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City rejects request for tree removal NEWS 5
Students discuss liaison officers BUSINESS 15
New store has ‘Found’ items THURSDAY JANUARY 21, 2021 LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS
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HOUSE FIRE: Flames were shooting out of the roof and windows when New Westminster firefighters arrived at this Wilson Street house about 3 a.m. on Monday. The house, which had been abandoned, will be demolished and searched to ensure it was unoccupied at the time of the fire. PHOTO RYAN STELTING
‘Stressed-out’ teachers want masks mandated Julie MacLellan jmaclellan@newwestrecord.ca
Teachers’ union presidents in the Fraser Health region are doubling down on their request for a mask mandate in local schools. That’s the word from SarahWethered, president of the NewWestminsterTeachers’ Union, af-
ter she and fellow union local presidents met with Dr. Ariella Zbar, medical health officer for Fraser Health, on Jan. 15. The B.C.Teachers’ Federation has been lobbying for new protocols to help make the region’s schools safer in the face of COVID-19. Union local presidents in Fraser Health
– the region that stretches from Burnaby to Boston Bar, including NewWestminster – have been leading the charge because of high case numbers and high numbers of school exposures in the region. Wethered said teachers didn’t come out of the meeting with any promises of immediate changes in
policy, but she characterized the meeting with Zbar as “better than OK.” She was pleased Zbar wanted to know what’s top of mind for teachers right now – a questionWethered has no trouble answering. “Teachers are stressed. This new variant is increasing pressure on us. We have low job satisfac-
tion right now, and we’re stressed out,” she said. Wethered said the pandemic is taking a toll on teachers on many fronts, including the havoc it’s causing with trying to find teachers on call. Many on-call teachers are older or retired, she noted, and many of them have decided not to work right
now because they’re concerned for their own health. That means classroom teachers are pulled off their prep time to cover for absent colleagues, and nonclassroom teachers – such as counsellors and teacher-librarians – are also standing in when needed. Continued on page 3
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