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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2015
VOL. 27, NO. 57
250.390.1871
School closures recommended I
SCHOOL BOARD to vote on woodlands, Rutherford facilities. By KaRL yU THE NEwS BULLETiN
CHRIS BUSH/THe NewS BUlleTIN
Ayson Amann, left, Piper Tilley, Hazel Smith and Millie Haslam aren’t thrilled about meeting Santa Claus at the North Oyster and Area Historical Society Christmas Pancake Breakfast on Saturday. More than 200 children and their families turned out for the society’s annual fundraiser event hosted at Cedar Community Hall.
Christmas countdown starts with Black Friday Black Friday means ’tis the season for Christmas shopping, if it wasn’t already. The day after U.S. Thanksgiving is an increasingly busy shopping day in Nanaimo. Nola Dunn, Woodgrove Centre marketing director, said the mall doesn’t record sales for
specific days, but 33,287 consumers shopped at Woodgrove last Black Friday, compared to 35,072 on Dec. 26. “I think that [may] have something to do with more people have Boxing Day off as a vacation day or a holiday day as opposed to Black Friday
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here in Canada, where people still have to work, unless they want to get up early and take advantage of the door-crashers,” said Dunn. Boxing Day has traditionally been the day Canadians line up for sales. See ‘SHOPPING’ /7
R u t h e r f o rd E l e m e n t a r y School is still on the chopping block, pending sufficient funding from the province and a final vote from Nanaimo school trustees. The school district recently concluded consultation with stakeholders regarding an updated facilities plan and a Rutherford recommendation remains similar to one suggested by staff in September. Staff suggest shuttering the north-end school by June 2017, with nearby Frank J. Ney Elementary school expanded to accommodate some displaced students; however, the B.C. Ministry of Education has not committed funding. The two parties have met, according to John Blain, school district superintendent. “The conversations were about what are the things we need to do to get ourselves into the queue … and one of the pieces is that we need to be in a position of readiness if there are flexible monies to come out of the ministry, not in the normal capital expenses. “What that means is if a project falls through, something like that, and they have some extra capital, we may be able to
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fall into that or they may have the ability to look at smaller type projects,” said Blain. It had been suggested during consultation that French immersion be moved from Nanaimo District Secondary School to John Barsby Secondary, but the recommendation is for no move. Blain said information gathered during consultation could be forwarded to an NDSS site and vision advisory committee. “French immersion and district programs, that committee will need time to develop,” said Blain. “It’s a long-term discussion.” According to the latest recommendations, Woodlands Secondary would still shutter at the end of the year, with sports acadamies relocated to NDSS. Learn at Home programs from kindergarten to Grade 12 would be amalgamated to the Mount Benson school site and Skills for Life would relocate to Georgia Avenue School for September 2016. North Cedar Intermediate and Woodbank Primary students would both be housed at the Woodbank site in September 2016. The district will hold meetings at Vancouver Island Conference Centre next week, when Blain said trustees are expected to debate and hopefully vote on the recommendations. reporter@nanaimobulletin.com
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