February 18, 2014
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Drive thru No one injured as car crashes into downtown bank building. PAGE 7 Fishery funding Research station receives monetary boost. PAGE 11 School survivor Bev Sellers discusses residential school experience. PAGE 3
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VOL. 25, NO. 92
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Community school aims to close gap in graduation rates BY TAMARA CUNNINGHAM THE NEWS BULLETIN
CHRIS BUSH/THE NEWS BULLETIN
Don Bayne, firefighter, left, and John Marment, deputy chief of Lantzville Fire Rescue, take on the title Local Assistant to the Fire Commissioner when they are out in the community conducting fire safety inspections of businesses.
Lantzville plays catch up on inspections
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LITTLE OVERSIGHT to make sure municipalities follow regulations. BY TAMARA CUNNINGHAM THE NEWS BULLETIN
With businesses left unchecked for the last decade, Lantzville Fire Chief Tom Whipps isn’t finding any fire code violations he didn’t expect. Businesses mandated by provincial law to have fire safety plans don’t have them. Shelving has been put in front of electrical panels. Lights are out on exit signs and fire extinguishers are out of date.
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“You’ve got to keep in mind, the businesses of Lantzville have never been inspected,” he said. “This is as much fire education as it is fire inspection and they are learning just as we are.” The District of Lantzville has been required by the B.C. Fire Services Act to inspect public buildings, like stores and schools since 2003, but only started to look at fire risks last year. According to Whipps, the volunteer fire department hasn’t had the time nor the people trained to do the job, resulting in checks getting put on the back burner. It wasn’t until a 2013 fire underwriters’ survey highlighted the
need for the department to have fire pre-plans – a result of inspections – that the district started directing resources toward checking for fire risks. Five inspectors have now been trained and while the results of their inspections have not yet been made public, Whipps reports there have been safety issues found including at the District of Lantzville. He says he is focusing on the positive – that the district evolved to where it needs to be – but he also acknowledges that not doing inspections until now was “probably negligent in the cold, hard facts of the case.” ◆ See ‘GOVERNMENT’ /3
Closing the gap on Nanaimo’s aboriginal graduation rate means supporting children beyond the classroom. That’s the idea behind a new school proposed by the Nanaimo Aboriginal Centre, where the responsibility and care of students would go beyond six-hour classroom instruction. According to Chris Beaton, executive director of the centre, 85 per cent of children’s lives are spent outside the classroom. Without understanding the dynamics of what’s happening at home and the needs of families, school instruction can be ineffective, he said, adding a child isn’t going to focus on learning if he’s hungry or worried about finding a place to live. The new school, called the Nanaimo Learning Centre, would follow the B.C. curriculum, offering early childhood education up to Grade 3 for close to 160 public school students. It would also focus on culture, understanding educational needs of students and providing “wrap around” services like childcare to support families, Beaton said. Not-for-profits and organizations, like the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Vancouver Island, would have a chance to move under one roof, reducing overhead costs while making sure families don’t have to travel far to tap into a wide variety of services. The goal will be for the centre to see the child as a whole, not just between the hours of nine and three, and give youngsters a good foundation to be successful in the mainstream public education system, Beaton said. In 2012, 49.9 per cent of aboriginal students graduated from high school, compared to 71.6 per cent of the general student body. The Nanaimo Learning Centre aims to open in September, but has yet to create any formal agreement with the Nanaimo school district. It is also still in talks with potential community partners, and plans community consultation. ◆ See ‘SCHOOL’ /4
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