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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, May 2, 2013
Volume 29 No. 18
SPECIAL - Pg. 11Our annual spring homeand garden guide FIRE - Pg. 32Foodland in Seaforthgoes up in flamesFAIR- Pg. 6Elementary School Fairchooses its ambassadorPublications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0INSIDE THIS WEEK:
Blyth area schools to see enrolment increase
Margaret Trudeau wows crowd of over 550
A meeting of the minds
Margaret Trudeau, seated, welcomed over 550 people to
the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre on Friday
night for a lecture where she discussed everything from
being married to the Prime Minister, to her son Justin, who
may be the next Prime Minister to her time spent with the
Rolling Stones. Predominantly, however, Trudeau was in
Brussels to discuss her struggles with mental health and her long
road to recovery. After the lecture she answered questions, met
people, posed for pictures and signed copies of her book
Changing My Mind. Here, Maria Mikus, centre, from Wroxeter, and
Sue Richmond, right, from Cambridge got a book signed and even
chatted with the woman herself. (Shawn Loughlin photo)
Elementary schools in the Blyth
area will see slight enrolment growth
over the next 15 years, the Avon
Maitland District School Board
(AMDSB) trustees have learned.
Currently, 948 students are
enrolled between Maitland River
Elementary Schools at both
campuses and F.E. Madill Grade 7-8
students. That number will increase
to 1,059 students by 2027, with
growth being greatest at Maitland
River. However, the numbers are not
as good for the area’s only high
school, F.E. Madill. Current student
enrolment is 748 but by 2027, that
number will fall to 612.
Randy Wagler, chair of finance
committee, said, “The bottom line is
that by and large elementary
enrolment has stabilized, there will
be some minor ups and downs and
some regions have a little more up
but nothing huge one way or the
other.”
“That situation is not quite true for
secondary, the large change we have
seen in our [decreased] elementary
enrolment, we will see that roll
through the secondary over then next
five years. It means a 15 to 20 per
cent drop in our secondary schools
because of that wave,” he added.
Mike Ash, superintendent of
education, said, “We were not
surprised by the projections but we
were encouraged by the elementary
enrolment stabilizing. We had
anticipated the decline in our
secondary, and our decline locally is
actually lower than what is expected
provincially. That was some good
news for us.”
He said many of the AMDSB
communities have already
stabilized, the Mitchell area in
particular, he noted.
“Some communities will see a
greater decline in secondary than
what we were anticipating. It was a
bit of a surprise to see it on paper,”
said Ash. He pointed to South Huron
as the greatest area of concern. “That
high school will be at a significant
decline over the next five to 10
years, to numbers in the 400-500
range from a school that at one point
had almost 900 students. It is a
significant change,” he said.
Ash noted, “The encouraging
thing about the enrolment
projections is that, through our
accommodation review process, we
are going to sustain good building
utilization. We have put the board in
a good spot for making effective use
of the resources we have, even
though it has been a very difficult
process for our communities to go
through.”
“We believe that we have been
able to create a sustainable
infrastructure for our school board
going forward. We will continue to
monitor our enrolment and there
may be some areas of the board
where we have to make some
adjustments but not in the immediate
future,” he said.
Ash said that for the board it
means a slight decrease in provincial
funding. “We are looking at a
decline over the next 10 to 15 years
in about 10 per cent of our secondary
enrolment, which is going to have an
equal decline in the budget for our
secondary schools. Elementary is
not going to be as great as that
enrolment will stabilize,” he said.
“With the enrolment projections
we now have to start planning for
what that financial impact will mean
in terms of staffing and
programming for those schools,”
said Ash. Wagler noted that the
enrolment projections have been
updated in full, using the 2011
Census data. “We use this
information to inform everything
from planning, planning
accommodation reviews, facilities
updated and so forth. This is really
useful information for the board.”
He noted the planning areas have
changes slightly but did not have a
major impact on individual school
enrolment.
Over 550 flocked to the Brussels,
Morris and Grey Community Centre
on Friday night to listen to one of
Canadian history’s most prominent
women: Margaret Trudeau.
Brought to Brussels by the
Bluevale/Walton Pastoral Charge,
Trudeau spoke to the hundreds
gathered for over two hours, telling
tales from her life and answering
questions from those in attendance.
She also spent a significant amount
of time meeting dozens of people,
signing their books and tickets and
posing for pictures with them.
Trudeau spoke largely about
mental health and about her own
mental health struggles with bi-
polar disorder and her long road to
recovery.
She said that while she loved her
husband, Pierre Elliott Trudeau,
very much, after the couple had their
second child, Alexandre (Sacha), it
was as if “the light had gone off”.
She said she didn’t want to get out
of bed and that she gradually
withdrew more and more from her
friends and family.
Originally, she said, she was
shrugged off by doctors, having her
depression dismissed as “baby
blues” but in reality, it was the
beginning of her life-long bout with
bi-polar disorder.
She said she began to deal with
extreme mood swings in her life,
where she would be extremely
happy and energetic when her
family would be happy to have her
“back”. However, those periods
would only last so long before she
crashed once again into a deep
depression.
During her high bouts of “mania”
Trudeau said that greatness always
seemed like it was just inches out of
reach. She said she felt she could
write the definitive great novel if she
By Hilary Long
Special to The Citizen
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Continued on page 10