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NEWS GAZETTE
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NEWS: Pro-life protesters back on vigil at busy View Royal intersection /A7 SPORTS: Belmont alumni gearing for college volleyball provincials /A23
Friday, February 27, 2015
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Hefty raise for School District 62 trustees Pay rate lower than similar-sized districts Mike Davies News Gazette staff
Sooke School District trustees tasked with setting their own pay have voted to give themselves a significant raise. A proposal to boost their pay by 45 per cent to $14,500 per year, beginning in September, passed easily at Tuesday night’s public board meeting at the district offices. Vice-chair Bob Phillips, tasked with researching and proposing board remuneration shortly after the board was sworn in last December, came to the table well prepared to defend his numbers. Phillips and secretary treasurer Harold Cull went through the past 25 years of SD62 budgets, looked at the trustee pay for every school board in the province and incorporated those facets into a proposal to raise the amount from the current $10,000, which was set back in 2007. The rate would increase to $15,000 as of July 2016. “When we decided to put the data together, Harold and I asked a couple of questions of ourselves,” Phillips told the board. “I guess the first one was (asking) what a trustee does.” He compared the role of a school board with that of a municipal government, in that they operate a segment of society at a local level, and highlighted the importance of that role. PlEASE SEE: School trustee, Page A8
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Keerstin Arden auditions her dance moves for the Royal Bay Advanced Dance Academy for the 2015-2016 school year. Auditions for more than 40 dancers were held at Dunsmuir middle school last week.
Think you can dance? Try Royal Bay Academy hopefuls show their dance chops ahead of new school year in Colwood Arnold Lim News Gazette staff
Amid a flurry of spins and jumps, three judges write feverishly on pads of paper. What to the onlooker appears as a pain-
fully flexible stretch leads to a controlled spin, then to leaping splits and turns in the air. Some dancers smile, others are focused, others still have a look of concentration befitting final exams. For some it almost is, as 43 students audition at Dunsmuir middle school for a spot in next year’s advanced dance academy. “It’s an outlet, like so many other things,” said Belmont dance instructor Leanne Harrington. “Some find football is their niche, or for some students the arts is their niche. They
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need something to keep them engaged. Dance class, for (some) students I see as their vehicle of expression.” Ironically, Belmont’s established dance academy, featuring a mix of jazz, tap, ballet, modern, contemporary and hip hop stylings, shifts to Royal Bay secondary when the two new high schools open next fall, and these auditions serve as the first for the program. PlEASE SEE: Arts academy, Page A8
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