LangleyAdvance
Family says farewell pg A7
Your community newspaper since 1931
Friday, February 25, 2011
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Audited circulation: 41,100 – 36 pages
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Seahawk lands at Stafford
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Thursday was a much more interesting school day than usual for Kamren Loof-Cote. The 11-year-old arrived at H.D. Stafford Middle School in a stretch limousine, and sitting beside him and his friends was Marcus Trufant, an National Football League star who recorded 63 tackles and scored a defensive touchdown for the Seattle Seahawks last season. Kamren won some signed NFL merchandise for his family, a limousine ride to school, and a show-and-tell to remember by entering a national online sweepstakes. He joined Trufant for a special assembly at the school.
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Budget targets shortfall
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are impacted.” Langley, but it remains an She said the current shortfall important source of revenue. necessitating the cuts resulted “This is one of the legs that from a combination of overspend- holds the table up,” Ross said. ing by the district and underThe district must submit a funding by the provinbudget to the ministry cial government. this month, and after “The more quickly the ministry releases we pay off the deficit,” its funding estimates, by Heather Colpitts she added, “the more local districts will be hcolpitts@langleyadvance.com quickly we can start required to tweak final A $156.4 million public school to build a more stable figures in April. budget was approved at Langley future.” The Langley school board’s special Feb. 22 Tr. Rod Ross noted Teachers’ Association meeting. that $5.9 million of the called on the local It includes more than $3.75 mil- budget is earmarked for board to create a lion in cuts towards the teachers on call “needs-based budget” Alison McVeigh district’s four-year plan (substitutes), to show the provincial Langley school trustee to pay down a $13.5and that if the government that the million deficit. district could district can’t provide The meeting was curtail that, it quality education withheld Tuesday to allow would help in clearing up out more funding. time for public input the financial picture. “The board has a political role while still meeting He added that the and a duty to the community to COMMENT Ministry of Education district would be worse advocate for the needs of all studeadlines. dents,” president Susan Fonseca ONLINE off if it didn’t have the “I received no quesInternational Student said at the board’s Feb. 15 meettions back from anybody, the Program, which brings in about ing. public or anybody,” commented $5.7 million annually. The LTA also expressed consecretary-treasurer Dave Green. The district had budgeted for cern that making deeper cuts Trustees praised staff’s efforts about 500 international students, than necessary to clear up the on the budget. but the program attracted fewer finances penalizes current stuTrustee Alison McVeigh than forecast. dents. acknowledged the difficulty of International turmoil and “Sending a needs-based budget creating the budget with its milto the ministry at this time would the economic downtown have lions of dollars in cuts, “because send a strong message,” Fonseca impacted the number of interwe all know that people’s careers national students coming to added. www.langleyadvance.com
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Langley schools’ budget includes nearly $4 million in cuts towards paying off a $13.5 million shortfall.
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Police eye unusual donation A dead person’s remains, in an urn and accompanying baggie, have turned up at a local thrift store. by Matthew Claxton mclaxton@langleyadvance.com
Langley RCMP are looking for the owner of an unusual piece of lost or stolen property: an urn and accompanying ashes. The urn turned up on Feb. 23 at the Value Village in Langley City, dropped off as an anonymous donation, said Cpl. Holly Marks, spokesperson for the Langley Mounties. The urn, with an extra bag of ashes, had no name, dates, identifying marks or serial numbers on it, Marks said. Police aren’t certain whose remains are inside, and they don’t know if it was stolen or simply donated for unknown reasons. Marks noted that it is not a typical donation. Anyone looking for an urn and ashes can call the Langley RCMP at 604-532-3200. This is not the first time an odd donation has come to police attention. In 2010 police had to call in the bomb squad to defuse a live Second World War hand grenade that had been found in a box of veteran’s gear that was given to the Langley City branch of the Royal Canadian Legion. A human skull also turned up in a box of items given to a local thrift store several years ago.