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Kinsmen get to work on raising playground funds
Queen of Bingo takes the stage:
P. 4
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
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Students return to the classroom Dan Ebenal THE CHRONICLE
The long summer is finally drawing to a close for Ladysmith students. Students in Ladysmith will head back to class on Tuesday, joining their counterparts across the province. Teachers and support staff were back in school Monday, preparing the facilities and curriculum for the coming year. Kim Needham, a Grade 6 teacher at Ladysmith Intermediate, has missed being away from her class for the first three weeks of the school year. “September’s just an exciting time, all the new kids coming in and getting to see the kids you had last year,” she said. “Absolutely, I enjoy my summer but I love getting back to it. That’s why we’re here, right, we like to be with the kids and we want to know how they did in the summer and what they’ve been up to.” Up the road at Ladysmith Secondary, there’s a similar feeling of relief among the teachers. “I get a lot of inspiration from my students and try and give them opportunities they wouldn’t have otherwise,” said Durwin Pye, who teaches math, science and computer science. “Students that are in my Grade 12 classes this year are ones that I’ve taught [Grades] 8 through 12 so it’s getting very interesting that way. I just love seeing kids learn things and explore ideas.” Elementary students will have a full day of classes on Tues-
Angela Blosky prepares her classroom for her Grade 1 and 2 students at Ladysmith Primary School. day, except for kindergarten students who will start the year with the normal gradual entry. At Ladysmith Secondary, students in Grade 9-12 will start class at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday and finish up at 11:30 a.m. Grade 7 and 8 students will have a first day stretching from 12:15 to 3 p.m. “They usually bring the secondary students in in a couple of groups so that 7s and 8s have a separate time to come into the school and get acclimatized,” said School District 68 spokesperson Donna Reimer. “It will be a few hours for sec-
ondary students on Tuesday, a major influx of students, with and then Wednesday would be enrolment jumping to 840 from full classes for everybody but about 580 last year. Grade 7 kindergarten.” English students from the nowThe school calendar will like- closed Davis Road Elemenly see a few more changes, with tary along with Grade 7s from the Pro-D day set for Sept. 29 in Ladysmith Intermediate will be the district being postponed for going to Ladysmith Secondary later in the year. this year, along with about 200 “There will be some small students from Cedar Secondary, adjustments to the calendar, which was closed at the end of primarily to balance the two June. A group of Cedar parents semesters because we’ve lost are renting a bus to transport three weeks out of the first se- their children to Ladysmith. mester so we want to balance “A group of parents in Cedar the two semesters,” said Re- have taken it upon themselves imer. to get a bus together,” said parLadysmith Secondary will see ent Steve Rae. “It will be mak-
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ing stops through Cinnabar and Cedar at a cost to parents, and to me, that’s sickening.” He said it will cost parents between $30 and $40 a week to transport their children on the bus which seats about 50. “The bus is full; there’s a waiting list,” he said. B.C. Teachers’ Federation members voted 86 per cent in favour of a six-year agreement reached with the help of mediator Vince Ready. It gives the province’s 40,000 teachers a raise of 7.25 per cent over six years, improvements to benefits and a fund to hire new teachers each year. “Teachers are going to be happy to be back in the classroom. I think that we’re all pleased that the dispute is over,” said Nanaimo and District Teachers Association president Mike Ball. “I think the concern is that class size and class composition still hasn’t been dealt with.” He said the issue that made the deal palatable for teachers was the removal of the contentious Article E80, which stripped away victories won by teachers on class size and composition in recent court decisions. “It protected the court case,” is what Ball saw as the major positive to come out of the new deal. The matter will be back before the courts next month with the government appealing the previous court decisions. He said while teachers are not overjoyed with the deal, they realized it was probably the best they were going to get. See Teachers Page 5
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