Clippers Trip Up Rivermen PAGE 31
TUESDAY October 7, 2014 • www.langleytimes.com
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NEWS Death was not Murder
ARTS & LIFE The Mic is Open
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SPORTS Morgan Top Pro
Wide net cast for Brydon solutions B R E NDA A NDE R S ON Time s Re po rte r
DAN FERGUS ON La ng ley Time s
It was a nature walk with a purpose. Around 45 people set out for an hour-long stroll around Brydon Lagoon on Wednesday afternoon. Among them were members of the Langley Field Naturalists Society, City parks and engineering managers and a trio of City councillors in whose hands the fate of the pond, where thousands of fish died during the B.C. Day long weekend, may very well rest. Led by Langley Field Naturalists Rhys Griffiths and Anthea Farr, the purpose of the tour was to provide a history of the lagoon, discuss the challenges it is facing and to offer people enough information to begin brainstorming possible solutions. “It’s a special place — ideal for wildlife and wildlife viewing,” said Farr, who is a past president of the Langley Field Naturalist Society and the person who wrote the original proposal to the City of Langley to turn the decommissioned sewer lagoon into a nature park. In the mid-1980s, using grant money from the province, LFN members set about building nature trails, installing nest boxes, erecting educational signage, planting berry-producing shrubs to attract songbirds and creating a viewing area, among other improvements.
Langley Field Naturalist Society member and past president Rhys Griffiths leads a walking tour of Brydon Lagoon on Oct. 1. The event, which drew about 45 people, was intended to educate residents about the challenges facing the lagoon and inspire a search for solutions.
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Yorkson middle school opens over capacity MO N I Q U E TA M M I N G A Ti m e s Re po r t e r
Opening day at Langley’s newest school, Yorkson Creek Middle School, was met with many smiling faces but some hiccups too, said Principal Tim Everson, who presented a full report on the $23 million gold LEED school to the board of education last Tuesday, Sept. 30.
Located off busy 208 Street and in the middle of lots of ongoing development, everyone knew drop off and pick up of children would be an issue. “We had a lot of parking lot woes,” said Everson. “At the end of the day it was utter madness. But the positive of this is 100 more students signed up for the bus system so
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that is 350 students coming by bus, roughly half.” So far, 793 Grade 6 to 8 students attend. That is over capacity but around 840 students (if the portables are included) can be accommodated. Of that population, there are 88 students with special needs, nine with low incident needs, and at least 75 ELL (English lan-
guage learning) students. There are 71 staff, a full-time Aboriginal student worker, resource teacher for each grade, four ELL support staff and counsellor and childcare workers. Unlike high school, teachers work in pods but like elementary, students have one main teacher and do have curriculum with a couple of other teachers.
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