PRINCE GEORGE
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Citizen
Serving the Central Interior since 1916
SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 2002
80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 54 CENTS A DAY)
Axe looms over local schools
Board to announce possible closures at April 23 meeting
by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen staff
The School District 57 board will announce during its public meeting April 23 which schools, if any, it recommends closing to help meet a budgetary shortfall that still stands at $6.6 million, says the board chair.
However, at that stage it will still be only a recommendation, Bill Christie said Friday. The Public School Act requires a 60-day period for consultation with residents of the area affected, he said.
SATURDAY
REPORT
PAGE 13
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Val Coopersmlth, the principal of Ron Brent Elementary, worries about the growing prostitution problem around her school. Neighbours In the Mlller-Connaught area share her concerns, as Citizen reporter Scott Stanfield shows in his Saturday Report.
Cornered
by Baldwin
“The secret to longevity is good genes, good diet, a good lawyer and witnesses with weak eyesight and poor memories.”
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INDEX
1 ------- 1
Ann Landers ... .........17
Bridge........ .........46
Business ...... ......32-34
City, B.C....... . .3,5,6,7,13
Classified ..... ......42-46'
Comics........ .. .28,47,48
Coming Events . .......2,23
Crossword .... .........28
Entertainment . .. .25,27,29
Horoscope---- .........46
Lifestyles...... .........17
Movies........ .........29
Nation........
Sports ........ .......8-12
Television.....
World ........ .........16
Canada .com
“If it’s recommended that any school be closed, we’ll go to the subdivision or the community and have a further public meeting,” Christie said.
“While there may be recommendations to close schools on the 23rd, that may not be the final outcome, depending on how the public meetings go and what the board decides to do as a result of the public consultations,” he explained.
Yet timelines specified in collective agreements require that layoff notices go out after a recommendation to close
has been made, but before it’s finally decided whether to close a school in question.
Under the collective agreement with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), representing support staff, the school district has to issue layoff notices by the end of April. Under the contract with teachers, layoff notices have to go out before the end of May.
“That creates a bit of a rush,” Christie said. “We have to issue the layoff notices, but when all is said and done, we may be calling back some with recall
notices. Everyone who gets a layoff notice may still have a job.”
For example, there may be more resignations or retirements than administrators originally expected, or a decision to close a school may be reversed.
The problem the SD 57 administration faces is that it must send out layoff notices based on expectations of what may happen with funding, enrolments or school closures by the deadlines specified in the contracts before it is certain how many staff members will be redundant by September.
“Otherwise we would have people on salary and wouldn’t have jobs for them,” Christie said.
At a public budget hearing in Prince George this week, SD 57 superintendent Dick Chambers said, “Possible school closures and the consultative timeline required will necessitate layoff notices being given to the staff of a school that is being considered for closure.
“If, after consultation, the school is not closed, the staff will be recalled,” Chambers said.
Hoops
hooligan
Kids basketball spot ruined after cruel thief makes off with basket
by KAREN KWAN Citizen staff
A recreation spot for neighbourhood kids has been destroyed.
For the past three and a half years, a home-made basketball hoop on Norwood Street has been used for friendly neighbourhood games or for practising shots.
But sometime between Thursday night and Friday morning, the equipment was hacked down and carted away, said Dan Hodgson, who originally set up the hoop for his children.
“Kids from the neighbourhood would come to play. It was kind of nice to see,” he said.
“It’s upsetting because they had no reason to do that. Anyone was welcome to use it.”
Hodgson’s children grew up practising on the basketball hoop.
The family brought it with them and installed it when they moved to Prince George from Powell River several years ago.
“Now the kids have one less thing to do, especially with summer coming up.
It kept them occupied and out of trouble,” Hodgson added.
He added he& not working right now and can’t afford to replace the set.
He’s imploring the thief to return the hoop and stand for the kids.
He’s also asking parents to keep an eye out for it.
The equipment contained a black hoop mounted on a grey plastic backboard, which was attached to a 4 X 4 post that stood about nine feet tall.
The cement-filled tire used as a base was left behind.
Kimmy Hodgson dribbles her basketball on the street In front of a stump which is all that remains of a basketball hoop and backboard. She and friends Jessica Bajer, left, McKala Simpson, Michael McKellar and Jordan Bajar can no longer shoot hoops until the net is replaced.
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
CNC ecstatic with degree expansion plan
by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen staff
The College of New Caledonia is pleased with new legislation announced by the provincial government to expand degree-granting authority for both private and public institutions, including community colleges, CNC president Terry Weninger said Friday.
“The college strongly supports this significant and visionary action by the-government which recognizes the quality of B.C. college programming, the needs of B.C. students and the demands of the job market,” Weninger said.
The new act will allow B.C. colleges to offer applied baccalaureate degrees. Applied degree programs are closely linked to a specific labour market and combine theory and hands-on practice in a specific technical and career area, said Judy Jackson, CNC manager of public relations.
“Applied degrees will give our students more choices in the global economy,” Weninger said. “Graduates and industry will benefit from practical and theoretical enhancement to diploma-level knowledge and skill. Colleges are well qualified and capable of delivering applied degrees.”
Advanced Education Minister Shirley Bond said the changes brought about through the legislation would enhance access for students to a range of postsecondary opportunities.
There is currently no readily accessible process for determining which institutions may grant degrees, Bond said.
Only institutions successful in obtaining authority through a specific act of the legislature can grant B.C. degrees, she said.
As a result, the process for obtaining degree authority is time-consuming and complex, and many institutions in-
stead grant degrees from outside the province, undermining student certainty over academic quality, she said.
Under the new act, the Advanced Education Ministry will establish a quali-ty-assessment process for determining which institutions are eligible to grant B.C. degrees — including private institutions and public institutions located outside the province.
“CNC has the potential to offer several applied degrees and looks forward to the opportunity to submit its proposals to the quality-assessment process,” Weninger said.
— See related story on page 3
Five planets set to line up in night sky
by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen staff
Find a location this weekend with a low horizon to the west to view a rare line-up of the five planets visible to the naked eye, says Prince George astronomer Doug Wayland.
The phenomenon, not seen in decades, first comes into focus in northern skies tonight, he said.
Mercury will be just above-the horizon after sunset. Next highest will be Venus, then Mars and after that Saturn.
Some distance higher yet will be Jupiter.
The planets haven’t lined up so neatly in the past 62 years. They won’t appear this way again for another 70 years. The close togetherness of the five eas-
ily visible planets will continue in one form or another through early next month.
Wednesday will provide one of the most impressive sights, Wayland said.
That night the crescent moon will be at a point equidistant between Saturn and Jupiter.
Weather permitting, then, there will be a view of all the five naked-eye planets and the moon in a neat row of almost evenly spaced heavenly bodies, Wayland said. They will all be in line defining the elliptic — the plane on which all the planets orbit the sun.
Another date to mark on the calendar is April 30, when all five visible planets will be close together, although not so much in a line as on Wednesday, Wayland said.
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On April 20, members of the Prince George Astronomical Society will have their personal telescopes at Parkwood Place across from the Red Robin restaurant.
Starting at 7:30 p.m., the public will have a chance to see the phenomenon, said PGAS president Brian Battersby.
“It’s part of International Astronomy Day,” he said.
The society’s 10-inch telescope will also be set up at the same location.
Where the telescopes are pointed will depend in part on where Mercury lines up, Battersby said.
“We might have to weasel between mall buildings to get a good view of it because it will be low on the horizon,” he said.
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