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Friday, September 6, 2013
Students greeted with rat feces and cigarette butts
Frances Kelsey Secondary: Angry parents say portable classroom not fit for students
Ashley Degraaf
News Leader Pictorial
M
ost picture the first day back to the grindstone typically sees students plunked into a gleaming classroom, surrounded by fresh whiteboards, washed-down desks, and shiny new
Andrew Leong
West Coast Amusement Company worker Jeffery Sutherland secures one of the Kite Flyer rides yesterday in preparation for the midway opening at the Cowichan Exhibition. The 145th edition of the exhibition opens today. For more, see page seven.
Great Lake Walk cancelled for 2013 Could be back in 2014: Lack of registration sinks annual trek around Cowichan Lake
Don Bodger
News Leader Pictorial
T
he 2013 Great Lake Walk and Ultra Marathon, set for Sept. 21, has been cancelled due to a lack of entries. The 56-kilometre event around Cowichan Lake has been a fixture on the calendar in late September since 2002. It was an event that created great teamwork from the volunteers in communities around the lake to put it on. “It was kind of looming,’’ Joan Hieta, chair of the Great Lake Walk Society, said of the cancellation. “It was one of those years. Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.’’ The GLW committee has been dealing with many issues and had to make a decision by
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Sept. 5 due to pending deadlines for arranging portable toilets, rest stops, food, prizes, buses, first aid and a host of other things. Hieta said the committee looked very seriously at the budget and found there was a bottom line that couldn’t be reached. “I’ve got to keep the safety part,’’ she said. There were not enough registrations to cover even the basic costs of hosting this year’s event. Registrations simply did not materialize, falling below 160 for the first time. A relay event added this year was looked upon as something that might attract more people. “We thought it was going to take off,’’ said Hieta. “We’re pretty disappointed. We thought that was going to be the answer.’’ Participants have raised more than $700,000 for their favourite charities since
the event started. There was nearly 800 people registered in 2002 for the inaugural event. The total slipped marginally for a few years after that and finally stabilized around 350, before completely bottoming out. Despite the cancellation, this doesn’t mean the GLW is dead. “We’re definitely going to look at it for next year,’’ said Hieta. If sponsorships and registrations bounce back, the event will make a return in 2014. The Great Walk, a similar 63 km event from Gold River to Tahsis, has experienced the same problem with participation falling off in recent years. The Great Walk was also not held in its usual time slot during June this year and was also cancelled in 2010. Organizers there are hopeful of bringing it back for 2014.
equipment. But this wasn’t the scenario for Shannon Perkins’ son entering Grade 8 at Frances Kelsey Secondary School this week. “Visible rat feces, peeling stairs, broken window held together with duct tape, cigarette butts..., projector screen with obscene pictures and profanities, broken florescent light bulbs, no white boards (just) old green chalkboards and no running water,” said the Cobble Hill mother of the portable that greeted her son on his first day at Kelsey. “There are clearly rodents living in that portable and the children should absolutely not spend another minute inside there until they are properly exterminated and the entire standard of cleanliness is improved,” Perkins wrote in an email to the News Leader Pictorial. “I am also incredibly disappointed in the principal of Kelsey, Marilyn Sanford, who knew the state of the portable early in August and still allowed the children to arrive in these conditions.” The portable Perkins is referring to houses four classes of children, mostly Grade 8s, and is intended to be used as a science classroom. “When we were given a tour of Kelsey at the end of last school year, we were assured our children would not be housed off to the side, away from the school as an after-thought in portables. Well, that is exactly what happened and further to that the portables are disgusting and not fit for human occupation.” School District 79 assistant superintendent Lorna Newman was aware of the the portable’s conditions and confirmed work has and is still being done to remediate the list of concerns. “We are very much aware and we’re working with maintenance to address the issues,” Newman said Thursday. “These are priorities don’t get me wrong, and these are all important issues.” She said Island Pest Control has been called to investigate the rat feces and custodians have been asked to disinfect the learning space. more page 7
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