KELLY MCMANUS, North Shore Outlook, Feb. 3, 2010

The Fraser Institute releases its annual report card on schools this week, ranking nearly 900 elementary schools across B.C. and while several North Shore schools have sat consistently at the top, local school administrators say the report card doesn’t provide an adequate portrait of schools.

Generated by the Fraser Institute, a right wing think tank, the report card uses data collected in the ministry-mandated Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) for Grades 4 and 7. The institute assigns a mark out of 10 to each school and measures progress or regression in reading, writing and numeracy.

On the North Shore, school administrators say they refer to the ministry’s FSA results internally but don’t put much stock in the independent Fraser Institute rankings.

“I find what the Fraser Institute does doesn’t produce a full picture,” said Tony Macoun, Head of School at West Van’s Mulgrave, an independent school that has performed at the top of the rankings four years running.

KELLY MCMANUS, North Shore Outlook, Jan. 20, 1010

The North Vancouver School Board will consider the closures of four elementary schools. At a highly-attended public meeting Jan. 19 the school board named Plymouth, Seymour Heights, Blueridge and Fromme schools as programs that could see closure or consolidation following a public consultation process under the board’s School Act mandated Policy 610.

The potential closures could help the school board balance the district’s 2010/2011 budget, forecasted to face a $4.66-million shortfall.

In a presentation to trustees, superintendent John Lewis said the district has 2,000 empty seats in its elementary classrooms. With nearly 11,000 students and a current utilization rate of 81 per cent, he said the district could ultimately target a 91 per cent utilization rate to better use district resources.

However, school closures are not mandatory, he said.

“The board does not have to close any schools. The board has to balance its budget,” Lewis said.

KELLY MCMANUS, North Shore Outlook, Jan. 29, 2010

Chef Andrew George dishes on Aboriginal Pavilion menu. Daniel Pi photo

When the Games kick into high gear Chef Andrew George expects to feed about 3,500 people per day.

He’ll offer them dishes like juniper duck, wild rice pilaf, Muskox prosciutto, buffalo burgers served with bannock – fusion foods inspired by Canadian aboriginal cuisine.

He even toyed with naming one dish “VANOC bannock,” but decided against it.

As the head chef at the aboriginal pavilion downtown Vancouver, George will oversee the kitchens at the pavilion and at the 2010 celebration site in Surrey.

His challenge was to “represent as many nations across canada as we could.” George visited remote villages, asking elders about their harvesting, hunting and preserving traditions.

“It’s all based on our traditional foods,” said George of a menu that draws on his training as a Red Seal chef and a culinary ambassador to Europe with Aboriginal Tourism Canada.

KELLY MCMANUS, North Shore Outlook, Jan. 21, 2009

Gino Giragosian. Photo by Daniel Pi

It was a quiet morning at the office for jewelry store owner Gino Giragosian – until he looked up from his computer and into the barrel of a 9 mm pistol.

“The guy says ‘Get down! Get down! Get down!’” recounts Giragosian, 46, owner of Dundarave’s Absolute Design.

The morning of Jan. 19 two men in hoodies and baseball caps went to work smashing and emptying out his display cases, he says, while one other man held the gun on the store owner and kept him on the floor.

Giragosian says he felt rage rising as the watched the men stuff his merchandise – diamonds, necklaces and pendants, he says valuing upwards of $100,000 – into their pockets.

Then they “walked out casually,” says Giragosian.

The livid store owner grabbed a can of bear spray and went after them, but when he tried to empty the canister, the wind blew the eye-burning pepper spray back in his face.

So he chased the men across Marine Drive, “screaming and yelling . . . the first guy had a gun, turned around and shot at me twice.”

Giragosian says adrenaline made him chase their car – an older import model – as it sped away. Plus, he initially thought the gun was a fake.

“I created a jewelry and cigar shop,” he says. “I put all my blood and sweat to create this and some idiot lowlife comes and tries to take it away . . . The only mistake I made – I didn’t grab my baseball bat.”

After a moment he adds, “Thank God I didn’t get shot.”

KELLY MCMANUS, North Shore Outlook, Dec. 24, 2009

Dickens Day is a longstanding tradition at Montroyal elementary for the departing Grade 7 students. Daniel Pi photo

Devon Woods remembers peering through a crack in the library door.

It was the last day of school before the Christmas break seven years ago. Woods could see that the Grade 7s – the oldest kids at the school – were dressed in ball gowns and coats with long tails. A few wore top hats.

Someone had decorated the library with paper snowflakes and Christmas lights, strung cotton batting along the shelves like soft, new snow.

“And they were eating the most amazing food ever – I tried to sneak in and get some.”

But a teacher caught the five-year-old before he could get to the long dinner table to swipe one of the Yorkshire puddings or turkey drumsticks, laid out with candles and all the fixings for a Victorian Christmas feast.

“I had to wait until it was my turn – seven more years.”

The annual Christmas feast at Montroyal elementary – an event for Grade 7s only – is the grand finale in a two-month book study of Victorian literature. They call it Dickens Day, a tradition in its 16th year spearheaded by librarian Mr. Hayes.

The teachers say “the kids just go crazy for it.”

