SOME OF THE EXCELLENT FACILITIES AT THE SCHOOL Northern Lights College The Stikine School District is served by the Fort Nelson Campus of Northern Lights College. The College began serving Cassiar in January 1976. Through efforts ‘of community education programers living in Cassiar the: community has had a wide range of programs offered. 3 Citizens of Cassiar are now about to experience a minor explosion in the number of programs available to them. The College has purchased a satellite TV dish for Cassiar. The ground station should be operational within a cou- ple of weeks. The dish will pick up 82 hours of weekly educational programing. In other words the knowledge network of the west will now be available for viewing. Credit, non-credit and leisure programs will be available both on cablevision and in the school. The announce- ment of Cassiar’s first Know/Anik programer for Cassiar will be announced shortly. It is anticipated that once the bugs are out of the new system the educational program should be functional by the end of October. . PEGGY McKINNON PROGRAM COORDINATOR The Cassiar Secondary Elementary School now has 323: students enrolled for the 1981-82 school year, this is as high an enrollment as the school has ever had. The faculty of 23 and principal George Millar is also the largest we have had to date. Every year the students take two tests, the Gates- McGinitie tests in the Fall and the Canadian test of Basic Skills in Summer. The results of these tests show that the standards in Cassiar School are no different from’ any other schools. This is especially reassuring to the local par- ents and students as the population is fairly transient and it is good to know that our children can go to any other school.and be able to cope. The school has some excellent facilities considering the size of the enrollment. There is a very well equipped | ab- oratory - which is a fairly recent addition to the school and which houses the computor centre. Since the library moved to the new section of the school the old location has been converted to a Commercial Science room. The Library facilities and the Library Skills programs of- fered are also extremely good. PRINCIPAL GEORGE MILLAR The principal, Mr. George Millar is pleased with the way things are going at the present time. A few things which he is looking forward to are the completion of the new School by September 1982; the completion of a success- ful Secondary Accreditation which began last year; the establishment of a strong supportive School Board; a follow-up to last year’s successful Elementary Self As- sessraamt-and the implementation of a strong language Arts program involving oral and listening skills. All of these will be an asset to the school and students alike. The Art Room is located in the Old Lab and the students are producing some excellent work. The school offers an excellent selection of Secondary courses. Especially inter-. esting are the Career Preparation and the Pre-Apprentice-. ship/Graduation course, mentioned in the School News. The Cassiar School is one of the few piloting Biology 12C. This is the first year that the course has been offered in the province. It is taken by correspondence but there are’ excellent video aids for the course and the students par- * ticipating can receive additional help and advice from the science teacher. Sasso FRIENDLY OFFICE PERSONNEL RE JUST A FEW-SCENES AROUND THE SCHOOL’ pee ee Maintenance Shop The Maintenance Shop for the whole district is located at the Cassiar School. The Supervisor, Mr. Lorne Arm- strong and Mr. Clay Steadman take care of the maint- enance needs of all six schools and the 47 teachers’ res- idences in the District. In some communities part time men are hired to carry out minor repairs. The Maint- enance Dept. also handles the custodial supplies for the Disctrict. All of this means that the crew travels a great deal - 22,000 kilometers since February 1981. “Make-Shift”” Classes have sprung up in various places. This problem will be alleviated with the opening of the: New School in September 1982. i For the past year the School Board Office has ‘been located in Cassiar. Previously it was located in Fort Nelson with the same School Superintendent serving ‘both School District 87 (Stikine) and district 82(Fort Nelson). The localization of the School Board for the Stikine District has proved to be a tremendous asset as the problems in each district are bound to differ. The School Superintendent for the Stikine District, Mr. Owen Corcoran and the rest of the staff employed by ‘the School Board Office are very much tuned_in to the problems and special needs of the district. Besides Mr. Corcoran the School Board Office also houses the Secretary-Treasurer Mr. George Kurian, the Director of Instruction, Mr. Dick Chambers, and three secretaries. As the number of employees of the school board has increased so has the need for more space. Mrs. DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD OFFICE ac OWEN CORCORAN Karen Clark now works out of an office located on Tag- SUPT. OF SCHOOLS, STIKINE SCHOOL DISTRICT 87. ish Street. Mrs. Clark, a resident of Cassiar, has accepted the position of Program Specialist for the whole area. Mrs. Clark will work closely with the teachers in all six schools in the district. She will not only work out pro- grams for children with special needs but also help teachers launch new programs which are being brought to the schools in the district. Also working out of the same office will be Mrs. Sue Chambers the new District Resource Centre Librarian. The District Resource Library has been moved from the school in Cassiar to the office on Tagish Street. GEORGE KURIAN -SECRETARY/TREASURER In the ‘past year the School Board was successful in get- ing approval for a new school in Cassiar which is now: under construction. Mr. Corcoran said that he would al-' so like to see a new facility in Dease Lake by 1983 and a new Secondary facility in Cassiar by 1984. He is looking forward to working with an “energetic” school board”.