Recently, my family and I have started exploring the world of geocaching.  It all started with my wife talking to a friend who is an avid geocacher that asked if we ever did it.  My wife had never heard of it, but was interested.  She came home that night and asked me if I had heard of it.  I told her that I had, but never thought that she’d be interested in it.

We talked about it, did a little research about it, and talked to our kids.  With the kids, it was an easy sell. “Do you guys want to go treasure hunting?”  My three girls were excited about the idea of little treasures hidden all around the world..

So, we’ve gone a few times.  So far, in the last 3 weeks, we’ve found two caches in Maple Ridge, and two in Penticton, and enjoy spending some family time together, outside, and looking for treasure.  We plan to keep going, especially with the nice weather finally surfacing. 

It’s nice to find an inexpensive, fun activity that the whole family can enjoy; and I still get to play with an electronic toy!

Well, it seems that this was inevitable..

After next school year, Riverside Elementary in Maple Ridge will no longer have a French immersion program starting September 2009…

In the last year, we (the parents of students at the school) have fought the school board (and had a temporary reprieve) on the total closure of the school..

Then there was the whole “is Riverside causing cancer in teachers and students” — something that was ultimately shown to not be the case..

But with all the bad publicity about the school only six kindergarten students registered for the French immersion program there next year..

I’m sure that this is the beginning of the end for the school entirely.. 

Our oldest daughter goes there for the FI program..  We have two other children that we, ideally, would like to put into the same program when they start school..  So what do we do?  All English?  Or start the mad search, along with every other family that we be looking for a spot for their children to continue in the program we chose for our kids..

Some people may not see any benefit to the French Immersion program..  but I don’t see any problem with providing every opportunity for my kids..

It’s been MAYBE a couple hours since my post about the concern of the number of cases of cancer at Riverside Elementary..

My daughter came home today with her newsletter from the school…

Here’s what it said..

“On Tuesday evening I know that many families were surprised to see that Riverside Elementary was the focus of not only our local paper but also to many news programs.”

“As outlined in the letter written by (the superintendent), “the Board is working with the BC Cancer Research Center to help develop an appropiate plan of investigation” and “the school has been tested extensively in the past using the most sophisticated methods available and in all cases no risk to the health of staff or students was ever found.”

There was more to this part of the newsletter, but those were the key things I am going to post here..

So.. to the parent who was suggesting that we pull our daughter from the school, why don’t you get out of this ”The sky is falling!  The sky is falling!” response, and actually WAIT for some actual facts.. If you over-reacted everytime that you heard or thought something was happening/going to happen you’d be hiding in a dark corner in the fetal position… Or maybe you do..

I have no intention of pulling my daughter from the school just because of speculation.  I am watching to see what happens here.. I will make an decision once I feel that I have enough facts..

A few months ago, we (the parents of children who attend Riverside Elementary) were fighting to keep our school open. 

Now, there is another concern about our school..

Continue Reading »

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope that 2008 will be a great year for you all.

I’ve been trying to find the time to write this post, but with all the activity over the holiday’s, it’s been hard to find the time just to write anything..

So I’ll put it all in one long post here! 

On Christmas Eve, we made plans to go over to my wife’s uncle (my uncle-in-law?), for brunch.  Around 9:30 in the morning, my neighbour came over and knocked on my door and asked what I was doing later that morning.  I told him of our plans, and then he said “that’s too bad.  I have an extra seat available on a one-hour flight over the Vancouver area”.  I looked at my wife, and she said that it was fine to skip out on brunch.  My friend Mark has been telling me for quite some time that if I came back to Oshawa again, he’d take me on a flight, but I haven’t been back to Ontario for years now..  This was a great opportunity for me! 

My neighbours Steve and Caroline and I drove out to the Pitt Meadows Airport (YPK)  and were introduced to the pilot.  He took us out to his Cessna 182, a little 4 seater plane.  Fortunately, it was a nice clear day, so I’d be able to see a lot! We took off and flew around the area including Pitt River, Pitt Lake,  and Stave Lake.  After that, we flew over Mission, Abbottsford, Langley, White Rock, Surrey and then back to Pitt Meadows.  I have to say I enjoyed it a lot.  The landing was a lot smoother than the commercial airlines that I have been on.    I’ve got a lot of photo’s on my Facebook Profile, but here’s a couple pictures from the trip!

