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TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 2013 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
Merritt schools finish near the bottom of Fraser report By Craig Lindsay THE HERALD
newsroom@merrittherald.com
Steven “Hyde” Archachan was inducted into the B.C. Cowboy Hall of Fame on Friday at a special ceremony during the Cowboy Festival in Kamloops. Craig Lindsay/Herald
Local cowboy honoured at Hall of Fame By Craig Lindsay THE HERALD
newsroom@merrittherald.com
Local cowboy Stephen “Hyde” Archachan has been selected for the 2013 B.C. Cowboy Hall of Fame in the Working Cowboy category. Although 77 and mostly retired, Archachan still gets the occasional call to help out. Archachan, who was nominated by several ranchers he has worked for including John Lauder and Mike Rose, was honoured on March 8 at the Kamloops Cowboy Festival. Also honoured at the festival
was local saddle maker Don Loewen (see story in Tuesday’s Herald). Archachan was born in 1934 at Quilchena Creek in a willow bush and began his cowboyin’ career a short time later. He started his first job at age 16 for the Guichon Ranch. He also broke horses for his family and for others for $10 a head. He has worked at Douglas Lake Ranch, Lauder’s Ranch, Blue Ridge Ranch in Lillooet, North Kamloops and at Lake Jamison. “I started off with Guichon Ranch,” said Archachan. “We started in the spring. Then
in the fall we’d go out again and bring cattle in. We did that every year. I rode for Guichon until around 1956 and then went to Douglas Lake and cowboyed there. I just wanted a change.” Archachan took time off in the mid-60s to try his hand at logging, but eventually returned to what he loves the most, cowboyin’ in the Nicola Valley. A true character, Archachan is known as ‘Hyde’ to pretty much everyone. His niece Phoebe Archachan relates the story of how he picked up the name. “I guess they were at
a rodeo dance a while back. I’m not sure how far back, but a while,” she said. “My uncle Hyde and his buddy were at the dance and he told his buddy, ‘Look at that gal over there. She has a pretty good looking hyde.’ And it just kind of stuck from there. So he’s been Hyde ever since.” Phoebe says the honour is much appreciated and well-deserved for her uncle. “He’s been working for pretty much all the ranches here in the Nicola Valley,” she said.
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in 2008. The grade 4 numeracy score was 477, up from 400 in 2008. “I’ve heard in the Kamloops news about the ratings for the schools, and I take a look at the ratings, and overall I watch and say, ‘the ratings have gone up,’” said Bob Peacock, superintendent for SD58 (Nicola-Similkameen). “Take a look at the elementary schools, in four schools the ratings have gone up for 2012, while the other has stayed the same. So, that’s a good thing. Teachers are working hard to improve the educational chances of students. That’s even a better thing.” Peacock says the low numbers given to several Merritt schools in relation to other schools around the province can be attributed to several factors. “Historically, those schools have ranked low,” he said. “There are a whole bunch of factors in what the Fraser Institute has come out with and what they say. When we look at the Fraser rankings, are we happy we’re in the bottom 10 per cent? No. What direction is the overall ranking heading in our schools?
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The Fraser Institute’s school report cards are out, and for a couple of Merritt schools it’s a failing grade. The controversial institute ranks schools across B.C., as well as Canada, based on a number of different criteria. “We get from the Ministry of Education, school by school results of the Foundation Skills Assessment which are administered in grade 4 and grade 7 every year,” said Peter Cowley, spokesperson for the Fraser Institute. “We analze those results and come up with nine indicators with how the school is doing. For each of the exams - reading, writing and numeracy in grade 4 and grade 7 we look to see how the kids at each school do and what their average mark is. We then look to determine how many of the tests were written were assessed at being below average. We look at the grade 7 level on whether their was any gap between the boys and the girls, we call that the gender gap. Finally, we look at the tests that could’ve been written but weren’t. We bring all those ratings together in what we call the overall rating using a statistically valid
method of combining them. It’s intended to answer, generally, how is the school doing?” Merritt Bench Elementary School was the lone Merritt school with a passing grade. MBES finished 267th out of 853 schools in B.C. with a grade of 6.8. Diamond Vale Elementary came it at a paltry 830th out of 853 schools with a 2011-12 rating of 2.5. Merritt Central wasn’t much better with a ranking of 822nd and a score of 2.8. Diamond Vale’s grade 4 average reading score was 435 for 2012, down from 462 in 2008. The grade 4 writing average was 414 down from 592 in 2008. The grade 4 numeracy score was also 414 down from 460 in 2008. Merritt Central’s grade 4 reading score was 430 in 2012, up from 404 in 2008. The grade 4 writing score at Central was 419, down from 565 in 2008. The school’s grade 4 numeracy was 444, up from 392 in 2008. Nicola Canford was ranked 795 with a rating of 3.2. The grade 4 average reading score at the Lower Nicola school was 432, up from 2008’s 412. The grade 4 writing score was 432 as well, down from 497
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