Royal City Record November 28 2014

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N E W

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2014

W E S T M I N S T E R

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Eat up for the kids

Santa will be making a guest appearance at the upcoming Christmas for Kids toy drive. The eighth annual event is taking place on Wednesday, Dec. 3 from 7 to 10 a.m. at the Paddlewheeler Pub in River Market. Guests who bring a toy donation can start their day with a free pancake breakfast. “We welcome donations of toys, games, books, puzzles and things for the teenagers,” said Marjorie Staal, executive director of New Westminster Family Place. “Cash donations are accepted.” The donations will be divvied up between the Lower Mainland Purpose Society, which will provide gifts for teens, and New Westminster Family Place, which will give toys to youngsters. “We give them out at our wonderful Christmas party,” Staal said. “Santa comes and each child that is registered gets a little gift.” Community members are invited to bring a new, unwrapped gift valued at $10 or more. The event will be attended by New Westminster’s police and fire chief and other local personalities. Breakfast includes pancakes, sausages, eggs, fresh fruit, juice and coffee. Tax receipts will be available for anyone making a donation of $25 or more. – Theresa McManus

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Cooking up Christmas: Marjorie Staal, executive director of New Westminster Family Place, joins Dawn Embree, executive director of the Purpose Society, and Janet Lucarino, manager of the Paddlewheeler, in getting ready for a fundraising pancake breakfast at the Paddlewheeler Pub on Wednesday, Dec. 3. The Christmas for Kids toy drive helps out Family Place and the Purpose Society.

More staff coming to New West classrooms BY NIKI HOPE REPORTER

nhope@royalcityrecord.com

The New Westminster School District is injecting more than $1.8 million worth of additional staff into classrooms this fall with a chunk of the funds coming as a result of the hard-fought teachers’ negotiations. Superintendent John Gaiptman and New Westminster Teachers’ Union president Grant Osborne updated the board on the news, which comes after years of slash-

ing jobs to meet budget demands. “$1.8 million sounds like a lot, but when you start putting it into staffing it disappears pretty quick,” Osborne said. In an interview with The Record, Osborne said, “God, it doesn’t come close to how much we are underfunded by. “It’s amazing how much you can throw at the system, and it doesn’t even make a blip,” he added. The district found almost $1 million from its operating budget, Gaiptman told

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The Record. The remainder, approximately $835,000, came from the learning improvement fund, about $175,000 of which came as a result of the British Columbia Teachers’ Union contract. The district had already established its “basic” staffing before it flushed the extra funds into the system to hire 15 full-time teaching positions and nine education assistants. “And that’s the key; we didn’t use it for basic staffing,” Gaiptman explained. “We

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did our basic staffing and then used it, as I think it needs to be used, to review the classes to make sure that our classes are well situated for optimum learning.” Gaiptman and Osborne met with each other and district staff to determine the best use of the funds. The district hired one new education assistant at Connaught Heights, F.W. Howay, Qayqayt, Richard McBride and Queen Elizabeth elementaries, as well as ◗Budget Page 8

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