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APRIL 10, 2012 Vol. 117, Issue 69
110
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Studentsâ talents go on display Page 2
INCLUDING H.S.T.
PROUDLY SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF
ROSSLAND, WARFIELD, TRAIL, MONTROSE, FRUITVALE & SALM SALMO
Money to burn?
BLUE BIRD FINISH FOR RED
Districts feel the heat in changes to wildfire rules BY TIMOTHY SCHAFER Times Staff
JIM BAILEY PHOTO
There were plenty of smiling faces under blue skies as the 2011-12 ski season wrapped up on Monday at Red Mountain Resort. Skiers and boarders enjoyed an abundance of snow with over 730cm falling since last October, including 218cm in March.
If a tree is thinned in the forest, does anyone pay â so wonders the regional district. With the province requiring regional district governments and municipalities across the province to now pay 25 per cent of the cost of wildfire interface mitigation, the price tag for forest fire safety may be too high for most areas to bear, says the chair of the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary board of directors. Larry Gray said there is a further $5 million worth of work that needs to be done this year to diminish the chance of a forest fire spreading into settled areas within the three Kootenay regional districts. But now having to cough up over $1 million between the regional districts of Central Kootenay, Kootenay Boundary and East Kootenay after the province changed the rules of the game is not feasible, he said, even if it means nearly $4 million in fuel mitigation grants from the province. âWe qualify for the grants, we have been approved for the grants, but we canât afford the grants,â Gray said. âWe canât afford the grants because we donât have enough money; and to raise the taxes to cover that is a huge, huge amount.â Last month directors from the three Kootenay districts met with Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Minister Steve Thomson on what could become a huge problem if the districts are unable to continue with forest fire mitigation. With wildfire potential threaten-
ing every corner of the Kootenays, they asked the minister and his staff to come up with some solutions to the funding dilemma for a region that will not be participating in the provinceâs fuel management programs this year, Gray said. Although it was not a positive reception from the ministry it wasnât an outright refusal to help, Gray said. The ministry acknowledged discussion between the Provincial Fuels Management Working Group (comprised of the Union of B.C. Municipalities, provincial Wildfire Management Branch and the First Nations Emergency Services Society) and regional district representatives in the Kootenays was still ongoing. In an email in response to questions, they admitted changes introduced last June have created some challenges â especially for some regional districts â and have agreed to continue to sit down with the affected parties to see if anything can be done to address concerns. âAny further changes will have to be fair and equitable for all B.C. municipalities in the province,â the email read. Gray said ministry staff had intimated they were opposed to showing favouritism in one area of the province over the others. In practice, there should be firebreaks built around each community, the forest thinned out and no trees touching each other, said Gray. Most Kootenay communities donât have this completed yet, he added. âThis is a big problem. The governance is a difficulty,â he said. In order to move ahead with funding the fuel mitigation program under the new formula, Central
See CHANGES, Page 3
A LESSON IN LEARNING
Putting the student first and the letter grade second BY TIMOTHY SCHAFER Times Staff
No more pencils, no more books, no more teacherâs letter grades. The way students are being graded in todayâs classroom is changing, going from the letter grade â or percentages â that nearly all of us grew up with,
to what is called assessment for learning. Although no report cards have been issued this school year due to the on-going labour dispute, the trend away from grades is already taking shape. Teachers across the Kootenay Columbia school district are demystifying academics for stu-
dents through assessment for learning, doing away with the sorting that comes from letter grades and instead letting students know right from the start what they are expected to learn â and then working with them to get there. In assessment for learning, a teacher will work with a student
at the outset to understand what she or he already knows about the topic, as well as to identify any gaps or misconceptions. Assessment for learning is creating learners, students who are engaged and excited to be taught, said SD20 director of instruction, Bill Ford. What started as a worldwide
movement in the late 1990s began appearing in the regionâs classrooms five years ago, he said. âThe sea of red ink with the letter grade is going the way of the dinosaur,â said Ford. âMore teachers are adopting the assessment for learning approach, providing kids necessary
)T´S PERFECT WEATHER FOR SHOPPING AT ⢠Free ree parking
⢠Food court
⢠Free kids playroom play and ball pit
250.368.5202
5 min. east of Trail on Highway 3B
See SYSTEM, Page 3
Contact the Times: Phone: 250-368-8551 Fax: 250-368-8550 Newsroom: 250-364-1242