A26
THE FREE PRESS NEWS DECEMBER 15, 1994
Shoppers feeling confident about spending
 By DAVID HEYMAN
  Prince George Free Press
     The Christmas shopping season is in full swing, but some stores are still waiting for the rush of shoppers.
     The manager of Spruceland Shopping Centre says sales are normal at her mall. “I honestly don’t think the rush has come to town yet,” says Coral Britton, who thinks people just aren’t in the mood. “Last year, Christmas started late, about the second week in December.”
     The manager of Pine Centre Mall, Rick Nelson, says sales where he works are great.
     “1 would say that we are up from last year. I don’t see the sales until the month is over, but 1 go by a feeling of what the mall looks like and the traffic and, yes, things look very good. If you’ve been in this business
  for 20 or 30 years you get a gut feeling of how things are going."
     Mr. Nelson says he estimates the Christmas rush started in November and he credits the early start to optimism about the economy. “In Prince George, our economy is reasonably good and a lot of people are working.”
     Parkwood superintendent Doug Berry says the shoppers also arrived early where he is, too.
     “For us it was about the third week in November and that is ahead of last year. It’s good to see the customers have confidence in going out and shopping again.”
     Mr. Berry also credits his mall’s early start to the economy. “Just confidence in the marketplace. There hasn’t been any one thing in particular.”
 Board backs letter grade protest
    The Prince George school board has decided to help out parents at Highglen Elementary School who want to contradict government policy and bar teachers from handing out letter grades to their children. The board has supported the Montessori school’s appeal to the ministry of education for an exemption from the rules mandating that all school kids in the province get letter grades.
    Trustee Shirley Bond says the school board can’t grant the exemption by itself; it must come from the ministry. “The minister of education has to do that. But the board unanimously agreed that...if the parents don’t want letter grades with that particular program, we feel that’s a pretty important issue.
    “We believe reporting should address the kinds of information parents want to receive, but at this
  point all we’ve approved is a letter of support.”
     Ms. Bond says the government should respond to the request very shortly. But even if the answer is no, or if the government doesn’t respond before the end of the next reporting period, Ms. Bond says they could get around it on a technicality. “What they could do, if they are required to use the letter grades, is have them put the letter grade in the child’s file but not on the report card. Then the parent could request either to see it or receive it verbally.”
     The Highglen school has been operating without letter grades since 1985 with the policy that the school should have a non-competitive environment.
     The government brought in the mandatory-let-ter grade policy this year.
    Justin
 TimeJ’or
 Christmas
Christmas rush started back in November and has continued at a steady pace, rob biron/free press
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