THURSDAY
S I N C E
1 8 9 5
AUGUST 9, 2012
Salmo sharpshooter on target again
Vol. 117, Issue 153
110
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Page 10
INCLUDING H.S.T.
PROUDLY SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF
ROSSLAND, WARFIELD, TRAIL, MONTROSE, FRUITVALE & SALM SALMO
Court rules teachers must be involved in class size decisions BY TIMOTHY SCHAFER Times Staff
A new B.C. Court of Appeal ruling on class sizes could put a crimp on the school district’s plan to increase its sizes for next year. The court ruled Friday that school administrators must be accountable to teachers when it comes to planning class sizes, overturning a 2009 arbitrator decision that as long as a class did not exceed 33 students, then only the opinions of a principal or superintendent mattered when determining if the size and composition were appropriate. However, in a move last March to deal with a budgetary shortfall, School District No 20 (Kootenay Columbia) decided to impose a districtwide rise of one student in the student-to-teacher ratio—from 24-1 to 25-1. SD20 board chair Darrel Ganzert said the increase will be within the realm of reasonability, but it could still be challenged by the teachers’ union. “The administrative team believed they could increase the numbers without risking class size controversies in the new school year,” he said.
See NEW, Page 2
Lightning storm sparks fire watch BY GUY BERTRAND Times Staff
An early morning storm produced several lightning strikes in the West Kootenay on Wednesday. The storm, which struck around 5 a.m., drenched parts of the Kootenay South region accompanied with heavy lightning. “We had a couple of bands of lightning come up around the Trail-Salmo area,” said Ron Lakeman, weather forecaster for the Southeast Fire Centre. Karlie Shaughnessy, Southeast Fire information officer, estimated that the West Kootenay area received “hundreds of strikes in 12 hours.” Crews were mobilized late Wednesday morning to scour for potential hot spots in the Whiskey Creek area near Salmo. Shaughnessy added there were two small fires burning near Creston as a result of the lightning storm.
TIMOTHY SCHAFER PHOTO
Police called in 10 members of the South Columbia Search and Rescue and two Rossland Search and Rescue members on Wednesday to comb the hillside between the arena and Teck Trail Operations in search of a 14-year-old Nelson girl.
Crews scour hillside for clues on missing girl BY TIMOTHY SCHAFER Times Staff
Evidence in the case of a missing 14-year-old Nelson girl cropped up in Trail on Tuesday. Police confirmed they found some “personal items” near the stairwell behind the Cominco Arena belonging to Morgan Durocher, and had a canine unit out in the area Tuesday afternoon to follow the lead. On Wednesday police called in 10 members of the South Columbia Search and Rescue and two Rossland Search and Rescue members to comb the hillside between the arena and Teck Trail Operations. Although police thought it unlikely the girl would be found in the area—10 days after she was reported missing before “voluntarily” leaving Trail July 30—they had to take the necessary precautions and conduct a thorough search. There was reason to believe the girl
was still within the Trail and Nelson vicinity, said Trail RCMP Sgt. Rob Hawton. “We have no reason to believe she has come into any foul play at this point,” he said while on the search scene. Hawton suggested the teen might have slipped away to begin celebrating the Shambhala Music Festival a few days early. Monitoring of social media sites has indicated she may be heading there. He said undercover and uniformed police officers will be looking for her at the event which begins this weekend on the Salmo River Ranch, 30 kilometres east of Trail. Regional RCMP Staff Sgt. Dan Seibel said the investigation would continue as a missing person case. “But this is a unique investigation because this girl has run away previously,” he said. “There are no suspicious or extenuating circumstances that we are aware of.” As the days go by, he added, that
could change. Search and rescue members and the South Columbia’s canine unit were out Wednesday morning, dipping into the water with the swift water rescue team to cover the shoreline of the Columbia River from the Victoria Street Bridge to the U.S. border. “This makes us certain that she is not here,” said South Columbia president Ron Medland Wednesday morning. “This is part of our due diligence in the matter.” The members used a closed grid search of the hill as part of their search in the area near where the evidence was found. Durocher’s family notified police that she walked off from her foster home in Trail on July 30 and hasn’t been seen since. Hawton said this has happened before with Durocher but whenever a youth is involved they “have to take things seriously.”
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