TUESDAY OCTOBER 28, 2014
Black Press C O M M U N I T Y
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FIRST FORUM OF ELECTION
JUST WHAT WAS SAMMIE DOING?
Parksville and Qualicum Beach candidates face questions
Cat returns to its Parksville family after disappearing for 16 months
A5
A28
SCHOOL BOARD ELECTION ISSUE
What is your role? Candidates asked about the school board’s raison d’etre AUREN RUVINSKY
writer@pqbnews.com
With the closure of four elementary schools in District 69 and the provincial teacher’s strike, the local board of education has been in the spotlight more than usual this year, but what is their usual role? The NEWS asked the candidates. “The role of the board is to ensure some local control,” said Elaine Young, a former teacher. “Our job is governance, not overstepping management. We have to assume management knows what they are doing and focus on governing the district and improving student achievement. My goal is to work collaboratively to ensure local control over the very small amount of the budget we have control over.” She said she would spend her first year learning district details about assessment, reading levels, graduation rates and transition and focusing on the current issues. Asked how much the board should be involved in advocacy and pushing the provincial government on funding or other issues, Young said the BCSTA (provincial trustee organization) “is the proper channel to work through.” “My role is to use those resources most effectively for students.” On the other hand, 20-year-old candidate Jacob Gair said he would like to see the board “pressure the government and the population for more resources and funding.” “The closing of schools was unfortunate but necessary,” said Gair. “I wasn’t a fan of that move, but with the decline in enrolment there’s not much else they could have done. It’s essential that they hold onto those properties for when enrolment is up in the coming years — they also might be a good source of income.” See BOARD ’ON THE DEFENSIVE’, page A4
PETER MCCULLY PHOTO
POPPY CAMPAIGN STARTS FRIDAY: Members of the local branches of the Royal Canadian Legion gathered recently in preparation for the annual Poppy Campaign, which starts on Friday. Above, from left to right, are Jack MacLean, president of Legion Branch 76 (Qualicum Beach), Bill Layman, Poppy Campaign chair and past president of Branch 76, Shona Rowe, Poppy Campaign chair of Branch 49 (Parksville) and Dave Doskotch, president of Branch 49. The flagraising ceremony is set for 10 a.m. Friday at the Parksville Legion.
REGIONAL DISTRICT ELECTIONS — COOMBS/ERRINGTON
Farm-to-fork campaign strategy CANDACE WU
news@pqbnews.com
Coombs/Errington RDN candidate Rick Ethier has what seems to be an ambitious idea. Ethier said he wants to turn the region into a “single family farm community. I have a plan that uses education as the vehicle that will create jobs and produce energy efficient homes through a family farm initiative,” he told The NEWS Friday. He plans on
doing this by introducing sustainable agriculture and aquaculture farming programs to the area. He explains the “farm-to-the-fork school of organic nutrition is a non profit school that has a mandate to implement organic technologies that will generate sustainable growth for communities on Vancouver Island.” Ethier’s election pamphlet describes his vision as “to inspire communities to develop food centers that
offer hands on training and technical assistance in sustainable agriculture.” According to Ethier’s election pamphlet, “the program produces food through a true organic growing process. The system utilizes greenhouse farming to optimize the natural organic reproduction of soil, red worms, plants and fish. The greenhouse heat is controlled through the temperature of the water in the aqua-ponic system.”
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