- Dave Mason puts
10-unit senior citizens

=

Ce
pr

struction of the project began Monday. The complex is

being built or the Sockets Benevolent Society by

— Cashews Photo by Chery! Cotderbonk

Castlegar Credit Union
reports $50,000 loss

By RON NORMAN
Editor

Castlegar Savings Credit Union reported a $52,250 loss
in 1985, a year chairman Russell Leamy called “a difficult
period for all.”

The loss compares to a $46,450 profit in 1984.

Leamy told 155 members and 15 guests at the credit
union's annua! general meeting We-inesday that economic
uncertainty and high levels of unemployment “in Canada, in
British Columbia, and especially in the West Kootenay”
played a part in the credit union’s 1986 financial

“We have been called upon to assist our members who
face an increasing number of problems in undertaking sound
financial! planning and in meeting their financial commit-
ments,” Leamy said. é

“In providing this aid, your directors, managers and
staff have worked very hard to keep abreast of the times
while remembering that we are a credit union, not just a
banking institution,” Leamy added.

That sentiment was echoed by Norm New, chairman of
the credit union's credit committee,

“We are not only concerned about the quality of loans in
our portfolio, we are concerned with the individual needs
and financial well-being of our membership,” New said.

The credit union reported a huge jump in losses on
delinquent loans — from just over $60,000 in 1984 to
$252,000 last year.

General manager Harold Webber said the credit union
has “at least a dozen foreclosures on the go,” in addition to
five bankruptcies.

“And this was even before the Cominco layoffs,” he
added.

Leamy called the delinquent loans “a foreseeable, yet
difficult aspect of the economy.”

He pointed out that while the credit union has tried to
responsibly meet the borrowing needs of its members, “we

lege needs space

Funding announced by the minister of education will

said the junior secondary school is not a high
the college at this time and the college is
looking at other options. He did not say what those options

is looking for a 20,000 square foot
to replace its 14,000 square foot rented facility in the

the college is expected to receive its

i.
In his report to the board Schatz said the college has
information about the budget and work is
expenditure plans for the coming year.

also to control actions and

As well, Leamy reported that deposits jumped 4.6 per
cont toe total of $31 million, which allowed the credit union
to reduce funds it borrowed from the B.C. Central Credit
Union.

Leamy also
opened in 1985 and at

Leamy also told mem!
steading’ operating costs by reducing the cost of
money from $109,000 in 1964 to just $26,000 in
1985 — a $83,00 saving.

“The result of our careful costcontrol planning was that
we would have achieved a net profit of $180,000 were it not
for the loan q' prob
said.

He said the credit union will not offer a dividend this
year in order to maintain its reserves. -

Under the Credit Union Act, a credit union must have
10 per cent of its shares and deposits in liquid form.

“We were in excess of that requirement
1985,” Leamy said. “Maintaining a strong capital base is the
key to our ability to provide service to our members, and
this factor has been duly taken into account in our decision
regarding dividends for this year.”

On a brighter note, Leamy outlined plans for a
Mastercard service at the credit union. Rather than creating
credit, the credit union's Mastercard will deduct the amount
of any purchase from the user's chequing account.

General manager Webber noted that the Mastercard
Will provide access to 5,000 automated teller machines
throughout North America.

Meanwhile, Leamy touched on a number of other
positive moves the credit union made in 1985 including
purchasing the property behind the Castlegar office along
1Tth Street, reaching to the Safeway building.

“The purchase was made to allow for possible future

and ble us to ensure orderly development of

necessary to ensure that the ongoing strength of our credit
union was not jeopardized.”
Leamy added that the credit union will continue to work
closely with b financial ps.
Meanwhile, Leamy noted that total loans to members
increased to a record $28.1 million. In 1985, the credit union
loaned $7.42 million — up from the $6.1 million it loaned in

this property,” Leamy said.

He added the credit union intends to sell parcels of the
property to recover its costs and retain what is necessary for
credit union use.

