Chilliwack Times June 25 2010

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INSIDE: Olympic legacy social housing project breaks ground Pg. 3 June 25, 2010

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LOCAL NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER & ENTERTAINMENT  chilliwacktimes.com

DPAC slams school board

Sardis ag program at home in ALR Partnership with UFV should begin in September

BY CORNELIA NAYLOR cnaylor@chilliwacktimes.com

BY CORNELIA NAYLOR cnaylor@chilliwacktimes.com

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fruitful partnership between Sardis secondary and the University of the Fraser Valley’s agriculture department could soon be taking root on school district land just off Richardson Road. On Tuesday, the board of education gave Sardis secondary teachers Joe Massie and Tania Toth and UFV professor Tom Baumann approval in principle to use the five-acre plot of land near Sardis for educational programs related to agriculture. “I’m really happy it’s happened as quickly as it has because sometimes with these things there’s lots of talk and no action,” said Massie, a science teacher who also teaches the school’s sustainable resources (a.k.a. agriculture) classes with Toth. Approval of the plan was unanimous, and trustee Louise Piper was appointed to help the trio to pursue the feasibility of the idea further with other community partners. While approval has been swift, students won’t likely be getting their shovels into the soil until September at the earliest since a local farmer who has been maintaining the property still has a crop growing on it. See SARDIS AG, page 7

Cornelia Naylor/TIMES

Sardis secondary teachers Joe Massie and Tania Toth show off a sample of the crop students are growing in the school’s greenhouse. On Tuesday, the board of education approved a plan by Massie and Toth to partner with UFV and expand their program onto a five-acre plot of school district-owned land on Richardson Road.

he Chilliwack District Parent Advisory Council (DPAC) blasted Chilliwack school trustees this week for their conduct during the last board of education meeting of the year Tuesday. In an e-mail to trustees Wednesday, DPAC president Kirsten Brandreth said she was “extremely disappointed” at how the meeting ended. She lambasted trustees for not voting to extend the meeting long enough to complete the agenda or allow for public participation. She also criticized some trustees for their conduct during the rest of the year, saying their behaviour toward fellow trustees was often disrespectful. “It has been clear this past year who likes someone and who doesn’t,” she wrote. “Learn to get along, people, or at least respect what you are all saying. You’d be surprised that some of you have decent ideas.” Although Brandreth, going into her fourth year as DPAC president, didn’t point fingers at specific trustees, she levelled scathing criticism at those she felt didn’t pull their weight in the district this year. “Some of you seem to be doing the bare minimum in serving our community as an elected and paid trustee,” she said. “Here you give yourselves raises this year, yet you seem to be attending less and less functions See DPAC, page 7

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