The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The Flin Flon School Board has approved a budget that will cut expenditures by $44,000 and increase its portion of local property taxes by $154,000. The board voted on Tuesday to adopt the $10.8 million budget, which includes cuts to staff, recreational programs, and technology. Trustee Colleen McKee was the lone trustee to vote against the budget. She did not explain her opposition at the meeting. Two of the most talked about aspects of the budget are its elimination of one Camp Whitney trip at either grade 6 or grade 8, and the deletion of curling and bowling activities at the elementary school level. However, the school division's Finance Committee will suggest to the board that the physical education department be given a choice of reducing one of the Camp Whitney trips or the grade 7 canoe trip, rather than making a mandatory decision to eliminate a Camp Whitney trip. On the matter of curling and bowling, the committee has discussed whether the transportation costs associated with these activities could be reduced by making some changes. These could include restricting McIsaac School Ecole McIsaac students to curling at the nearby Willow Park Curling Rink and Ruth Betts School students to curling at the Uptown Curling Rink, which is not far from the school. As a result of the dwindling enrollment, the division proposes to cut 3.25 teaching positions Ñ one at each of McIsaac School Ecole McIsaac and Ruth Betts School, and 1.25 at Hapnot Collegiate Ñ in 2004-05, but further cuts were necessary to balance the books. The budget calls for the elimination of $44,000 in existing expenditures and outlines $106,000 in new requests that will not be honoured. The budget must be forwarded to Manitoba's Public Schools Finance Branch before the end of the month. The City of Flin Flon must have information relative to the increase to the special levy, the portion of property taxes that goes to education, by March 15. In another matter at Tuesday's meeting, Superintendent of Schools Blaine Veitch announced that a randomly selected group of McIsaac and Hapnot Collegiate students will take part in a nationwide science assessment. As part of the Student Achievement Indicators Program, the assessment will measure what students 13-16 have learned in their science classes, he noted. The results of the Canada-wide assessment will be published next year and indicate national and provincial results. Neither the participating students nor the school divisions will be identified. As well, Superintendent Veitch encouraged residents to turn out for the 2004 Provincial Basketball Championships, which will be held at Hapnot and McIsaac from March 18-20. He wished the Hapnot teams the best of luck and promised the tournament will feature "some of the best basketball in Manitoba." Also, the superintendent offered his congratulations to: Many Faces Education Centre student Brittany Lyons on winning the Manitoba Association of School Trustees (MAST) Student Citizenship Award for Northern Manitoba Hapnot Collegiate students and staff on another "excellent" Dinner Theatre production. McIsaac vice-principal Sharon Trubiak on her completion of the school administrator level 1 certification. The achievement required 130 hours of training in the areas of leadership, instruction, management and personnel.
