TUESDAY APRIL 30, 2013
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A MONTH ON AN ICEBREAKER
Now on display at TOSH, photographer’s stunning visions of Antarctica
Town council is considering a bylaw to allow it right in town
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A7
BUDGET SHORTFALL
Classes to close
Turning off utilities in un-used areas of schools LISSA ALEXANDER
reporter@pqbnews.com
Classrooms and possibly entire wings of local schools are going to be shut down next year to save money on utilities. This measure was brought forward last week as one of the ways School District 69 could make up a $1.2 million deficit in next year’s budget. At the school board’s regular monthly meeting Tuesday, a representative from the district parents’ advisory council asked for confirmation on the closing of wings in the schools from secretary treasurer Erica Bailey at the meeting. “We did target some savings in utilities and the approach to targeting those savings in utilities includes that where there are schools that are significantly empty, we are going to have to close off wings in order to reduce electricity costs and heating costs in order to balance the budget,” she said. Bailey said they will be looking at each school and its projected enrolment and where there are significant empty classrooms they will be closing those areas. The final budget for next year was balanced at Tuesdays meeting by finding savings in a number of areas. In operations and maintenance (including the projected savings with the utilities) $144,000 in savings was identified. Spring break was changed back from one week to two weeks, garnering $191,000 in savings, $98,750 was saved in the transportation area and about $200,000 will be used from last year’s surplus. Acting superintendent Rollie Koop said the general population of students is declining and will result in about 50 less students in the district next year. See PROFITS, page A4
BRENDA GOUGH PHOTO
From left, Allan Berry, Harold Grindl and Ken Droog have a look at the waves and their kiteboarding route to Sechelt before they took off Monday morning from Columbia Beach.
EPIC JOURNEY FOR A GREAT CAUSE STARTED MONDAY AT COLUMBIA BEACH
Kiteboarding to Sechelt for kids BRENDA GOUGH
NEWS Contributor
It took a month of waiting, but Mother Nature finally cooperated on Monday and provided the much-needed wind power to send a group of kiteboarders on their crossing of the Strait of Georgia. Four members of Kiting For Kids launched from Columbia Beach just after 9 a.m. with southeast winds blowing about 17 knots at the shoreline. The group of Oceanside kiteboarding enthusiasts had been waiting since the beginning of April for the right wind conditions to take them to Sechelt and then back to Pipers Lagoon in Nanaimo. Their epic journey is a fundraiser for B.C. Children’s
Hospital and to date the group has raised more than $7,000. Heading out into the whitecaps were Ken Droog of Parksville, Dennis McDonald of Parksville, Harold Grindl of Nanoose Bay and Allan Berry of Nanaimo. All four got off to a great start, but before they made it to Sechelt, Grindl and Berry ran into difficulties and had to drop out of the event. No doubt receiving updates was Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin group of companies. Branson is an avid kiteboarder who is also an honorary member of the local kiteboarding team.
See ANOTHER PHOTO, page A4
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