THE FRIDAY
2010 WINNER
FEB. 24, 2012 www.tricitynews.com
TRI-CITY NEWS Talking torture
Overpass, arts & magic
SEE FACE TO FACE, PAGE 11
SEE THINGS-TO-DO GUIDE, PAGE 21
INSIDE Naomi Yorke/10 Letters/12 Elaine Golds/23 Sports/45
More busing & less driving Coquitlam adopts its trans. plan By Janis Warren THE TRI-CITY NEWS
Coquitlam’s massive growth spurt has forced the city to rethink plans for its future transportation needs. Under its new Strategic T ranspor tation Plan (STP), a 20-year visioning document adopted this week by city council, Coquitlam will push to get more drivers off roads to take a “greener” commute. Currently, automobiles account for more than 80% of all trips made by residents of Coquitlam, one of B.C.’s fastest-growing communities and a city that is expected to have 100,000 more citizens in another 30 years.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
see DRIVERS SHOULD SHOULD,, page 4
Artists Jerry Whitehead (above) and Richard Tetrault have been working under tarps and scaffolding since January, putting together a mural on the side of Port Coquitlam’s first highrise that will feature scenes of recreation and nature. The pair are now waiting for some good weather to finish the work. See article on page 7.
School trustees hear wish lists Smaller classes for tech ed. among the requests to board By Diane Strandberg THE TRI-CITY NEWS
With little in the way of new funding for education in the BC Liberal government’s austerity budget, School District 43 will likely be expected to make do with the same amount of money — or less — next year. But that didn’t stop dozens of parents and teachers from showing up at a board meeting Tuesday to ask for support for smaller classes and other improvements in
the way schools operate. Teachers have been struggling with large class sizes for middle school explorations and high school technology courses for years, the board of education was told, and student programs are suffering. “I could do so much more,” said Ken Christensen, who teaches a shop class at Como Lake middle and has seen his class size creep to 30 students, when the best practices standard is 24. Large classes are also a problem in high school shop classes, trustees were told. Bree-Anna Weir, who teaches automotive at Riverside secondary and graduated from SD43 in 2002, said the
MORE INSIDE Current budget fine, next one unsure: page 3 scope of technology education projects has been vastly reduced since she went to school here. Supplies have been cut and classes are too large for the kind of projects students used to do, Weir said. “It’s blatantly class size, how much a simple class size can affect quality and quantity of learning,” she added. see SUPPORT NEEDED, NEEDED, page 3
CTA wants board support By Diane Strandberg THE TRI-CITY NEWS
Union reps for School District 43’s 2,300 teachers have called on the board of education to support them in their demands for improved special needs funding, benefits and wages. Flanked by two of her colleagues, Coquitlam Teachers’ Association president Teresa Grandinetti asked trustees at Tuesday’s board of education meeting to call for an independent mediator to resolve the impasse in con-
tract talks and ask the government to ne gotiate outside of its net zero mandate. “I am asking the HYNDES board to be both visible and vocal in its demands of government to properly fund its public education system,” Grandinetti said. She said Tri-City teachers were upset by comments
made in a Feb. 3 article in The Tri-City Newss by board chair Melissa Hyndes, who was asked to speculate on the future of contract negotiations given the distance between the teacher demands of 15% over three years and the government’s net zero mandate. Hyndes, a Port Moody trustee, said she thought the government should step in because both sides were far apart, although she admitted legislated agreements were not the best. see ADVOCATE FOR, FOR, page 3