policy
and must cnro’ on a first-come,
first-served basis to allow equal
opportunity for all interested  stu-
dents.

But opponents of charter schools
claim the system is elitist.

Godin retorted that the present
system with catchment areas
already has elitism built into it
because students cannot attend
schools outside of their district.
~ He acknowledged that North
Vancouver had some of the best
public schools in B.C. and Canada
and wondered how many students
from East Vancouver were allowed
to attend those best schools.

“People vote with their real
estate purchases,” he said.

For more information on the
Canadian Association for Change
in Education (B.C.), call 469-8535.

West Vancouver District
Council: Monday, Feb. 20, 7:45
p.m.: Noise Control Bylaw; Notice
of Consideration — 730 Andover
and 501 St. Andrews; Hollyburn
Ridge cabins revisions to permits to
occupy; Kiwanis Walkathon.
School

North Vancouver

' ‘West Vancouver School Board:
Tuesday, March 14

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