The Chilliwack
Progress Wednesday
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Theatre
Makeover
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Graham Theatre reaches out to Chilliwack community.
Work starts on new Mill Street.
Chiefs eliminated from playoff picture.
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Y O U R C O M M U N I T Y N E W S PA P E R • F O U N D E D I N 1 8 9 1 • W W W. T H E P R O G R E S S . C O M • W E D N E S D AY, F E B R U A R Y 5 , 2 0 1 4
EFI draws students to district
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Katie Bartel The Progress Chilliwack’s new early French immersion program is expected to amass nearly $83,000 in student funding the school district otherwise wouldn’t have received. A report presented at Tuesday’s sschool board e e t i n g It gives i us a m showed the great deal of b r e a k d o w n of where regconfidence istrants for French that we, early immersion in fact, did (EFI) came The make the from. largest grouping was those correct from out of decision district, which had six regis~ Walt tered in kindergarten and Krahn six in Grade 1, amounting to 18 per cent of all registrants. With governi h the h provincial i ment’s per student funding at $6,900, that totals $82,800 for the school district. “We’re really pleased we got the support both from current parents as well as externally,” said district superintendent Evelyn Novak. Novak would not yet disclose a breakdown of where those outof-district students came from, as parents have until Feb. 7 to confirm their child’s placement in the program. However, she did note that several were students who already live in Chilliwack, but had sought French immersion in other nearby school districts. “These are people who are saying they wouldn’t have registered in our district, but because we have
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Continued: EFI/ p10
B.C. government to appeal teacher ruling Tom Fletcher Black Press The B.C. government will appeal a B.C. Supreme Court ruling ordering a return to 2002 classroom rules, Education Minister Peter Fassbender announced Tuesday. Fassbender said the latest ruling could potentially cost the B.C. government more than $1 billion, which he called “completely unaffordable for taxpayers.” But the appeal will focus on Justice Susan Griffin’s interpretation of constitutional rights in union negotiations.
“Governments have to be able to govern,” Fassbender said, adding that no other province has such restrictions on school organization. “Most importantly, if the real goal is to benefit students, decades of academic research has shown that blankest reductions in class size are of little benefit,” he said. B.C. Teachers’ Federation president Jim Iker estimated that 6,600 teachers would have to be hired to bring B.C. class sizes up to the Canadian average. In Surrey school district alone, there should be 18 teacher librarians, 19 teach-
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er-counsellors, 51 more specialist education teachers and 80 English language teachers, he said. “We want to negotiate a deal at the bargaining table,” Iker said. “We hope that the government comes and bargains with us in good faith – that’s so important – but we all know that to achieve an agreement, government has to bring the necessary funding to make that deal happen.” The dispute revolves around the government’s unilateral removal of class size and support staff rules from the BCTF contract in 2002. In her first ruling in
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2011, Griffin gave the government a year to remove the offending legislation and negotiate class size and specialist teacher support as a working condition for teachers. Griffin’s second ruling came Jan. 28, ordering $2 million in damages to be paid to the BCTF for what she described as bargaining in bad faith, and striking down parts of the latest legislation. Fassbender said talks over the past year have included class size and specialist support. “We’ve increased supports for students with special needs, Continued: BCTF/ p10
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A firefighter inspects a vehicle after it went off Highway 1 and across a ditch just east of the Yale Road West exit on Tuesday morning, following an apparent medical emergency. Witnesses travelling eastbound behind the SUV said they saw the vehicle go from the left lane, into the right lane, and then off the highway. The brake lights never went on, said one witness, adding that the elderly man driving the vehicle had no pulse and had his foot still on the gas pedal when emergency personnel reached him. The SUV did not collide with any other vehicles. The name of the driver has not been released. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS