SUNDAY
May 21, 1995

P| Business.......
i Classifieds.
z) Collins.
Crossword.
So rs
. _ BS Municipal Affairs...71

News of the Weird.27
# N. Shore Alert.........3-

& Shore Shots............28
Sunshine Girl..:.....23 .
Travel.

BTV Listings...

Weddings.
@ Wright...

& Shore Shots capture
the community: 28

Active Times for the.
55+ crowd: - 35

7 . 7
fashion
Ԥ Hermas opens
in Vancouver: 13

fl Weekly listings of
fashion events: 15

- Lonedale
Edgemont _

Weather

Monday: Mainly sunny,
High 20°C, iow 9°C.

NEWS photo Terry Peters

RENEE ROLFSON (with beat) i is upset her favorite crossing guard, Craig Houston (right), may lose his job due to budget cuts. ;
David McMordie, Janet McMordie and Joseph Lee also cross East 2$th Street with Houston on Friday morning.

$1.7m cut but NV

school board still
faces $1.7m debt

SCHOOL CROSSING guards were among
the casualties as North Vancouver. School
District 44 cut $1.7 million in expenditures in
a preliminary 1995-96 budget unveiled
Tuesday night. But the board is still faced
with carrying a $1.7 million deficit from the
current school year.

SCHOOL BOARD
By Kevin Gillies

Provincial funding of $94,774,942 and miscella-

neous revenues combined for.a budget of more than,

$103 million to provide educational services to an esti-
mated $7,495, full-time equivalent (FTE) students in
District 44.

Most of the $99 million operating budget — $90.4
million — will be spent paying ‘the district’ Ss payroll
demands.

While the budget technically balances, i it does not
include the 1994-95 school year’s $1.7 million deficit,

In what District 44 Superintendent of Schools Dr. °

Robin Brayne called a “status quo or maintenance bud-
get.” the most notable spending cuts include:
@ non-replacement of four senior administrators: who

retired at the end of 1994 (combined remuneration of

$360,000),

‘8 Continuing. Education programs of High School

Completion, Adult Basie Education and Adult English
Language Training;

220,000 used to pay adult crossing guards (these
costs are not recognized by the provincial government
in determining funding);

further cuts to a myriad of non-personnel accounts
and services,

In addition, custodial ‘staff. who retire during the |

next school year will not be replaced.
Trustee Rick Buchols said budget preparation is a

“cost-cutting exercise which has become increasingly .

difficult.”

Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) pres-
ident. Mike Hocevar said his members were “bitterly
disappointed.”

He said the union‘s lowest paid workers are always
the ones to pay when cuts are made.

Cutting the crossing guards, he said, would jeopar-
dize the safety of North Vancouver children.
-Brayne said senior district administrators will meet
with CUPE officials to try to identify other cost-cutting
in an effort to reinstate the crossing guards, But
as trustee Roy Dungcey pointed out, “92% of our bud-
getis salaries.”

“We're expected to maintain 40 buildings and their ;

grounds,” he said. ‘This year is going to be a crisis year
for education in the Lower Mainland.”

District 44’s budget deficit will likely grow during
the 1995-96 school year.,

Said Buchals, “I'm sure we are going to have diffi--

culties in keeping it (the budget) balanced."

See School page 16

CAUGHT IN

THE CROSSFIRE

TO CROSSING guards,
children and - parents,
retaining crossing guards is
a safety issue. :

By lan Noble
News Reporter

To North Vancouver's school
disirict, it's also a funding consid-
eration. The. cash-strapped school
district expects to save $220,000
by cutting the district's 18 cross-

-ing guards for the 1995-96 school

year.

That, said Grade 5 Boundary
Community School student Sean
Daniels, is stupid.

“A lot of kids are going to get
hit now.” he added, after crossing :
busy East 29th. Sto at Willian
Avenue with the help of five-year’
crossing guard Craig Houston.

“I don’t want him to lose his
job,” Sean said of Houston.

Colleen Reimer, parent. of
eight-year-old Eva, ° also

See Safety page 3