School bus decision has negative impact

To the Editor,

Re: Catchments upset Cinnabar parents, Sept. 16.

I understand the basis of this decision is due to the cost of the bus which reduces the school district expenses by approximately $25,000.

What I do not understand is the children in this area are entitled to a bus service to Cedar Secondary School, and if all of these students transfer to Cedar another bus would then have to be added to accommodate them.

How does this even make sense?

The Nanaimo school district has only saved this money by passing this expense onto the parents.

As stated at the school board meeting on Sept. 17, Cedar secondary is at capacity, having to utilize portables.

John Barsby Secondary School is under capacity and has empty classes. Why are we heating portables?

This is our community and the children have all gone to school together, played sports together, etc.

Now they must attend seperate high schools, dividing the community.

By forcing the parents to now drive their kids to and from school the emissions of 31 vehicles are being put into our atmosphere as opposed to one school bus.

I am disappointed in the near-sighted thinking of this school board.

It is disheartening to have a decision affect so many children and families in such a negative way.

Brenda Amy

Nanaimo

Special needs service inadequate, unfair

To the Editor,

Re: Children with special needs left waiting, survey says, Oct. 7.

I used to live in Nanaimo and Ladysmith and I don’t like the services they have in Nanaimo and Ladysmith for children and adults with autism.

Not only that, adults with autism got denied paid employment and can’t live on their own due to high rent costs and they can’t get help from the school district for education.

Instead, they are forced to go on a waiting list for community living services for people with special needs that do not help at all. That is not fair.

Daniel Jorgensen

Scotsburn, NS

Government working on reducing waitlists

To the Editor,

Re: Children with special needs left waiting, survey says, Oct. 7.

The Ministry of Children and Family Development is working to address the increasing demand for intervention services for children and youth with special needs in Nanaimo.

Since 2001, we have doubled funding to the Nanaimo Child Development Centre to a current level of $2.4 million, and this year we have increased funding for early intervention therapies by more than $100,000 and injected an additional $25,000 to assist in addressing speech and language pathologist waitlists.

The Nanaimo Child Development Centre has experienced tremendous success with its programs and services and as a result, there has been increasing demand.

So while our efforts have helped to reduce waitlists by 11 per cent in the past year, referral rates have increased by 24 per cent during that same period of time.

The answer is not isolated to funding. Other factors include those such as ensuring there are enough trained professionals to deliver the services.

To that end, MCFD is working with the Nanaimo Child Development Center to develop a strategy that will determine how best to address this issue over the long-term in order to better serve families requiring early intervention services.

Tom Christensen

Minister, Children and Family Development

Nanaimo should divide into ward system

To the Editor,

Re: Subsidy needs another look, Oct. 2.

The mere 30-year-old north end has had plenty of subsidy from the south of Nanaimo over those years – roads, sewage treatment and our water.

With Nanaimo as a whole, it is mainly being run by people living in the north.

With basically unbounded sprawl, this city election should consider two things.

First, go back to the pre-1990 ward system we had before the north became the dominant sprawl.

Second, divide Nanaimo along the federal electoral riding and elect councillors much as in the Lower Mainland cities.

Neil Saunders

Nanaimo