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WV school district hopes to go wireless Benjamin Alldritt
balldritt@nsnews.com
WEST Vancouver school district hopes to have wireless Internet access available in every school by this time next year. On Tuesday, the district issued a request for proposals to get a sense of what the project might cost. “We have a pretty strong digital literacy agenda in the school district and have now for a couple of years,” said deputy superintendent Chris Kennedy. “We’ve invested in hardware: computer workstations for all teachers and a number of our parent groups have done a lot with laptop carts. For the next phase, we spent a fair bit of resources creating a learning portal. That’s all up and running, Inside 45. Virtual classrooms for teachers, internal places for schools and teachers to have workspaces.” The next piece of infrastructure, said Kennedy, is wireless Internet access that enables teachers and students to use the web and the district portal using their own wireless devices. “We see it like you have to invest in painting your schools and fixing your roofs, and you have to invest in digital infrastructure as well,” said Kennedy. “The RFP (request for proposals) out there now is to get a costing as to what that would be. The speed at which we go depends on the cost.” See Call page 5
What goes down. . . .
NEWS photo Mike Wakefield
A pile-driving crew used a large crane Friday morning to raise the former Esso fuel barge that sank in Fisherman’s Cove during Wednesday night’s windstorm. See story page 5.
Fromme parents sue school trustees Benjamin Alldritt
balldritt@nsnews.com
PARENTS of students attending Fromme elementary are suing North Vancouver’s school trustees over their decision to close the school this June. The Fromme School Society filed a petition in the Supreme Court of B.C. on Thursday. The petition asks the court for an injunction that would prevent the school district from closing the school or disposing of the building through sale or lease, and for the
Court petition seeks injunction and quashing of school closure bylaw
original school closure bylaw to be quashed. North Vancouver school trustees voted 4-3 on April 27 to shutter Fromme. The decision, made at an emotionally charged board of education meeting, followed nearly three months of study and consultation, a process the district called Restructuring 2010. It is this process the Fromme parents take issue with. Specifically, wrote the petitioners, “the respondent has breached
the public consultation process mandated by ministerial order . . . by failing to conduct public consultation for consideration of future enrolment growth in the district of persons of less than school age and adults, as required by section 5(b) of the ministerial order.” The petition alleges that school trustees failed to “conduct public consultation of possible ‘alternative community use’ for all or part of Fromme, as required by section 5(c) of the ministerial order.” The Fromme School Society also wrote that the district “breached the terms of the respondent’s Policy 610-Closure of See PAC page 5