This first picture is over Pitt Meadows or Maple Ridge.  I believe that those are cranberry fields below, but I’m not sure.

This next one is a picture over Stave Lake..  well..  the water level is low now.. 

The third picture is me! 

This shot is of Vancouver Island off in the distance, but I was impressed that I caught the propeller in this shot…

Next is a shot of us landing..

And last, this is a shot of my standing next to the plane.. I wish that my neighbour wasn’t talking to me as he was taking the picture!

So, that was a pretty good start to Christmas Eve..  The rest of the day was fairly typical of our family.  We had a good day together and after dinner we started a new tradition for us.

For years, I have never really liked the idea of opening a gift on Christmas Eve..  I have always thought that we should wait until Christmas morning.  But my wife had a really good idea.  She thought that every year, we should let our kids (and us) open a gift..  but they will always be new pyjamas!   This way, they would look nice for Christmas morning pictures.  So, the kids opened them up and were more excited about the PJ’s than I thought that they would be..  they put them on, and shortly after went to bed. 

Now, the part I have left out is that my in-laws had given us a gift to open on Christmas Eve as well.  For about a month, I was looking at this wrapped gift, wondering what it was.  The only clue I was given is that I would want it the night before Christmas; I would be disappointed if I opened it the next morning..

Well, I opened it after the kids went to bed..   It was a video camera!  I was very happy indeed. 

Christmas morning came and the girls opened their gift.  Considering the year that we’ve had, we did quite well!  Elisabeth was excited about the Wii that we bought her.  Another gift that seems to be a hit with all three of them was a toy vacuum cleaner.  Naturally, it doesn’t actually actually clean anything, but it makes cool noises and talks to you!

We had some friends over for dinner, and had a great day.. 

On Boxing Day, we celebrated my wife’s birthday.  Even though her birthday is on the 27th, we thought that we’d have a night where we went out with friends for dinner for her birthday, and leave the 27th for a family type of night. 

New Year’s Eve was not so exciting.  We celebrated with the kids at 9pm, watching the ball drop in New York..  after that, it was off to bed for the kids, and Colleen and I stayed up to watch TV..  Colleen was asleep by 11pm, but considering she was up since 4:30am for work, I’m impressed she made it that late.  I stayed awake (playing with the Wii!), woke her up at midnight to wish her a happy new year, and then we both went to bed..   Not very exciting, but was fun.

Yesterday, (Jan 1st!), we went to see our friend Sharie who just got home from the hospital from having a baby!  (Congratulations!)..   After a couple hours, we went to Richmond to go to a restaurant were we were invited to celebrate another friends (Socheary and Vince) baby girl.  I don’t know much about Chinese culture, but it seems that they have a big party for a baby (and parents), when they are one month old.  Either way, the 10 course meal was very good and I finally got to meet their baby girl.

So, in case I forgot to say it, congratulations to Sharie and Keith on the birth of your little girl, Taylor, and congrats to Soch and Vince on Ashley’s birth/one month celebration!

Well..  I think that is about it..

Last night, I put up a post saying that the board voted against closing schools in SD42 (Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows).  I should rephrase that and say that it is for now.  The board announced that they still have work to do and that the same issues still need to be addressed..   The key thing to take from this, is that they were told loud and clear from the  residents that the speed that they are going through the process was too fast to make decisions.  There were/are still far more questions then answers..

Anyhow, Colleen was in Maple Ridge’s The News again..    Here is the article that was published before the meeting last night..

—————

Three schools picked to close

By Robert Mangelsdorf – Maple Ridge News – October 24, 2007 

More than 150 people attended a rally in Memorial Peace Park on Saturday to protest a district decision to close schools.
Photo by Simone Ponne/the news

Maple Ridge mother-of-three Colleen MacDonald broke down into tears when she found out her daughter’s elementary school was one of three district staff recommended to close on Friday.

She still hasn’t brought herself to tell her daughter Elisabeth that Riverside elementary, the school she loves, may be closed forever in a matter of months.

“I don’t know what to tell her,” she said, sighing in disbelief. “Maybe the trustees can come and tell her why her school is closing.”

Staff recommended the closure of Mt. Crescent, Webster’s Corners and Riverside elementary schools in their school closure report, released Friday.