He also pointed out that the Casi

Morcn23,1996 (Castlegar News 1s

Briefly

U.S. explodes nuclear weapon

LAS VEGAS, NEV. (REUTER) — te an urgent
from congressmen to eall it off, the United States on
Saturday detonated its first nuclear device since the Soviet

provide the college with about $85,000 more for non-salary
inflation costs — reflecting a one per cent increase in its
sbudget. The college will also receive an additional $160,000
‘a8 a multi-campus factor which will be added to the college's
operating budget. The college will also get $80,000 to
continue funding the Enterprise Development Centre.

But even with these adjustments, the college is still
having difficulty projecting a balanced budget for next year,
Schatz said.

Current projections show a deficit of $225,000 for the
planned year but the college is still trying to come up with
expense plan that will meet the budget.

In other news, plans are. being drawn up. for the
construction of a biology/chemistry/physics lab to allow the
Rosemont campus to offer all college prepartory science
offerings.

Rosemont director Bruce Meldrum also reported that
the last seven-month hairdressing class graduated March 14.
The new program is 11 months long and the college will have
only two classes, one beginning in April and the other in

‘tober.

The program now can only accommodate 36 students a
year as opposed to 54 under the old system, said Meldrum.
He said a major advantage for students is they will no
longer have to travel to Vancouver for final examinations at

the end of their

shortened by six months.

Spending decision
irks board members

budget to spend in another
area.”

Trustee Tony Guglielmi
was annoyed that the build-

_Aoest't happen again in the

future.”
But Trustee Doreen Sme-
cher, chairman of the build-

ings P
without input from the other
trustees.

“The committee has gone
ahead and spent the money
without trustees’ discussion,”
he said. “I don't want to be
voting to spend money after
it’s been spent.

Trustee Ed Conroy voted
in favor of spending the
money from the operating
budget, but didn’t like it.

iibeilfl
i
ral

spent “prematurely.”
“It should have come
fore the board. I hope this

i
1

ings said waiting
for the once-a-month board
meetings to get approval to
spend money for projects
such as the SHSS renova-
tions could delay the proj-
ects.

The changes to the work-
ing drawings involve a real-
ignment of a fan room from
between a weight lifting
room and a storage room to

|. pay architect's fees for re-

vising the dra

“It gives us a lot of free-
dom as to further expansion,”
Smecher said of the revi-
sions.

Humphries
principal
year than in

he said.

Enrolment drops

By CasNews Staff
Enrolment in the

district declined to 2,319 students as

of Feb. 28, 68 fewer students than

‘However, Wayling said Stanley _
ies secondary school

though that too could be attributed
to the poor employment situation,

Wayling added that he expects a
further decline because of the re-
cent Cominco layoffs in Trail.

He guessed that the rate of
decline this year may be as much as
6O per cent greater than last year.

previous years,” al-

The app: iceship is also

By CasNews Staff

A pot of soup left to burn
on a stove Thursday was
stopped from causing serious
damage to a house in the
3700-block 5th Avenue when
an alert neighbor phoned the
Castlegar fire department
after hearing a smoke alarm
go off in the house.

“The smoke alarm saved
the house,” fire chief Bob
Mami said Friday.

Mann said the owner of the
house went downtown with-

After removing the burned
soup, firemen had to “extract
the smoke from the house,”
Mann said.

Mann said there is no esti-
mate of the damage. Insur-
ance adjusters were expec-
ted to inspect the house
Friday afternoon.

Court news

1984.

Freedomites weaker

MATSQUI (CP) — Tina
Zmaeff and Mary Braun, at
the end of their sixth week of
a hunger strike in Matsqui
Correctional Institute, are
growing weaker but are no
hearer to freedom they han-

ger for.

