The Chilliwack
Progress Thursday
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High school football returning to Chilliwack.
Minter earns Order of Chilliwack
Wounded Warriors visit the Chiefs
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Report cards to be done by administrators
T AKING F LIGHT
May not include marks Katie Bartel The Progress Despite job action, student report cards will still be sent home this month. But they won’t be written by teachers, and they won’t necessarily have grades attached to them. Superintendent Michael Audet sent a letter home to parents earlier this week notifying them they would be receiving report cards, but the information in them would be from the perspective of principals and vice principals. “This year’s reporting to parents is complicated by the teachers’ strike and the Labour Relations Board essential services order, which currently does not require teachers to produce report cards,” wrote Audet. “The School Regulation (Ministry of Education, Government of BC) requires that parents receive a minimum of three report cards per year and this is the reason we have been directed to send home a report card at this time.” However, the information will be limited. The report cards will indicate the student’s division, name of the teacher providing instruction, the courses, and student attendance. Grades will only be provided for classes taught by administrators, or where teachers have submitted marks to the BCeSIS system, which may not be up-to-date at the time report cards are issued. Chilliwack Teachers’ Association president Katharin Midzain believes the exercise to be a futile one. The Labour Relations Board ruled in the summer that report cards were non essential, and that refusing to write them was a valid right of job action. The Labour Relations Board is currently looking at that decision and deciding whether or not to uphold it. “It is my understanding that the Labour Relations Board will be ruling on the central nature of report cards next week,” said Midzain. “It seems premature to spend such an amount of administrative time and paper on a document that may be deemed unnecessary.” Continued: JOB/ p11
Ralph Smith, director of Orphaned Wildlife (OWL), releases Frank, a juvenile bald eagle, into the wild at Sandpiper Golf Resort on Wednesday morning after a four-month stay at the rehab centre for birds. Frank was one of 19 young eagles orphaned by his parents in the wild, and then later found and rehabilitated at the centre. The 19 eagles were cared for at OWL by foster parents, all of which are adult eagles who help feed the orphaned birds and teach them how to eat. The eagle release kicked off the annual Fraser Valley Bald Eagle Festival which takes place this Saturday and Sunday at various locations throughout the valley. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
Loss of Abby could cost Chilliwack Abbotsford’s departure from FVRD has ‘financial implications’ for Chilliwack Robert Freeman The Progress Abbotsford’s threatened departure from the Fraser Valley Regional District has “financial implications” for Chilliwack and the remaining communities in the region, says Mayor Sharon Gaetz. She agreed Abbotsford pays
the “lion’s share” of the FVRD’s budget because of its larger population, but major restructuring of regional operations last year achieved major cost savings for the city. Last week, Abbotsford city council voted 8-1 to ask the B.C. government for permission to leave the FVRD and set up a “single-tier” governance after a
staff report said the city could save $759,000 per year by leaving the FVRD. “Our motive is what is best value for our taxpayers,” Peary told The Abbotsford News. But Chilliwack MLA John Les, a former FVRD chairman, said Wednesday there’s “no such thing as a stand-alone regional district” and the minister could not authorize it under current legislation. “If they applied to the minis-
ter to join the GVRD - that can be accommodated,” he said. “But I think if Abbotsford were to transfer to the GVRD it would cost millions — and I mean many millions — in such things as (Translink) gas taxes alone,” he said. “It’s election time,” Les added. “People tend to throw straw men around in that process. This (leaving the FVRD) is just one of those.” Continued: FVRD/ p11
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