In the report, staff cited falling enrolment and the need to qualify for provincial capital funding to build new schools in areas where they are needed as the reasons for the closures.

MacDonald and her husband Cameron moved to Maple Ridge from Burnaby in February specifically so their daughters Elisabeth, 5, Megan, 2, and Ainsley, 10 months, could attend the French immersion program offered at Riverside elementary.

“We don’t know what we’re going to do now,” she said. “We’re just in shock.”

Under Ministry of Education guidelines, school districts must have an average utilization rate of 100 per cent for their elementary schools or 95 per cent for all schools district-wide to qualify for capital funding to build new schools.

Currently, the district’s elementary schools have a utilization rate of 82 per cent.

But MacDonald is not convinced the board is taking the concerns of parents into account.

“I’m not a boat-rocker, but I feel it’s really important that parents stand up and do something about this,” said MacDonald. “Yesterday I sat at my kitchen table and explained to my daughter what it means to be Canadian; how we have the right to education and to democracy.

“But now I feel it’s all a bit of joke when I see the school board ignoring all these parents who clearly don’t want this happen and they’re going through with it anyway.”

She’s not alone in that feeling. She was among more than 150 parents and children who came out to protest the school district’s school closure process on Saturday in Memorial Peace Park downtown.

The protest was organized, in part, by Mt. Crescent elementary Parent Advisory Chair Susan Carr.

She has started a petition to stop the district’s school closure process and has already received more than 300 signatures.

NDP MLA Mike Sather was on hand at the rally and says the closures are a huge loss to community.

“An inner-city type school like Mt. Crescent has a number of special needs programs for their students,” he said. “Are they going to get the same services at another school?”

Like many at the rally Sather wonders why the district’s school closure process has been so quick.

“I haven’t heard an answer to why the process is so fast,” he said. “We know there’s no money for new schools for at least five years.”

On June 13, school board trustees voted to adopt the recommendations of the Cornerstone Planning Group, an independent consultation firm hired by the district to look at the district’s declining enrolment.

In their report they recommended closing up to five elementary schools, and suggested a one to two year feasibility study to identify which schools should be closed.

But David Whetter, a partner with Cornerstone who prepared the report, says the board is right on track.

“We were giving a pretty broad range [of time needed],” said Whetter. “The district’s timeline is not that different to the one we recommended.”

He said that it takes at least three to five years to get a new school built, so the district needs to act fast in order to support areas in east Maple Ridge where schools are well over capacity.

“If you want to get a school open in 2012, you’re going to have to start the process now.”

School board trustees will vote on whether or not to adopt the staff’s recommendations tonight at 7 p.m. at Thomas Haney Centre.

Both Carr and MacDonald are encouraging all parents to come to the meeting and have their voices heard.

“It’s important to act now before it’s too late,” said MacDonald.

Should the board choose to accept the staff’s recommendations, another round of public consultations will take place in the coming months.

Trustees will vote to finalize the decision on Jan. 10, 2008. All schools singled out for closure will be closed at the end of the school year, on June 30, 2008.

Tonight was an outstanding night..

We went to the school board meeting, open to the public.  Tonight, the board was voting on the recommendations of closing schools in SD42.  I’m happy to announce that 5 out of 7 trustees voted AGAINST closing schools in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows!

That’s about it for today. 

Here’s the letter I wrote to the trustees:

Mr. Butler, Mr. Rempel, Ms. Marshall, and Ms. Ward,

I am writing to you to ask you to reconsider recommending the closure of our schools, especially Riverside.  In the public meetings, parents made it very clear that this process is being rushed for some unknown reason.  The Cornerstone report recommended that you take one to two years to go through the process, yet you are going to complete it in considerably less time.

In one of the public meetings, my wife pointed out an error in your statistics.  The population of kids had decreased by very little in a 5 year span.  If this error was so easily overlooked and accepted as “fact”, how can you be so sure that your predictions on the future are correct?  How do you know that you won’t need schools in the west side of Maple Ridge within the next couple years?  Are you willing to disrupt hundreds of childrens lives and rountines on a gamble that you could be wrong?