“The flesh is ‘palling away
from the bones on their face;
their cheeks are sinking in,”
said Marilyn Smoch, a friend
of the two Sons of Freedom
women who has maintained
regular contact since they

fire. No one was hurt and the

PERRA VISITS HONG KONG

Trip good experience

By CasNews Staff

Selkirk College principal
Leo Perra and chairman Jack
Colbert recently returned
from an education trip to
Hong Kong and Taiwan. The
delegation included 18 repre-
sentatives from British Col-
umbia and Eastern Canada.

The trip, March 5-18, in-
cluded making contacts with
key people in Hong Kong and
Taiwan for recruiting inter-

national students to Selkirk
College.

In Hong Kong, the college
was represented at an inter-
national education fair.

Perra said in a report to
the board that as a “learning

British Columbia's involve-
ment in the International
Education Fair are being de-
veloped and recommenda-
tions will be forwarded to the
Ministry of Education.
“With adequate prepara-

Kong representative. He will
advise students of oppor-
tunities at Selkirk . tion and good visual mater-
The CP Air office in Taiw- ials, the provincial colleges
~ should be able to attract a
greater share of the students
seeking overseas education
opportunities,” he said.

Proposals include:

system;

In’ Castlegar _ provincial
court this week James Mar.
shall pleaded guilty to failing
to provide a breath sample
and was fined $300.

. 28 e

Polly Tarasoff was fined
$300 for driving with a blood.
alcohol count over .08.

. ee

Barry Bonham was given a
suspended sentence and
placed on probation for nine

months for breaking and en-

tering.

program;
lab;

© expanding
equipment at Rosemont;

department.

© a pilot project for a capital asset

SELKIRK
SUBMITS
PROPOSALS

By CasNews Staff
Selkirk College will be sending more than a dozen
proposals to the Ministry of Education for consideration
under the Excellence in Education fund.

He noted that there are still more proposals to come

There is $80 million available in the fund.

‘The proposed cost for the pilot projert for the Capital
Asset Management System is $24,840.

In its proposal, the college explains that over the
past five years, a major deficiency regarding institutions’
abilities to manage and control the physical inventory of
their capital assets has been identified.

Selkirk College says it is no exception and for the
past five years external audit reports have pointed to the
need to establish such a system for the college. But the
high level of staff required to maintain such a system,
coupled with reduced funding for staff and supplies, has
Prevented the college from setting up such a system.

The college says it has identified a computerized

¢ an international education office;

hiring of a Canadian Jobs Strategy officer;

@ developing a program for displaced workers;

© a program to train mechanics in computer
i installed in vehicles;

e replacing typewriters in the Office Administration

‘e replacing equipment in the physics and chemistry
the computer assisted drafting

@ intrusion alarm system training program;
© updating equipment in the audio visual aids

In addition, a proposal for a stone masonry training
course in Salmo will also be included.

College principal Leo Perra told board members at a
meeting Tuesday night most of the proposals will cost of the opportunities available in the international
between $25,000 and $60,000. marketplace.

asset system which would eliminate more of
‘the requirements for heavy staff involvement in
maintaining an asset system.

“We believe that if such a system were implemented,
much better control of physical assets could be achieved,
with a relatively small commitment of manual effort,”
says the college.

The college is proposing that Selkirk be used as a
testing and development for this concept, which if

could then be impl.

The college's proposal for an international education
office is estimated to cost $100,000 a year to operate. The
college is asking that the government contribute 75 per
cont of the cost in the first year of operation, 50 per cent
in the second year and 25 per cent in the third year.

The role of the office would be to seek out new
opportunities for marketing international education

The college would hire an individual to assess some

FINANCIER DIES

VOGHERA, ITALY (AP) — Michele Sindona, the
world financier who once advised the. Vatican and who
was blamed for causing the biggest U.S. bank failure
in history, died Saturday, two days after swallowing
cyanide in his Italian prison cell.

A lawyer for Sindona’s family, Oreste Dominioni,
said Sindona had been poisoned, but that investigators
would have to find out who the killer is.

