RETURN FROM THE SUMMIT PAGE 3
ALBERTA OFFICERS SHOT PAGE 5
KANE VALLEY SKI TRAILS PAGE 9
Nicola Valley’s News Voice Since 1905
merrittherald.com
bcclassified.com
MERRITT HERALD FREE
TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2014 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
Jury finds Hume guilty
STARS ON ICE Members of the Merritt White Knights hockey team proudly display their trophies at the end of the 10-team novice tournament at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena on the weekend. The Merritt White Knights are (back row, left to right): coaches Gary Dixon and Dustin Shackelly; (top row) Andrew Denton, Asia Munro, Wade Rauch, Simon Cisco, Charlie Michel; (middle row) Matthias Forman, Shane Charters, Brooke Gustafson, Cayden Bergstrom, Gavin Shackelly, Korben Stump, James Stamp; (front row) goalie Lucas Dixon. Missing: Noah Galbraith and Kaitlyn Dixon. Two other local teams took part — the Merritt Red Thunder and the Merritt Black Sheep — while out-of-town participants came from Williams Lake, Vernon, Kamloops, Salmon Arm, Penticton, Kelowna and West Kelowna. Complete results and more photos from the three-day tournament will be in the Sports section of this Thursday’s edition of the Merritt Herald. Photo submitted
A 12-person jury in Kamloops found Lytton support worker Michael Hume guilty of sexual assault, uttering threats and forcible confinement on Jan. 16 after four hours of deliberation. Hume was tried in a week-long trial in B.C. Supreme Court for an incident that occurred in August 2013. The victim, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, testified he woke up in Hume’s Lytton home after a night of drinking to find Hume shaving his pubic region. The defence claimed the victim made up the story to extort $200 from Hume. Hume was arrested in Merritt in August 2013 shortly before the start of the B.C. Ambassador program, a province-wide leadership competition for youth, for which he was president at the time. Hume and the organization parted ways shortly after his arrest. A date for sentencing was not known by press time.
SD58 examines gap in student achievement By Emily Wessel THE HERALD
newsroom@merrittherald.com
Administrators with School District 58 are working on closing the gap between its overall six-year completion rate and that of students who identify as having aboriginal heritage. Last year, the overall six-year completion rate continued to climb and reached 73.4 per cent. However, the six-year completion rate for aboriginal students sat at 58.3 per cent — down from 64.7 per cent in the 2012-13 school year. It’s also slightly below the provincial average of 61.6
per cent for aboriginal students. Closing the gap in student achievement is one of the goals for SD58 identified in the Superintendent’s Report on Student Achievement. SD58 superintendent Steve McNiven presented to the board of trustees on the report at its regular meeting on Jan. 14. The district’s goal is to see 65 per cent or more of its aboriginal students complete high school in that six-year timeframe, according to the report. The report states 48 per cent of the district’s enrolment identifies as aboriginal. The gap in comple-
tion rates is mirrored in the gap in transition rates from Grade 9 to 10 and Grade 10 to 11 in SD58. “We’re seeing a substantial drop there for aboriginal students,” McNiven said. “We knew it was there and of concern. It’s particularly noticeable around the difference between aboriginal and non-aboriginal students.” Targets for the 2014-15 school year are transition rates for aboriginal students moving from Grade 9 to 10 and 10 to 11 at 90 per cent or better, and moving into Grade 12 at 80 per cent or better. Despite minor dips over the last six years, the
overall completion rate has remained on a positive trajectory since 2008-09, McNiven said. “We do have those up and down spikes in our district because we’re pretty small,” he said. Helping boost the numbers this year is the “substantial jump” in the completion rate for students with special needs, McNiven said. The completion rate for students with a learning disability jumped to 53 per cent — up 24 percentage points from the 2008-09 school year. The completion rate for students with behavioural disabilities also took a big
jump last year to 38 per cent, which is an increase of 17 percentage points from the 2008-09 school year. The district’s new goal for the overall six-year completion rate is 75 per cent, which is below the provincial average of 84.2 per cent. “The areas we show improving are often the challenge areas for us because we’re not where we want to be yet,” McNiven said. The report takes a holistic approach to student achievement by reviewing some programs and assessments that can foster greater learning readiness in the future, and ultimately contribute to completion rates.
Educators at the early years put together an assessment for social-emotional learning last year, and that assessment was used for the first time at the Grade 1 level as well. Social and emotional factors can influence students’ well-being and their readiness to learn, McNiven said. “One of the areas we see kids in kindergarten struggle with is anger management, identifying their emotions. When we’re more specific around identifying what it is we need to help support, then we can put that support in.”
See ‘Gap shows’ Page 5
0)#+ 50 30%#)!,
$%,)6%29 30%#)!,
$%,)6%29 30%#)!, ,
-EDIUM #HEESE 0IZZA HEESE 0IZZ
-EDIUM 4OPPING 0IZZA 4OPPING 0
,ARGE 4OPPING 0IZZA ING 0IZZA
$
$ 99
$
/2$%2 #/$%
/2$%2 #/$%
/2$%2 #/$%
+4!8
8
+4!8
1199 +4!8
!DD ONS 0ENNE 0ASTA s 3PECIALTY #HICKEN s "UFFALO #HICKEN 7INGS s #HEESY "READ s $IPPING 3AUCES s #OCA #OLA !DDITIONAL CHARGES MAY APPLY
7% 2% 5.$%2 .%7 -!.!'%-%.4 \ 6/'(4 342%%4 -%22)44 "# \