It’s obvious that the expansion in the east end of Maple Ridge needs addressing.  Clearly there is considerable construction out there.  But it should not be at the expense of children living here.  On the school boards’ website, it says that “an analysis of French Immersion programs be initiated with respect to location of programs, low enrolment at Riverside, and types of French Immersion opportunities.”  What exactly is that supposed to mean?  If you announce that you are going to close Riverside, how do I tell my 6 year old daughter, “Don’t worry sweetie.  They’ll do an analysis on the French Immersion program.”   How is that going to comfort her?

We moved here from Burnaby to Maple Ridge this past February.  We moved to Maple Ridge because we thought that it was the perfect place to raise our children.  We moved within the Riverside catchment area because we heard great things about the school and the French Immersion program.  If you close Riverside, I will have to move my daughter to her third school in as many years. 

I hope that you take these things into careful consideration.  I hope that you think about the impact that it will have on my 6 year old, and all the other students in the area that are going to be affected by this.  I hope that you consider that the people who call Maple Ridge home elected you into your position, and can certainly elect you out of it.

Cameron MacDonald

Hello everyone:

I am appealing to you all as parents and/or citizens of the district of Maple Ridge to do three things:

1) Forward this Email to every other citizen of this District who you know. They do not have to be parents of school age children. They are taxpayers! Enlist their help. Imagine how many people could be reached if everyone sent this to ten others, and they in turn sent it to ten more. The number could be staggering. There is strength in numbers.

2) Call the four School Trustees listed and tell them this process is proceeding too quickly. Voice your opinion! Alternatively you could email them at the addresses indicated. They need to hear from parents, citizens, voters. There are viable alternatives to closing these schools that need to be investigated before a decision can be made in good conscience.

3) Attend the Public Meeting on Wednesday October 24th at Thomas Haney Secondary. Cancel other commitments. Bring your kids. At this meeting your Board of Education will vote on School Closure. Again, there is strength in numbers. A strong turnout and negative public reaction could prevent the closures.

IT IS NOT TOO LATE. STAND UP AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

———————————————————

 It is now public knowledge that the Maple Ridge Board of Education has received the recommendations from District staff to name three schools for CLOSURE:

• Riverside Elementary
• Mount Crescent Elementary
• Webster’s Corners Elementary

YOU CAN STILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!!

Please phone school trustees: Rick Butler, Dave Rempel, Kathy Marshall, and Kathie Ward.

Tell them the closure process is too rushed.  Tell them that this important decision has not received due process.  Tell them you want them to follow Cornerstones’s plan for a one to two year feasability study.  Tell them they have not investigated all possible options to ensure that they are making the right decision for our community.  CALL THEM TODAY!  On Wednesday, October 24th at 6:00pm they will make their official announcement at Thomas Haney Secondary.

BE THERE!

It’s not very often that I actively oppose something, but today was different.

Today, Colleen, the kids and I went to a rally held today in opposition to the school closure process that School District 42 (SD42 – Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows) is undertaking.

The purpose of the rally was very simple – make it clear that we aren’t happy with the speed of the process.  In the Cornerstone report, that the district refers to, it states that SD42 should take 1-2 years to go through the process..  it’s been 3 months!  

People who spoke included the President and Vice-President of the Teacher’s Association, a couple of students from Davey Jones Elementary in Pitt Meadows, and even one of the school board trustees! (By her own admission, her colleagues are not impressed with her going against the grain!)

It was nice to see a unified approach to opposing this process..  Up until now, at public meetings and forums, there has been people saying things like “School X is better, so you should close School Y”.   That kind of mentality isn’t helping anyone…

The sad part is that only about 50 people showed up.  From my daughters school we saw only two other parents that we recognized.  You would think that since Riverside is one of the schools that is being considered for closure, more people would take action. Colleen and I ensured that we signed the petition to slow the process down and evaulate things better, such as the statistics error that Colleen pointed out:

For example, in the document titled “School Closure Process, Housing development statistics and projections” it states that the population of children, aged 0-14 in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows has declined by 3722 between 2001 and 2006. In reviewing Stats Canada figures for this same period, I found that the population of children in these areas, aged 0-14, has declined by only 145 (and of these, by only 20 youth in Maple Ridge).

The whole rally lasted for 30-40 minutes overall.  We’ll find out what the school board is planning on Monday at the ”findings” meeting.  The public can attend, but not participate.

Here’s Lizzy and her protest sign:

And Lizzy signing the poster: