HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2010-09-02, Page 30PAGE 30. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2010.
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Huron East increased the tax and
zoning certificate fees from $25 to
$35 and increased the cash-in-lieu of
parkland for new created lots from
$350 to $500, which will take effect
on January 1.
Clerk-Administrator Jack McLa-
chlan said in his report that the
municipality averages between 500
and 600 certificates annually and the
increase would result in an increase
of revenue between $5,000 and
$6,000 for the tax and zoning
certificates and $1,800 for the cash-
in-lieu reserve.
***
At its August 24 meeting, Huron
East council received
correspondence from the
Municipality of Arran-Elderslie
expressing interest in a joint meeting
regarding the feasibility of a low
frequency noise bylaw or other
forms of regulation related to wind
turbines.
To date, this is the only positive
response Huron East has received to
its invitation to a joint meeting of
municipalities in its quest to regulate
wind turbines in rural Ontario. The
only other response Huron East has
received was from South Huron,
which declined.
***
Chief Building Official Paul
Josling presented his monthly report,
saying that building permits were
down significantly in July, he
estimates, because of the rush to
build before the HST was
implemented.
Josling issued just 14 permits in
July, a month in which he issued 34
permits in 2009, the most of any
month last year for a value of just
$639,500.
The municipality currently sits at
$8,912,690 in permit value as of the
end of July.
***
Huron East will be submitting five
items to the Huron County
equipment auction. The items will be
a Ford lawn mower, a Chevrolet
2500 4X4 truck, a Massey loader
tractor, a Mack snow plow truck and
a 740 Champion grader.
Huron East
increases
zoning costs
Edwardian equipment
Lou Cull (left) and Jenna Howatt donned their period dress
for the Edwardian Tour and Tea event at the North Huron
Museum. (Denny Scott photo)
The first day of work is almost
here for the newly-hired Early
Childhood Education (ECE)
specialists now employed by the two
district school boards in Huron and
Perth Counties.
At their first regular meeting on
the 2010-11 school calendar, trustees
of the Huron-Perth Catholic District
School Board received a report on
Monday, Aug. 23 about the now-
imminent arrival of full-day, all-day
Kindergarten. For the Huron-Perth
board, year-one Education Ministry
funding in the province-wide
initiative allows for four classrooms
split between two different
elementary school sites: St. Joseph’s
in Clinton and St. Ambrose in
Stratford.
Beginning Sept. 7, four and five-
year-olds will attend all day, every
day, with programming split half-
and-half between traditional
Kindergarten curriculum and new-
to-publicly-funded-schools ECE
learning. In keeping with that ratio,
there will also be an even split of
instructors: one teacher plus oneECE specialist for each classroom.Next year, three more classroomswill be introduced at St. Mary’s in
Goderich. That’s in keeping with the
funding provided by the Education
Ministry for year two – including a
recently-announced $468,000
contribution for the construction of a
one-classroom addition at the
school.
According to superintendent of
business Gerry Thuss, the tendering
process for that project will begin in
September, with construction
expected to begin in the early spring
of 2011.
The three host schools, trustees
were reminded at the Aug. 23
meeting, were chosen based on a
range of factors, including the
availability of classroom spaces, the
potential for adequate enrolment in
the program, and a low potential for
disruption of existing ECE services.
According to director of education
Martha Dutrizac, Huron-Perth
administrators were pleasantly
surprised by the quality of applicants
they received for both the
Kindergarten and newly-created
ECE positions in St. Joseph’s and St.
Ambrose.Responding to questions fromtrustees, she noted the board will belearning by doing when it comes to
determining how the two types of
professionals will work together. But
she stressed the board clearly set out
the responsibilities of both
Kindergarten and ECE instructors,
and believes that will provide strong
guidelines with which to proceed.
An added potential complication,
she noted, will be the addition of
Educational Assistants (EAs) for
students with special needs. She said
none of the Huron-Perth board’s four
classrooms will face that challenge
this year, “but it’s a good question
because it will certainly come up at
some boards across the province.”
Contracts have been approved for
the board’s ECE instructors,
Dutrizac said. Currently, they’re
being treated as a separate employee
group within the board, and are not
represented by a labour union.
In some boards across the
province, ECEs in the new all-day,
full-day program are represented by
the Canadian Union of Public
Employees, which is negotiating on
their behalf.
By Stew SlaterSpecial to The CitizenKindergarten split between teachersand Early Childhood Educators