Roadblocks a worry Seniors’ access to assistance raised as concern. PAGE 7 Eyes opened First Nations youth conference draws 1,400 people to city. PAGE 15 On the water Annual special section to get you ready for boating season. PAGE 3
Pirates pick up PAGE 33
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SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2012
VOL. 23, NO. 141
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High schools to get wireless web access
I
Robin Ellis, Cedar Skate Park Association director, left, gives Vicki Suddaby, chairwoman, her first ride on a skate board as Derek Altmannshofer and Lawson Wallace stand by on Walsh Road, near the location for a new skate park in Cedar. The facility will be built next to Cedar Community School in 2013, after the province announced $439,000 for the project Thursday.
IMPROVEMENTS TO give teachers more classroom resources. BY JENN McGARRIGLE THE NEWS BULLETIN
Nanaimo school district is about to go wireless. Steve Sproston, the district’s information systems manager, said staff are installing wireless Internet access in all secondary schools this year and plan to extend wireless access to elementary schools next year. “Our hope is by September, all secondary schools will have wifi coverage,” he said. “This is a first step in a three- to five-year plan. On its own, it’s a vast improvement over what we had.” A handful of schools already have wireless, but the move means teachers in all schools will soon be able to bring personal tablets and laptop computers into classrooms to incorporate webbased resources into lessons. Along with the Wi-Fi access, network infrastructure upgrades will boost security and allow staff to monitor and maintain the network centrally, detect some faults before they become a bigger problem and even fix some problems remotely – right now if there is a problem, staff have to travel to the school and diagnose problems manually, Sproston said. “Instead of having to react, we can be proactive,” he said. ◆ See ‘COMPUTER’ /4
CHRIS BUSH THE NEWS BULLETIN
Cedar skatepark rolls into cash BY CHRIS HAMLYN THE NEWS BULLETIN
Skateboarders will have to practise their ollies, tailslides and kickflips as a provincial grant of more than $439,000 ensures a skatepark is coming to Cedar. The government awarded the Regional District of Nanaimo close to $600,000 Thursday for three projects, including the Cedar Skate and Bike Park to be built on a portion of Cedar Community Secondary School property. The money is through the $30-million Community Recreation Program.
“Do you have any idea how long I’ve waited to hear that?” said Vicki Suddaby, Cedar Skate Park Association chairwoman, when she heard the news. “Oh my, there is a God.” The $625,000 project, more than 10 years in the making, needed all funding in place before the Nanaimo school district would OK the use of the land. “We got the kids to write letters and people signed petitions proving there was community and business support for the park,” said Suddaby. Along with the government grant, the RDN is contributing $139,000, and the association
has nearly $47,000 in community donations. “I’m just happy for the kids in Cedar,” said Suddaby. “There’s lots of organized recreation, but there isn’t a place where they can just hang out. It doesn’t matter what time of day you’re driving through Cedar, you can always see someone on a bike or skateboard.” Nanaimo has a skatepark at May Richards Bennett Pioneer Park in the city’s northend and a skatebowl behind the Nanaimo Curling Centre. Ladysmith also has a skatepark, but there’s nothing close to Cedar. ◆ See ‘PROJECT’ /4
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