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VOL. 27 NO. 32
www.terracestandard.com
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Student enrolment down again BY ANNA KILLEN THE COAST Mountains School District (CMSD) says it lost a number of students to the private school system at the beginning of the school year, something it says could be a fallout from the labour dispute between the province and its teachers union. And that, combined with the continuing trend of families moving away from the district because of increased living costs, means student enrolment numbers are down dramatically this year, ac-
cording to CMSD officials. Full-time enrolment for kindergarten through Grade 12, excluding home-school students, is 4,484 as of Sept. 30, according to documents provided at last week's regular school board meeting. That's a loss of 233 students from the 4,714 enrolled at the end of September last year – or roughly five per cent of the district, which includes Terrace, Kitimat, Stewart, and Hazelton. “We are down,” said CMSD secretary treasurer Alanna Cameron Nov. 21. “We've become a higher cost area. I think a lot of our
lower income families have moved out ... we have workers moving in and families moving out that can't afford to live here anymore.” That's a trend officials began to notice at the beginning of the 2013/2014 school year when enrolment numbers were down beyond the amount expected in the district's 10-year plan. “When we did our 10-year plan several years ago, we anticipated that even if everything stayed stable, we still anticipated going down a little bit for the next couple of years,” said Cameron.
“We still have fairly large grad classes and fairly small groups of kindergartners coming in,” she said. But the other part of this year's picture is that “we did lose some students to the private schools,” she said. “That was our anticipation – there were a lot of families that, due to the strike in September and the ongoing job action, that a lot of families decided, no they were going to take the private school option.” Unofficial estimates by the district peg the number of students
who switched to the private schools – and that includes the aboriginal schools in the area – at around 70. Cameron noted that enrolment in the Nisga'a school district which serves the Nass Valley, where she is also secretary treasurer due to a sharing agreement between the two northwest districts, is up from last year by over a dozen students. “Probably the same idea,” she said. “It's too expensive to live here so they're moving back up to the villages.”
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Traffic study intensifies By JOSH MASSEY SURVEYORS HAVE been busy on the Sande Overpass, following up on a commitment made by provincial transportation minister Todd Stone during a visit to Terrace last month to do something to ease congestion on the heavily-used connection between the Southside and the rest of the city. “We are currently developing conceptual options to see if we can improve traffic movements at the Sande Overpass/Keith Avenue intersection,” said a statement from the transportation ministry when asked about the work. Ministry officials would provide no further details other than to say “the surveyors are gathering site information that will be used to help us develop these options for potential future upgrades.” City councils over the years have been pressing the province – and CN – for a second vehicle overpass spanning CN's rail tracks, a subject which came up again when Stone made his visit. One suggestion mentioned by Stone when he met with council was that of a traffic circle, a very popular traffic flow method in Europe and now being introduced in more parts of North America. Instead of stop signs or traffic lights at an intersection, vehicles enter and exit a traffic circle seamlessly. And there are now indications there could also be changes at the Hwy16/Hwy37 four-way stop intersection, reports city councillor James Cordeiro, one of several city councillors to meet with transportation ministry officials. “What was said was whatever configuration was used at Sande would be also considered preferable for the four-way stop for sake of consistency, as what is appropriate for one would likely also be appropriate for the other,” said Cordeiro.
ANNA KILLEN PHOTO
■■ It’s that time of year THE SEASON of giving is here, and local artisan group Red Raven Arts is no exception. The group is hosting its annual “Red Raven gives back” week, in which they ask their supporters to bring in non-perishable food items in return for an entry into a draw to win a gift basket filled with wares from their store. That’s artist Claude Rioux Nov. 22, the first day of the food drive, showing off some of the donations already received.
Saving lives
No parole
Up there
Conservation officers send orphaned grizzly cubs to wildlife centre \COMMUNITY A10
Linda LeFranc’s family opposes killer’s release from prison \NEWS A13
Cal’s Sr. Girls volleyball team is at provincials ranked eighth in B.C. \SPORTS A24