The 65-year-old Sicilian, sentenced to life in prison
on Tuesday, collapsed in his. prison cell during
breakfast Thursday and lapsed/into a coma. After he
was in hospital, doctors announced he had ingested
cyanide.

COMPANY BANKRUPT

TORONTO (CP) — Unitours (Canada) Ltd., one of
Canada's biggest package tour operators, has filed a
bankruptcy proposal, the Ontario Consumer and
Commercial Relations Ministry says.

Ministry spokesman Linda O'Leary said the
proposal involves the appointment of Spicer MacGilli-
vray as trustee under the Bankruptcy Act.

On learning of the move, provincial registrar
Douglas Caven asked Unitours to surrender its
rregistration as a tour wholesaler and retailer, O'Leary
said.

The failure is believed to be the biggest of its kind
since the 1982 collapse of Skylark Holidays Ltd. and
Sunflight Vacations Ltd., Canada's largest package
tour agencies at the time.

FOUR DIE IN FIRE

BRIGUS, NFLD. (CP) — Four people were killed
and a child is in hospital after a house fire early
Saturday morning.

‘The only survivor was a young boy who jumped
from a second-storey window after trying to wake his
parents. He is being treated for smoke inhalation and
cuts and bruises.

The cause of the outbreak was not known, but
officials say it may have been started in the kitchen.

When firefighters arrived at the Conception Bay
home, smoke was pouring out of the house but no
flames were visible.

WEALTH RECOVERED

MANILA (AP) — The Philippines government
announced Saturday it recovered some of “hidden
wealth” of deposed president Ferdinand Marcos. The
wealth totals the equivalent of about $42 million
Canadian worth of stock in a private communications
company controlled by the former president and his
associates.

“This is definitely a breakthrough,” said Mary
Concepcion Bautista.

She is a member of the Commission on Good
Government, named by President Corazon Aquino to
find ways to recover the equivalent of up to $14
billion Canadian in government funds Marcos and his
associates are said to have plundered during his
20-year rule.

Bautista told a news conference the shares of
stock, 40 per cent of Philippine Communications
Satellite Inc., were voluntarily turned over Friday by
the corporation's board of directors.

CABINET MEETS

PARIS (REUTER) — France's new right-wing
cabinet held its first meeting Saturday under Socialist
President Francois *Mitterrand and announced it
would seek a vote of confidence from the National
Assembly next month.

An aide to Prime Minister Jacques Chirac told
reporters after the 25-minute meeting that the new
head of government would present his program to the
assembly on April 2.

The aide, Maurice Ulrich, also said Mitterrand
and Chirac had agreed during the session that the
government's priorities would be employment and
security. He gave no further details.

PROTESTER DIES

BALTIMORE (AP) — A retired U.S. army
reserve officer who set himself on fire near the White
House last month to protest Social Security benefits
has died, a hospital spokesman said Saturday.

Orland McCafferty, 57, of Lee's Summit, Mo., died
Friday in the Francis Scott Key Medical Centre's burn
unit, said spokesman Karen Beauregard.

McCafferty, who retired from the army reserve in
1979 with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, apparently
went to Washington to express his disappointment
with policies coneerning Social Security benefits for
servicemen, police said.

RCMP SEIZE MONEY

MONTREAL (CP) — The RCMP have seized $3
million that was found in the suitease of a
Montreal-area man who died of a heart attack on a
train near Mission three weeks ago.

The money, in $1 and $100 bills was discovered
March 3 in suitcases belonging to Kenneth Rankin, 58,
of suburban LaSalle. The police found the cash when
they answered a call from Via Rail officials about a
sick man aboard the train, the Journal de Montreal
reported Saturday.

Rankin died shortly after in Mission Memorial
Hospital.

B.C. Crown attorney Gregg Barnett said the
money was seized under Criminal Code provisions that
allow the police to intervene if they suspect the money
was obtained illegally.

