Tuesday June 24, 2014 (Vol. 39 No. 50)
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Painting with pride: Artist Elizabeth Hollick and White Rock Players Club volunteer Tom Saunders teamed up to make sure a new mural for the wall of the Coast Capital Playhouse has historical resonance. i see page 11
Tactical-squad standoff at neighbouring house, as police advise no danger to general public
Call for help leads police to homicide Sarah Massah Staff Reporter
Sarah Massah photo
Officers with the RCMP’s Emergency Response Team prepare to enter a home neighbouring a rancher where a man was shot to death last week.
A South Surrey neighbourhood was behind police tape Friday, after a phone call for assistance that morning led officers to the scene of a murder. At least nine marked police vehicles and an ambulance could be seen after Surrey RCMP got a call for help shortly after 10 a.m. from inside a house in the 2500-block of 156 Street. Monday morning, IHIT confirmed the victim as 52-yearold Timothy Szabolcsi, who had recently appeared on Timothy Szabolcsi victim popular U.S. television show, Dr. Phil, for an episode entitled “Did she marry an impostor?” The RCMP’s Intergrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) and emergency response team searched the neighbourhood, eventually swarming a house neighbouring the one in which Szabolcsi’s body was found, just south of Sunnyside Park. IHIT spokesman Sgt. Bari Emam told Peace Arch News at the scene i see page 4
Layoffs loom as not all of 135 lost full-time positions are through attrition and fewer hours
School district cuts staff to help balance budget Sheila Reynolds Black Press
The Surrey School District is reducing staffing by 135 full-time positions to help shave $9 million from the operating budget for the next school year. And while most of those jobs are expected to come largely through attrition, some layoffs loom. In all, there will be about 49 fewer teachers, 56 fewer education assistants, 27 fewer support staff members such as clerical and maintenance workers and three fewer principals and other professional staff for 201415.
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Of those, the equivalent of about now,” he said. 30 positions will be layoffs and cuts In addition to staff reductions, to clerical and education assistant the district is using unspent conhours, as well as fewer district helptingency funds from the current ing teachers, said trustee Terry Allen, year to help balance the $588.5-milchair of the budget committee. lion budget, in an effort to make The rest of the reduced staff are cutbacks that would have the least expected to retire or leave volundirect impact on classrooms. tarily, but will not be replaced. “Despite continuous increases in With 49 departing teachers not employee benefits and utility costs, Terry Allen replaced, Allen said, schools will as well as absorbing carbon offsets,” trustee have to adhere even more strictly to Allen said, “our board maintains the class-size restrictions. most efficiently run district in the “Where there was a certain amount of province and one of the top three districts in leeway before, there will be very little leeway the proportion of its operating budget spent
directly to support the classroom. “But really, we don’t have anything that doesn’t have an impact on the classroom.” Nearly 90 per cent of the budget pays for instructional and classroom support, while the rest goes to district administration, maintenance and transportation. Allen said some of the choices trustees had to make, especially those involving employees, are heartbreaking. “It’s very difficult to make these decisions and it’s getting harder every year.” While $572 million will come from the province, $16 million of the 2014-’15 budget i see page 2