Reality show star: ‘It’s freaking hard and insane’ Girls hockey teams seek a boost in numbers
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Friday, September 13, 2013
GETTING THE JUICES FLOWING FOR THE WINE AND CULINARY FESTIVAL
Teams stomp as fast as they can to squeeze the juice out of the grapes in their barrels during the Grape Stomp Saturday, Sept. 7, the annual kick off for the Cowichan Wine and Culinary Festival that continues through this weekend. For video of the zany fun, scan this page with the Layar app on your smart phone or go to www.cowichanvalleycitizen.com [ANDREA RONDEAU/CITIZEN]
Parents in an uproar over new school start times LEXI BAINAS CITIZEN
Parents, furious that scheduling for school and busing is wreaking havoc with their lives, are venting their anger through a petition and social media. Not everyone agrees there is a problem, but everyone seems to be willing to talk about it. “No one consulted us about these schedules,” said Krysta Martin, who started a petition on Tuesday. See www.petitionbuzz.com/peti tions/sd79startandfinish for more information or to sign on.
“I complained about it on my daughter’s school’s Facebook page and people started to agree with me that no one was consulted about these school time changes. So, I figured maybe I have enough people to back me up on this,” she said. The new school and bus schedule that sees upper grades on a 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. schedule and elementary school students on an 8:25 a.m. to 2:25 p.m. schedule, when tied to new busing arrangements, has strongly affected her family, she said. “My son has to get on the bus 90
minutes before school starts and I’m only in Glenora, 10 minutes from my son’s school. He now gets home after my six-year-old daughter so he can’t babysit for me anymore. Nor can any teenager watch any younger kids. Teenagers can’t play sports and they can’t get after school jobs because they often don’t get home from school until after 4 p.m. “I just don’t understand what the school district is thinking,” she said. When this is added to the sudden changes in school location and configuration, a challenging
situation is becoming intolerable for many people, according to Martin. “My husband and I have actually discussed moving out of Duncan because of how bad this is. This year has just ruined everything. We all know you need two parents working. This is not conducive to that. I’m livid and while I know there are a lot of other people who feel the same way, I also know there are lots of others who always drove their kids to school anyways. It doesn’t affect them,” she said. “My daughter is only six and has
to ride the bus for an entire hour after school. It goes up Gibbins Road and stuff. They send them on this milk run all around Duncan. And the other crazy thing is that now we are paying for the bus, paying for this service that doesn’t do us any favours,” she said. Naomi Nilsson, president of the Cowichan Valley Teachers’ Federation, said she hasn’t heard much from teachers yet about this year’s situation But, problems with busing are not new, she said. See Bus schedule • page 9
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