Union ded a self-imposed test ban.

The underground blast, codenamed Glencoe, was

detonated at 8:15 a.m. PST after a 15-minute delay at the —

Yueea Flats test site in the Nevada desert.

The official Soviet news agency Tass immediately
denounced the test as a “new action” by
Washington but did not say whether Moscow would break
its self-imposed test ban.

The U.S. admini had no
and President Ronald Reagan made no mention of the test in
his weekly radio broadeast Saturday.

Jim Boyer, a spokesman for the Department of Energy
which oversees nuclear weapons tests, said from the Nevada
control centre that the device was exploded in a shaft about
610 metres deep and had a yield of between 20 and 150
kilotons. -

"S600 LONGS: <. . Darryl Hacheim checks out his
lungs with physiotherapist Margaret Pryce on special
teng'device in physiotherapy department in Castlegar

It was the first U.S. blast since Dec. 28 — and the first
since Moscow announced last week that it would continue an
eight-month-old test moratorium past its latest Mareh 31

extending it in December until the end of March.
But Reagan has rejected repeated appeals by Soviet
leader Mikhail Gorbachev to join in a moratorium, saying the
and credibility of the U.S. di de ded on
the test program and that the Soviets only offered to stop
after a big series of tests aimed at modernizing their bomb.
It was not clear whether Moscow would decide to
resume testing in response to Glencoe, or wait, as the latest
offer suggested, untjl the United States conducts its first
test after the end of the month,
‘MACHO GAME PLAN’
“I don't know what kind of a mache game plan we are
engaged in but I do know one thing — it's not going to lead
us closer to peace, its going tolead us closer to war,” Senator

and District Hospital. The departmént held an open
se di dk in leb i of i

therapy Week.

I Physio-

CosNews Photo by Phit Catderbank

‘PRETTY SCARY'

Quake rattles Interior

VANCOUVER (CP) — For
Betty Thomas of Kamloops in
south-central British Colum
bia, it began as she was
working in her kitchen.

“I was standing at my
cupboard and I had a four-cup
measuring cup in the sink
water, and all of a sudden it
started banging. I wondered
what was going on,” Thomas
said Friday.

“I looked and my keys
were all moving on the wall
and my chandelier was going
backwards and forwards. I
thought, ‘Holy mackerel, not
another one.’ ”

It was another one — an
earthquake measured at 5.7
on the Richter scale and cen.
tred more than 400 kilo
metres north of Kamloops,
which underwent a moderate
tremor last year.

The quake was also felt in
the West Kootenay.

Northeast of the earth-
quake's centre, newscaster
Sam Lindsay of CJDC radio

in Dawson Creek was strug-
gling to stay upright.

“Our building started
swaying, so much so that we
had to hang on to the walls to
stand up straight,” Lindsay
said.

“We've had phone calls
from area residents who had
things like fish tanks burst
and water sloshing around
Dawson Creek.”

In fact, the quake — at 3:56
p-m. PST, centred in the
sparsely populated moun-
tains about 110 kilometres
northeast of Prince George —
frightened people as far as
away as Edmonton and the
Okanagan Valley.

“I was sitting in my bath-
tub and heard a creaking
noise,” said Ted Callingwood,
who lives in an Edmonton
apartment tower.

“Then the bathwater was
going from side to side,
almost spilling on to the floor

. . I didn’t know what to do.
When you're naked on the

injuries or serious damage.

Close to the epicentre, in
the hamlet of Willow River,
the quake was “pretty
seary,” said Rosalind Grat
ton.

“The logs were just snap-
ping and cracking, just like
they sound when they are
breaking off in the wind.”

Water spilled out of her
fish tank and a TV set
crashed off its stand, but
Gratton said there was no
structural damage to her
home.

In the nearby settlement of
Upper Fraser, most of the
stock was shaken from
grocery-store shelves, and
people in the street Jurched
for things to hold on to. The
tremor caused a minor elec
trical fire in a school.

