Articles from BC Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils

BC Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils has forwarded the following articles written by Janet Steffenhagen.  Until recently, Janet spent the last dozen years as a reporter with the Vancouver Sun (special interest in education issues).  She recently has been guest blogging for the BCCPAC on province-wide education issues, some of which you may find of interest:

New holiday proposed for Vancouver schools (February 20, 2014)
Vancouver students and staff might have an extra day off later this year as the board of education tries to cut costs in the face of another multi-million-dollar budget shortfall.

Province seeks stay of court ruling on class size, composition (February 19, 2014)
Implementation of a recent court ruling on class size and composition would cause “irreparable harm to the public interest of an unprecedented magnitude,” the Liberal government says.

Court transcript feeds government-teacher tension (February 13, 2014)
As bargaining between the government and B.C. teachers was about to resume Wednesday, the NDP dropped a bombshell that could make it even more difficult for the two side to strike a deal.

B.C. teens are safer, but some are seriously stressed: survey (February 12, 2014)
B.C. teens are making better choices about risky behaviours now than in previous years, according to a survey last year of Grade 7-12 students by the McCreary Centre Society.

A teacher's story about a boy named Harry (February 11, 2014)
I met teacher Carrie Gelson in 2011 after she wrote an eloquent appeal on behalf of her disadvantaged students on Vancouver’s eastside.