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Cheam elementary likely home for early French immersion program

Most early French immersion (EFI) parents are in for a long drive if the Chilliwack school board decides to launch an EFI program in 2014.


 

Fire in Slesse science class

Mount Slesse middle school was closed late Monday morning after fire broke out in a science prep room.


 

Pay hike would mean massive shortfall

The Chilliwack school district faces an estimated $1.8 million operating shortfall for next year and that figure could jump to as high as $4.9 million if the provincial government agrees to a 1.5 per cent pay increase for teachers and CUPE employees.


 

List of top earners grows

More Chilliwack school district executives, administrators and managers earned six figures last year, while the total number of employees taking in $75,000 or more dropped.


 
Bible at a school board meeting

School board fears no lawsuit

The Chilliwack school board is confident the new distribution of materials policy it adopted Tuesday is on solid legal ground despite veiled threats of legal action from the BC Humanist Association.


 

Program no longer exists

The Intermediate District Resource Program that witnessed the beginning of Clyne's and O'Donnell's unusual partnership was dismantled three years ago.


 
Special education consultant David Carter

Time to act on report

Local parents want school officials to move quickly on 15 recommendations to improve special education in the Chilliwack school district.


 

Spring break remains one week

For the second year in a row, efforts to carve out a two-week spring break for the Chilliwack school district have failed because negotiations between district officials and local teachers and CUPE employees ran out of time.


 

Grad rate better, but still behind province

More local students are graduating within six years of starting Grade 8, but the Chilliwack school district still lags almost seven per cent behind the provincial grad-rate average, according to 2011-12 statistics released last week.


 

Religion in schools not so cut and dry

B.C. school boards have more wiggle room for giving out free Bibles than for passing deficit budgets, according to a Ministry of Education letter sent to Chilliwack parent Richard Ajabu last week.


 

School briefs

The Chilliwack school district will dip about $860,000 deeper into its accumulated surplus this year, according to an amended 2012-13 budget presented at a school board meeting Tuesday.


 
Former School District No. #33

Super retirement deal

The Chilliwack school district got one superintendent for the price of two for four months last year, according to a report on executive compensation released this month.


 

School district mum on ministry response

The Chilliwack school board is being tight-lipped about its response to a ministry of education request for B.C. school boards to find savings to pay for salary increases for support staff.


 

Good, bad, postponed

So here we are, Anne-of-Green-Gables-style, at the beginning of a whole new year with no mistakes in it yet.


 
Trustees Heather Maahs

Little harmony on school board

Clandestine, unhealthy, unethical, dysfunctional, tragic-Chilliwack school board trustees exchanged some peppery language Tuesday while debating three motions aimed at "streamlining" their policy-making role.


 

Timing off for survey

Parents lobbying for early French immersion in the Chilliwack school district are concerned a survey aimed at gauging interest might get lost in the Christmas shuffle.


 

Dysfunctional school board gets consultant

After much disagreement and debate, the perennially fractious Chilliwack school board has voted to hire a consultant to help its trustees work better together.


 
Chilliwack parent Richard Ajabu

District deletes Bible regulation

The Chilliwack school board heard from secularists, evangelical Christians, Gideons, Muslims and one high school student at a packed, standing-room-only board meeting Tuesday before voting to delete a regulation that endorsed the distribution of free Bibles at local public schools.


 

Board will discuss free-Bible policy

Legal advice has prompted the Chilliwack school board to reconsider its regulation allowing free Bibles to be given out at local public schools, according to a Ministry of Education spokesperson.