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Taking it to the top Student who is upset over cuts to spare blocks starts petition and appeals to school board By Cayley Dobie
cdobie@newwestrecord.ca
More than 1,300 people have signed an online petition urging New Westminster Secondary School administration to reconsider its decision to make it mandatory for Grade 12 students to take a full course load next year. Last week, Grade 11 students received their 2018/19 course selection forms.To their surprise, the forms indicated that students going into Grade 12 next year would be required to take a full eight courses in order to graduate, including English 12, Graduation Transitions Planning, three Grade 12-level courses and three electives. “The principal never told us about it. Our parents were never emailed; no notice was given about this,” Kinsale Philip told the Record. Philip is the quarterback for the Hyacks football team, and next year, he’d planned on taking the required math course and English 12 in the first semester, leaving him lots of time to focus on football. His goal was to have everything wrapped up by the end of first semester, making him
SPEAKING UP FOR STUDENTS: Kinsale Philip has started a petition calling on administration at New Westminster Secondary School to reverse its decision to make it mandatory for Grade 12 students to take a full course load in their final year of high school. PHOTO JENNIFER GAUTHIER
available for early admission to Canadian universities. “I’ll definitely have to stay until June unless I was able to dedicate a lot of time to just doing online courses, and that’s just a whole lot of work for first semester when we have football season, when we have practice
every single day after school and pressure to perform on Fridays,” he said. “It will definitely affect me in a large way.” The change also means a lot of students will be force to take electives they aren’t interested in just to fill their schedules, Philip said.
“We’re about to be 18, and we’re having to take eight courses in a year and not focus on our future. I think that kind of goes against what apprenticeship programs are trying to do. I think it goes against university admittance and making that easier. It’s Continued on page 6
Canada Games Pool sparked levy plan By Theresa McManus
tmcmanus@newwestrecord.ca
A proposed one per cent capital levy may appear to have come out of left field to taxpayers, but it’s something the city has been pondering for some time in city hall as a way of addressing New West’s
aging infrastructure. At its Jan. 8 council meeting, council directed staff to implement an annual one per cent capital levy, with the funding helping to address the challenge of replacing infrastructure, buildings and equipment and investing in new services and infrastructure to meet
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the needs of a growing community.The concept came forward as part of consideration of the city’s draft 2018 to 2022 financial plan, which is proposing a 2.95 per cent property tax increase this year. Mayor Jonathan Cote said the issue of a capital levy arose out of discussions about the finding
a way to fund the replacement of Canada Games Pool and other capital projects that will be required in the city. “Staff did present an option that we defer the capital levy until next year, but I actually think council is showing some leadership – if we want to be out there in
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the community saying we support the redevelopment of the Canada Games Pool or other projects, like the renovation of the library or the new animal shelter, we have to be able to demonstrate and be able to be upfront and talk to the Continued on page 3
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