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Vernon Viper Riley Guenther walks out of the tunnel before their Tuesday night game with the Dauphin Kings as fan Jacob Defeo, 10, gives Dylan Chanter a high-five at Kal Tire Place. For more RBC Cup coverage, see pages A3 and A18 and check game results online at vernonmorningstar.com
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The B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation has suspended a now-resigned Vernon School District administrator for professional misconduct. Former Vernon Secondary School vice-principal Tony Martin Dolinar has agreed to a onemonth suspension of his teaching certificate, effective June 1, after he was caught changing the marks of a student. “The district holds high expectations for their administrators,” said Vernon School District superintendent Joe Rogers Thursday, reacting to the commissioner’s ruling. “We need to ensure and expect that they are holding a high standard, and that parents, students and teachers can trust that they’re doing the right things for all of the kids.” Dolinar was suspended by the school district without pay on Dec. 19, 2013. He resigned from his employment with the district as vice-principal on Jan. 31, 2014, then joined the teacher on-call list as a substitute teacher. “In our mind, part of the decision needs to be is what he’s done a career-ender or can he rebuild trust by starting over?” said Rogers. “Basically, he’s starting over again.” The commissioner, in a three-page ruling released April 29, states that while Dolinar was vice-principal at VSS, he acted “dishonestly and without integrity” when he used his position to access electronic records of students’ grades. Dolinar increased the percentage marks of a student “whom he wished to favour,” said the release, giving the student higher percentage marks than teachers had given in three courses on the student’s report card and electronic record in the 2012-13 school year, and in one course in 2013-14. The student received an academic award in 2012-13 that the student would not have picked up if the marks had not been changed. The commissioner said the moves were done “covertly, without authorization and without advising the teachers or other administrators.” In November, 2013, when a teacher raised a concern that the student’s grade had been changed in her course, “Dolinar misrepresented to the teacher and to the principal that he had not changed the grade, when he knew his statements were not true.” Dolinar admitted the facts set out in the investigation by the commissioner.
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Vernon officials are concerned B.C.’s new recycling program could put seniors and the disabled at risk. Coun. Catherine Lord is asking city staff to be aware of potential problems with Multi-Material B.C.’s blue recycling boxes after a recent opinion piece by Morning Star columnist Pat Black. “The provincial government had good intentions but there are some unforeseen consequences,” said Lord of people with mobility issues having to carry the plastic boxes full of recycling. “I want to know what effect this is having on our seniors.” In her column, Black expressed the challenges seniors and the disabled may have with the boxes. “They weigh about five pounds empty, are awkward to carry and are up to the knees of many older people,” she wrote. “How will someone with a disability be able to lift them in the first place or carry the tall boxes down stairs without being able to see where they are going? These are accidents waiting to happen.” Black says 25 per cent of residents of this area are more than 60 years old, and while some have disabilities, others just don’t have a lot of physical strength anymore. “There is so much anger and frustration that this operation has been thrust upon us without debate or any modicum of thoughtfulness,” she wrote. Coun. Mary-Jo O’Keefe agrees with Lord’s concerns. “Those boxes are heavy. If you are a senior and are trying to haul a box, it will be hard,” said O’Keefe. See related articles on page A12
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