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School board to spend a day on budget cut

School board trustees will spend an entire day this month figuring out options for how to cut half a million dollars from next year's budget.
Trustees agreed at last week's meeting to set aside February 18 for an all-day session to work on the budget. They will get more information in March when the province announces exactly how much money the district will receive for the 2003-2004 year, secretary-treasurer Len Ibbs said at the Jan. 28 school board meeting. Trustees also decided to consult with the public about the cutbacks during the week of March 31-April 4.
Although the board has until June 30 to adopt the budget, it intends to have it sorted out by the end of April, when any required layoff notices must be issued.
In other school board news:
• Tahayghen's Authors Club and Haida language class made special presentations at the school board meeting. The young authors read their latest work to trustees, and the language class sang and danced the good morning song and the salmon song. Chair Wayne Wilson thanked the students for their excellent work.
• Port Clements trustee Maggie Bell-Brown reported that she had attended a province-wide meeting where a trustee from an interior district talked about their experience switching to a four-day school week.
"He was very enthusiastic about how it was working," she said. "I found it to be extremely interesting and I would like to pursue it more."
• Sandspit trustee Gail Henry reported that 24 students from A.L. Mathers school are off to Montreal next week for an exchange trip. The community has already raised a couple of thousand dollars and organized several exciting events for the Montreal students when they visit Sandspit in the spring.
• Maintenance supervisor Bill Wiggins reported that the demolition of the former Queen Charlotte secondary school is complete. The contractor took all the scraps to the dump because he couldn't get a permit to burn it, he added. The site is now ready to be fixed up for a sports field.