Welcome to Lake Flashback. Reporter James Goldie has been combing through old newspapers with the assistance of the Kaatza Station Museum and Archives so we can jog your memory, give you that nostalgic feeling, or just a chuckle, as we take a look at what was making headlines this week around Cowichan Lake in years gone by.
This week around the Cowichan Lake…
10 years ago
Executive members of the Lake Cowichan Ratepayers Association are furious the school board won’t meet with them to discuss the status of the J.H. Boyd property and did not give them delegation status at a recent public meeting.
“They said they had too much on the agenda and that they’d already heard us,” said Rod Peters, chair of the ratepayers. “We told them we have new information to present. I think the taxpayers feel betrayed.”
Don Gordon, also of the ratepayers association, challenged the school district’s belief that student enrolment won’t change enough to justify keep the J.H. Boyd property or keeping small elementary schools open.
“I think the population figures they’re using are wrong,” said Gordon.
“It’s nonsense.”
25 years ago
Palsson Elementary has raised close to $2,000 with its Christmas Fun Fair, and nothing attracted more than the pie-throwing event that set principal John McCormick and two teachers in the crosshairs.
McCormick described the fair as a “sell-out” and that it was open to students and community members of all ages.
“I think just about every family was here with a child in the school, and I saw a lot of young people who used to attend Palsson, who are now in Stanley Gordon,” he said.
Money raised will be divided between the school (which uses the funds for items for student use) and the school Parents Advisory Committee.
Last year, the PAC used their share to buy a new computer for the school.
40 years ago
The federal Anti-Inflation Board is rolling back the salaries of 90 teaches in the local school district, which means the 11 per cent increase awarded to teachers earlier this year will likely be reduced to about eight per cent or an estimated $400 per teacher.
This is not the first time the AIB has rolled back teachers’ salaries on the Island, and these recent changes have been anticipated for some time.
Terry Kirk, school district secretary-treasurer, said the exact amount of the rollback is not yet official but teachers will likely have to pay back $400 to the province.
The board has not yet made a ruling on whether the salary increases to school district’s administrative and clerical staff or its IWA members (bus drivers, custodians, and maintenance crews) will be subject to similar rollbacks.
The AIB was established in 1975 by an Act of Parliament. Its wide-ranging mandate was highly controversial.
Compiled by James Goldie, Gazette
