Clearview board, schools brace for provincial budget BL
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With the viability of rural schools in the Clearview School Division under study, officials are waiting for word from Thursday’s provincial budget. Clearview plans to begin “community consultation meetings” next Tuesday in Byemoor, one of the communities in jeopardy of losing its school. “The provincial budget will impact our schools next year,” Clearview superintendent John Bailey said last Thursday as the board discussed the coming series of community meetings. That could include steps to review and reconfigure grades in various schools. “Until we have the provincial budget, we won’t know about how much money we can allocate for schools and that could change the landscape,” Bailey said. “That will depend on the budget a lot,” said Ken Checkel, who chairs the board. After the provincial budget is announced this Thursday afternoon, the board plans to discuss the impact on education at a special meeting this Monday at 2 p.m. For each community session, the division intends to post information on the Clearview and related school’s websites. By allowing for plenty of questions and discussion at the sessions, the division hopes to gather key information
about each school for this school year and next year, Bailey said. Community meetings are set for: March 12 in Byemoor. March 20 in Donalda. IEW PU April 3 in Castor. RV April 4 in Coronation. April 8 in Botha. April 15 in Brownfield April 30 in Big Valley. SC May 1 in Stettler. H O OLS May 2 in Erskine. May 13 in Stettler. Board plan: A new three-year plan for the board is slated to be reviewed this summer, after an anticipated busy spring. “We’ve got lots to deal with in the next few months,” Checkel said. “These community meetings and related issues will take up much of our time.” The board decided to revisit a board plan at its meeting in August. “We have put a lot of time into a board plan and we want to continue having one,” Checkel said. Stettler bus route: A letter from a concerned parent has led the division to study the feasibility of adding Stettler bus services in the Emmerson Acres area to help ensure safety for all students. “We hear about this very concern a lot,” said trustee A
Independent reporter
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RICHARD FROESE
Patty Dittrick, who represents the Stettler area with Peter Simons. “This is not just a concern for us, but also the Town of Stettler,” said Simon, who also serves a town councillor. Over the next several months, the division plans to undergo a feasibility study for the suggested new route, which would include a fee for service. School calendar: Trustees approved the school calendar for the 2013-14 year, which will continue to include student transition meetings. “Student transition meetings have been positive,” Dittrick said. Ward boundaries: Electoral wards for the local government elections this October will remain intact, even with minor population shifts in the last census in 2011. “If we would have wanted to make some changes, we would have had to start the process before March 1,” Checkel said. “With each ward required to have average population within plus or minus of the average, all wards come within that range,” he said. Although with Stettler on the high end and Coronation on the low end, Checkel said the division would consider changes for the next local government election in October 2017. Webcasting meetings: Steps have be taken to consider a plan to webcast school board meetings to make them more accessible to the community. The plan will be included in the budget for 2013-14, Bailey said.
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Dahl case set for trial RICHARD FROESE Independent reporter
LES STULBERG/Independent reporter
MOO — Getting a jump on spring, cattle are lining up for next week’s agriculture supplement in the Independent.
Just more than a year after a Stettler teenager was killed in a truck crash just outside town, Trevor James Dahl of Stettler was found fit to stand trial after a preliminary hearing last week in Stettler Provincial Court. Dahl has been scheduled to appear in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench on May 6 to enter plea on charges in connection with the death of Koralea Boettger, the 17-year-old high school senior who died in the February 2012 crash. “Everything will be in Red Deer from here on in,” Crown prosecutor Wayne Silliker said after the twoday hearing, over which
Judge Jim Hunter presided. Dahl’s charges include impaired driving causing death, dangerous driving causing death, and refusing to give a sample of his breath to police investigating a fatal collision. In the Stettler courtroom, Boettger’s photo was taped to the dividing wall in front of the gallery, near about 40 friends, family and supporters of the victim. Dahl was dressed in a black blazer jacket and well-groomed. Stettler RCMP officers reported that Dahl was intoxicated when he drove a pickup that left a dirt road near Stettler and crashed into a stand of trees. Boettger was the only other occupant of the truck.
School board buys former pool site By Laura Tester Black Press The Clearview School Division has bought a former swimming pool site in Stettler for a loonie. But there weren’t any immediate plans on what the school district might do with the land. Chairman Ken Checkel said the site is being used as a parking lot. The Town of Stettler and the school district had constructed that pool as part of the Canadian 1967 centennial. It was jointly owned by the two parties until about 1994. In 1994, the land was transferred to the town for the sum of $1. Since then, the town ran the pool until 2006, when it was closed. The town later opened the modern Stettler Recreation Centre at a new site
that included a pool. Checkel said the town asked the school board to share in the cost of demolishing the pool and fixing up the site, and then those lands would become owned by the school district. The pool was demolished more than a year ago. “We agreed to pay half the cost,” Checkel said. The cost was about $213,000 so the school board agreed to pay $106,500 over a period of eight years. The town agreed. The site was transferred over to the school district for $1. The board finalized this purchase agreement during its board meeting held in mid-February. The land is right next to William E. Hay Composite High School and the ChristKing Catholic Church. “There was a lot of discussion around the board table on whether we should spend the money on this, but the board in the end felt it was a good deal to pay half the cost of the demolition and getting the site fixed up,” Checkel said.
RICHARD FROESE/Independent reporter
Jewel Theatre manager Peter Didrichsen (centre) holds old 35-millimetre film reels with Russell Bagshaw (left), beside the new digital projector, and Trevor Endo, alongside the old projector, last week at the Stettler theatre.
Stettler turns its reels as theatre goes 3D RICHARD FROESE Independent reporter Big-name 3-D movies will come to Stettler soon as Jewel Theatre has moved to the big stage with a digital projector to replace the nostalgic 35-millimetre film on reels. “This will give us the ability to show 3D movies,” said owner Peter Didrichsen, manager of the theatre for the past 12 years with Landmark Cinemas. That first 3-D movie will be Oz the Great and Powerful on March 22. “Picture quality and sound quality will also be enhanced and we’ll get movies quicker on release,” Didrichsen said. In the coming weeks, the theatre will also get a new screen to replace the current screen, which is to be donated to the William E. Hay Composite High School drama department. Since the 328-seat theatre opened in 1952, the old
35-mm has become antiquated within the industry. “Ours goes back to the 1970s, and some parts may be even before that,” Didrichsen said. “For 20th Century Fox, Epic is the last movie they will make on 35-mm reels, and other film companies are all getting out of film.” The new projectors are said to be simple to operate. “It doesn’t take a lot of time to set up on the old projector, but it will take less time,” Didrichsen said. Business at the Stettler movie theatre continues to thrive, he said. “People still go to the movies. I have a feeling that this is the smallest town in Canada by population with a daily theatre.” Jewel Theatre has also played a role in helping one local resident go on to fame with a modelling career. Tricia Helfer of Donalda was discovered by a modelling scout in 1991 while waiting in line at Jewel Theatre — a story she shared in an interview with Craig Ferguson about two years ago.
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