Workers dashed for the
stairs as office buildings
swayed in Prince George.

In Edmonton, 500 kilom
etres east of the epicentre,
some people in high-rise
apartments said they were
terrified; others complained
of feeling giddy after the
tremor.

“It’s enough to rattle your
bones,” said Edo Nyland, a
seismologist at the Univer.
sity of Alberta. “It was felt
quite violently on the sixth
floor of the Physics Building.
Chairs moved and one guy
felt seasick.”

Hennie Stibbe, who lives in
an Edmonton high-rise, said
she was terribly frightened.

“My cat started howling,
my plants were swinging and
lamps swaying,” Stibbe said.
“I'm moving out — I'm going
to San Francisco where it's
safe.”

The Pacifie Geoscience
Centre in Sidney, B.C., said
Friday's quake was about one
hundredth as powerful as the
one that devastated much of
Mexico City last year.

Canada ‘deserves share’

OTTAWA (CP) — Canada
wants a bigger share of the
U.S. lumber market and de
serves it because of the qual
ity of its products, Prime
Minister Brian Mulroney said
Friday.

the White House, that Can-
ada, in regard to the forest
industry and others... was a
fair trader,” Mulroney said
on his return to Parliament
following meetings with
President Ronald Reagan in
Wash this week.

His came
only a day after American
lawmakers were reassured
the U.S. administration will
get tough in bilateral lumber
negotiations which the U.S.
lumber industry hopes will
limit Canadian exports.

Mulroney told the Com
mons that Canada follows all
the rules and is trading fairly
with the U.S. in all areas,
particularly lumber, and ex
pects the United States to act
the same way.

“I told them in the Con
gress, in the Senate. and in

“We met all the objective
criteria of the GATT and any
bilateral requirements . . .
We wanted a bigger share of
their market and I felt that
the quality of our products
deserved it.”

The U.S. lumber industry
says Canada already has too
large a share of the US
lumber market — 31 per
cent.

The industry, backed by
several members of Con
gress, says Canadian stump-
age fees paid to cut trees on

Crown land are so low they
amount to an export subsidy.

Canada denies this, saying
the total cost of harvesting
trees here is equal to that in
the United States, particu
larly considering the higher
costs of getting loggers to
Canadian trees and then
transporting the trees to the
mills and the markets.

As well, they say the
Canadian lumber industry is
more efficient, the trees are
highly valued by American
homebuilders and the Amer
jean industry is suffering
from the high value of the
U.S. dollar.

Canadian and U.S. officials
have been negotiating an end
to the lumber dispute since
January but have made little
progress. Congress has about

a dozen pieces of legislation
before it that would curtail
Canadian lumber if the talks
fail

However, congressmen
emerged from a “timber
summit” with U.S. trade
representative Clayton Yeu
tter and others Thursday
saying they're satisfied the
administration has decided to
get tough with Canada in the
lumber talks.

Democratic Representa
tive Don Bonker of Wash-
ington said Alan Woods, the
senior trade official in the
lumber talks, told them Can-
adian negotiators were wall

Independent analysts said that the decision to test at
this time probably was motivated by considerations.
They said that any test after the end of the month would be
seen as more of a breach of the moratorium than one
conducted now — despite the fact that Reagan has refused to

join it.
Mark Hatfield, an Oregon Republican and chairman of the
Senate app it told a inter-

Hatfield, one of the lawmakers urgifig Reagan to cancel
the test, descritted it as “muscle flexing.”
, the of
the toot from s distance of shoat 17 Pcenstre.‘He sald the
blast went off without incident.
He said residents in Las Vegas, about 120 kilometres
away, had been warned that the blast could cause buildings

to sway slightly but he added: “I'm over 10 miles (16
kilometres) from ground zero and | didn’t feel the ground

HERBERT
HANGS

ON

By MARLENE ORTON

OTTAWA (CP) — A frail but fighting Liberal
Senator Jacques Hebert entered Day 13 of his fast
Saturday with no apparent sign of giving up his crusade
to force the government to restore the cancelled
Katimavik youth program.

