9 — Friday, October 6, 1989 - North Shore News PETITION CIRCULATED TO CONVINCE NV SCHOOL BOARD TO KEEP FACILITY Parents defend use of Ridgeway portable RIDGEWAY PRIMARY School Annex parents say that the uproar over 4 portable classroom on the school’s grounds is being fomented by a tiny group of childless malcontents in the neighborhood, and that the pupils themseives are happy in the facility. The controversy has also reopened the issue of children’s safety, and caused North Van- couver City Ald. Bill Bell to charge that the North Vancouver District 44 School Board has failed to plan properly for the Lower Lonsdale area. “The children love it (the por- table),’’ says Pamela Boom, one of whose two children is in the Grade 2 class in the portable. Boom says that the petition she is circulating will convince the school board to leave the tem- porary building in place. She also plans to canvass the neighborhood for signatures. Boom and other parents are upset over a petition circulated in the summer by Beatrice Griffiths, who has complained that the por- table is an eyesore, which she and others fear will become a perma- nent fixture, and that the school board erred in not consulting resi- dents before affronting their views with “‘this great biank wall.’ “Her (Griffiths’) petition had 13 names but represented only seven households, and most cf them have no kids in the school,’? Boom said last week. ‘‘Most of the neighbors refused to sign her peti- tion because they think it’s ludicrous that the whole issue should go this far.”” Raffey Albinson, who also has a child going to school in the por- ‘table, said that she asked all of the 21 pupils affected and got a unan- imous vote of approval, despite the fact that the kids have to walk to the main annex building to use bathrooms and other facilities. “If we have to move the por- BALLET OF TRICK RAYNARD Coni ig Writer table to the other side of the field, the baseball diamond will have to be moved and the opponents could get a baseball through their win- dow,”’ Albinson said. Griffiths’ demand that the por- table be moved four blocks north to the larger Ridgeway Elementary School was ‘‘not an acceptable’ alternative, District 44 board chairman Don Bell told the News in August, because it would have forced the Grade 2 pupils to cross Keith Road, a major transporta- tion artery. Ald. Bill Bell said the school board hasn’t planned properly to deal with the growth of school-age population in the area, and that portables are an undesirable solu- tion. *‘North Van school kids shouldn’t be subjected to portables as long-range planning,”’ Ald. Bell said. “This looks like a long-term strategy by the board.”* Bell also charged that members of the city’s advisory design panel approved the portable as a perma- nent rather than a temporary building. “City staff say it’s considered permanent because it will be there longer than one year,” Bell said. He added that he was also upset that the school board had not given area residents proper notice of the portable’s placement. But Bell said that his greatest concern was the lack of sidewalks on Ridgeway Avenue, and the lack of a pedestrian traffic light at the dangerous intersection of By ooo SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE WITH DanceAlive! 1989/90 OOD SEASON TICKETS - STILL AVAILABLE { CALL 280-3311 —— A RenoE fhe Cannss Conaed Taoenag O@ies Conaud ap Aste pa Conese . ORiry der caer. Waroie, ACT II Ag \ Us Davapene, er il OCTOBER 10-14, 1989 8:00 P.M.” QUEEN ELIZABETH THEATRE Tickets: $13.00, $20.00, $28.00, $33.00 (Plus Service Charges) At all TICKETMASTER cutlets, Eaton’s and Woodward's Cal! 280-3315 or 280-4444 TOUR SPONSOR 83 Merrill Lynch ABALLET BRITISH COLUMBIA DanceA NS MEDIA SPONSOR @bocty el PRESENTATION Ridgeway and East Keith, which the Grade 2 chiidren would have to cross if their portable was moved ‘0 Ridgeway Elementary on East th. “There have been two serious accidents involving pedestrians at that intersection in the past year,”’ Bell said angrily, ‘‘and 1 want to see a light there. The situation now is absolutely ridiculous.”’ Bell responded emotionally to speculation by one parent that he has become involved in the issue onlv hecause he wants to score some points in his bid to enter provincial politics. “I care for the residents who live around the annex, and_ the children,’’ Bell said, ‘‘I lived two houses away from the school off and on from 1958 to 1987, and my Mom still lives there. My kids went to the annex.” Len Berg, District 44’s secre- tary-treasurer, told the News that the $6,500 needed to move the portable to another Iccation on the annex grounds would come out of schoo! district funds, not the an- Jackets from Woolrich, Mistral, nex’s budget as had been feared by some parents. The school board must gain the approval of the municipal board of variance before the portable can be moved. “DESIGN PRINTING FROM CONCEPT TO FINISHED PRODUC T Recycied paper available 2442 Marine Drive. West Vancouver 922-0247 Biwen 947-9745. and Patagonia. 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