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VOL. 25 NO. 28
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Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Photo rule affects Nisga’a vote NEW CANDIDATE requirements have reduced the number of people running for seats in next month’s Nisga’a national and local government elections. Several key positions are about to be filled by acclamation and in two cases, not enough people have been nominated to fill out village council positions even
through this by default process. One of the new regulations, the requirement to submit a photograph with nomination papers, is being touted by some as one of the main reasons potential candidates didn’t make it onto the ballots. Ron Nyce is the only person on the ballot for the
chief councillor’s position at Gitwinksihlkw. He said that while he submitted a photograph to fulfill nomination requirements, a number of people hoping to run for elected office throughout the Nisga’a Nation did not. “Some of those people have been there for four years already and they
lauren benn PHOTO
■■ Bridging the gap a rail bridge spanning a creek to connect the new Kitsumkalum rock quarry with a spur providing access to the CN main line was put in place last week. That’s Peter Duarte, one of the workers on the project.
should have known better,” said Nyce of existing elected members who had planned to run again. He said the regulations, released in late July, stemmed from Nisga’a national legislation which was passed last summer by some of the very same people who now can’t run because they did not submit a photograph.
In the case of the Gitwinksihlkw chief councillor’s position, three people submitted nomination papers at first. Eva Clayton, one of three people running for the position of Nisga’a Lisims Government president, said said she is aware of many who ran afoul of the photograph requirement.
“We had the most people ever who wanted to be candidates,” she said. “I’m aware that a number were disqualified.” Clayton felt that the current Nisga’a Lisims national government may have done a better job of circulating nomination requirements.
By Anna Killen
Valley, for instance, might now be attracted to Terrace, Speidel said. But this does present some staffing challenges for the district, as these students don’t always stay for the full year. By the end of last year, about 100 students had left the district – the majority at the secondary level. “It’s a challenge for us, when you think of 100 kids and making space for 100 kids. In September I have to make sure we’re staffed,” said Speidel. “So we panic about having classes that are too full, but when the dust settles at the end of it all it averages out. Especially at the secondary level.” And some students from private and First Nations-run elementary schools are now coming to Skeena one year earlier since it added Grade 7. This influx of students at the secondary level helps boosts enrolment numbers and cushions some of the blow that occurs when more students graduate than enter kindergarten, said Speidel. Right now, there are 581 grade 12s throughout the district but on average, between 310 and 330 kindergarteners have been registering over the past few years. “So if you’re putting out
580 at the top end and bringing in 330 at the bottom end, and you pick up about 100 kids from the independent schools and first nations schools in between there, we’re still out about 100 kids when we look at next year’s projections,” said Speidel. There are now 709 Grade 10-12 students at Caledonia and 629 Grade 7-9 students at Skeena Middle School. Some elementary schools held their own despite losing Grade 7 to Skeena Middle School. Ecole Mountainview, for example, now has approximately 150 students as a kindergarten to Grade 6 school, roughly the same number it had last year when it was a kindergarten to Grade 7 school. Officials start making their September enrolment projections as early as January and begin estimating how many teachers they’ll need in February. Adjustments are made up until June. Speidel says the district’s enrolment has been in decline since 1997, which is as far as his data goes back – although he suspects it goes back further. “We were a district that was upwards of 9000 students at one time,” he said.
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Student decline is holding steady Public school enrolment numbers have continued to drop this year, but not by as much as school officials were anticipating. Officials thought the drop would be approximately 175 students but the actual drop was 137, said Coast Mountains School District director of instruction Brent Speidel. By the end of September, when school districts report their enrolments to the province, head counts in Terrace, Kitimat, Hazelton and Stewart schools stood at 4,762. The number of students at Caledonia, which added Grade 10 to its Grade 11 and Grade 12 offerings this year, and at Skeena Middle School, which added Grade 7 after losing Grade 10 to Cal, making it a Grade 7-9 school, threw off estimates. “Both Skeena and Cal were well above projections,” said Speidel. He attributed part of the increase to students moving from outside the area to Terrace for secondary school. As school populations drop elsewhere in the northwest, the kinds of courses that can be offered also declines, so students from Prince Rupert or the Nass
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Girls world
Newly installed speed readers in local school zones put safety first \COMMUNITY A20
An LNG player holds a massive conference call with northwest residents \NEWS A19
A girls hockey day here in town highlights the fastest growing team sport \SPORTS A30