“It’s as big as Christmas Eve,” remarks one parent.

Woods, who is 12 years old and “finally” in Grade 7, explains with his friend Melina Jahanshahi, “Dickens Day is one of the ways we say farewell to elementary school. It’s going to be this big memory . . . we’re at the top here, but we’re going to be at the bottom in high school.”

KELLY MCMANUS, North Shore Outlook, Dec. 2, 2009

A blogger and activist who has voiced anti-Olympic views received a visit from the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit (ISU) at his home on the Capilano Reserve earlier this month.

Dustin Rivers, 21, says two officers questioned him about potential Olympic protests and asked if he would work as an informant for police.

The visit occurred Nov. 5 at Rivers’ family home. Two investigators offered business cards – which Rivers has posted on his blog – identifying themselves as Const. Kirk Rattray of the Joint Intelligence Group and Jordan McLellan of the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit.

Rivers said the investigators told him they were following up with activists or protesters who have voiced opposition to the Olympics.

Cpl. Bert Paquet, a spokesperson for the ISU, confirmed the encounter, explaining, “…these two officers are from our unit and they did visit this individual (Rivers), basically like they do every day with other individuals and groups of potential interest to our security mission.”

Similar incidents involving other activists and Olympic critics have been widely publicized, including multiple visits from investigators to UBC professor Chris Shaw, author of Five Ring Circus (New Society Publishers, 2008), a critique of the 2010 Olympic bid and the potential impact of the Games.

Executive Director of the BC Civil Liberties Association David Eby says his organization has counted about 30 people who have been approached in the last six months by police about their anti-Olympic sentiments.

KELLY MCMANUS, North Shore Outlook, Dec. 10, 2009

Kindergarteners at Canyon Heights and Queen Mary elementary schools shared a full-day in the life for a recent cover story about the coming two-year rollout for all-day-K in B.C. schools. Daniel Pi photo

They had races after lunch out on the tarmac. First they raced one class against the other, then girls against boys.

The girls won. In kindergarten they’re still a bit bigger and faster than the boys, says their teacher, Mr. Beckmann.

“Yeah, I beat Michael,” says one kindergartner, 5-year-old Chloey.

Michael walks past the carpeted corner where Chloey cuts and pastes words about the celebration of light, Diwali. The little boy smirks, raises his foot.

Gently, but oh so deliberately, he places his toes on the top corner of her page.

“Hey, don’t step there. That’s not nice,” Chloey chides.

“Sorry,” says Michael, reddening. He heads off to find some scissors, looking over his shoulder with a sheepish smile.

Two years ago, Washington Post writer William Booth went to a press conference for Rambo IV.

“The chairs are filled with Rambo reporters, some wearing Rambo bandannas, Rambo T-shirts, Rambo fatigues,” he wrote. “It will not be a tough crowd.”

His think piece, “Ready to Rambo” is perhaps my favourite piece of arts journalism because it is so gloriously mean.

Booth deadpans as Stallone talks to reporters about the perception that Rambo can punch heads “clean off.” And he unleashes with narration like, “The years appear to have been kind to Stallone. He is 61. His face has softened, tenderized like a piece of flank steak, whacked by a meat mallet.”

Two years later, I still enjoy performing dramatic readings of this story to my friends, even trying for the husky Stallone voice when he is quoted.

My snarly delight in Booth’s evisceration of Stallone was all I could think about when I read Globe columnist Lynn Crosbie’s story about Stallone’s art career (“I repent,” she writes). Check it out. It’s a great read.

Last week at The  Outlook we put out our 1oth anniversary issue. Check out our exclusive online content here.

In my favourite video, we interview Len Corben, our sports columnist and the author of the popular Instant Replay roundup of North Shore sports history.

We also interview society columnist Cat Barr and Horseshoe Bay paper carrier Hunter Sauve. Here’s to another great decade!

Hollywood hearthrob took their breath away, now he’s pounding the keys for local choir.

KELLY MCMANUS, Outlook newspaper, Oct. 21, 2009

TAKE NOTE, GOSLING. Big screen love god dons monster mask, plays the piano for local choir. High school musicians rub shoulders with big stars. There could be magic here, and more than just the diamond dust sighs inspired when Gosling locked lips with Rachel McAdams in the rain. Daniel Pi photo

What could be scarier and more sublime than proposing to Ryan Gosling?

Singing with him. In a “real gig.”

Next weekend in a concert at Vancouver’s Venue, 11 Carson Graham students will sing with Hollywood actor Gosling’s band, Dead Man’s Bones.

“It’s outside school,” says Grade 12 student Rachel Buttrass of the Venue concert. “It’s not just our parents and our friends (in the audience). People are actually there because they want to see the show.”

The concert is a live performance of the Dead Man’s Bones concept record, a ghost-monster love story brimming with synthy, ironic indie ballads. It showcases a chorus of young voices, originally the children’s choir from California’s Silverlake Conservatory of Music.

This weekend, it won’t be the kids from Silverlake, but the crew from Carson Graham dressed in white cloaks with red hoods, holding flashlights under their faces as their favourite heartthrob, Gosling, croons over the piano.