The 62-year-old senator chatted amiably with
reporters and said he will not back down for anything
less.

“T’ve said it a hundred times already, I don't change
my mind easily.”

But Hebert, whose health is gradually deteriorating
after nearly two weeks on only water, actually appears to
have modified his stand somewhat.

He again urged the government to reinstate the
program for this year and at least wait for the results of
an internal study Hebert said was begun 1" years ago at
a cost of abqut $400,000 to date.

Hebert said the study is still underway, but no one
from the Secretary of State was available to say if it was
in fact terminated when it was announced Katimavik will
end a year ahead of time in June.

But at least five other studies, evaluating every
possible aspect of the 10-year-old program, have been
released with mixed conclusions on the effectiveness of
Katimavik. Four have been released since September
1985. They are in addition to a review by the Nielsen task
force which recommended the program be scrapped.

A noticeably leaner and physically weaker Hebert,
who has lost more than 15 pounds and now resti
frequently on a--leather couch outside the Senate
chambers, said he has heard nothing yet from Prime
Minister Brian Mulroney.

WONT BUDGE

Mulroney promised Friday in the Commons to
review Hebert’s pleas on behalf of youth bat refused to
budge from his timetable of announcing a program for
young people at the end of the month.

A spokesman in the prime minister's office said
Mulroney is not expected before Monday to reply to a
letter sent by Hebert.

Crawford Bay
needs students

CRAWFORD BAY (CP) —
Crawford Bay has a problem
that some school district ad
ministrators just dream
about.

The picturesque commun.
ity on the east side of Koot.
enay Lake has too few stu
dents.

So it is inviting families in
Alberta and British Columbia
to send their children to the
10-room school.

“We've only got eight stu
dents for grades 11 and 12
next year,” says Andrew
Potter, an Anglican priest
and chairman of the home
school liaison committee.

If the trend continues, the
senior grades will be forced
to ride the bus four hours
each day to school in Creston
Ultimately the school may
have to close.

Board

So with $100 from their
chamber of commerce, the
committee has launched an
advertising campaign — 200
posters inviting B.C. and Al
berta youngsters to board in
the community's private
homes and complete their
schooling.

Potter says families are of.
fering accommodation for at
least a dozen senior students.

The modern 10-room
school now has classes for
112 students from kinder
garten through Grade 12. it
ineludés computer labs, home
eeopomics and industrial ed
ucation workshops

“It's friendly, it's warm,
individual problems are at
tended to immediately,” says
principal Gerry Shiavon, who
heads 10 teachers.

wants

to meet Hewitt

By CasNews Staff
Castlegar school board has
asked for a meeting with
Education Minister Jim Hew
itt.

In a letter to the minister,
the board says it wants the
meeting “to explain the
financial difficulties this
school district is encounter
ing in attempting to maintain
adequate levels of educa
tional service for students
attending our schools.”

The letter cites teachers’
salaries and increments, ear.
ly retirement incentives. and
salaries for teacher aides as

ing around “shellshocked”
last week because of the
vigor with which Americans
made their case against Can
adian timber-pricing policies.

areas inadequately funded by
the ministry that are causing
shortfalls in the district's
budget.

In addition, the letter says

special programs and district
administration and instruc
tion support
underfunded.

“We ask again that these
concerns be acknowledged in
the funding arrangements,”
the board says.

The board has asked for
the meeting not later than
May 1 in Castlegar

Meanwhile, at last week's
board meeting, trustees ac
cepted the resignations of
five teachers and approved
three leaves of absences.

The board will decide whe
ther to replace the teachers
when it receives final budget
figures from the Ministry of
Education next month.

A speech therapist who is
resigning will be replaced.

services are