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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1972-12-28, Page 7Mr. J. Broadfoot Mrs, M. Kunder * Mr. FL Turkheim Mr. C. McDonald * Mr. J. Ridell Mr. C. Rau 2 1 2 119 TIME to thank you for your loyal patronage, and extend best wishes for a Happy NEW YEAR TRAVEL-ON SALES & RENTALS SUNKAMPER DEALER Gordon and Shirley Steepe RR 2, Clinton 482-3364 BILL TALBOT BAYFIELD, BP PHONE 565-2500 BAYFIELD BAYFIELD BP OFFERS THE BEAUTIFUL BRUTES FROM THE NORTH SNOWMOBILES SEE ME NOW! FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY! CON TO -11-1-111E We've enjoyed working for and with you. Once more, let's join hands to build together for the future good of our community. THE MANAGEMENT AND STAFF At Clinton Community Credit Union • 7 0 Ontario St. 48243467 • 262 BAYFIELD RD. 482.7062 C L I NTON ishing all of our good friends a New Year filled with health and happiness. HAROLD WISE LIMITED . We're sending you all our best wishes for the New Year. Our thanks for the pleasure of serving you. 482-9411 245 Victoria Clinton " STERLING FUELS Bonnie and Ross Jewitt FUELS TRUCKS 2 - 1970 CheV. 1 ton pick up V 8 Aut. 1970 GMC one ton stake with duals V-8 auto 1970 Ford 1/2 ton. 1969 Chev. 50 series, 350 erg. 5 speed Trans. Cab & Chassis 1969 Ford Super Van 2 1969 Chevy Van V -8 Auto 6 cyt. auto. 1968 1 ton pickup. • / 1969 Ford econoline Van 6 aut., Clinton. New-Record, Thursday, .Pecem.ber gts, 1970- R. AL Elliott retires from Huron County Board of Education 4y Wilma Oke The following is a speech given by Chairman Robert Elliott of Clinton, who is retiring from the Huron County Board of Education as of December 31, at the last board meeting of the year held recen- tly in the new board offices, 103 Albert Street in Clinton. In 1967 incumbent Premier of Ontario, the Honorable William Davis, then Minister of Education, announced the in- ception of County Boards of Education for the •Province of Ontario. Their prime goal was to be equality of opportunity for all students in the Province. As well my personal feelings were that he felt the time was ripe for units of larger ad- ministration for reasons of economy, efficiency and collec- tive bargaining. Whatever he thought, I'm sure the result has not been completely as plan- ned. People smile, taxpayers cry, when economy is men- tioned in the same breath as education. Why have taxes con- tinued to rise while county boards proudly exclaim that they have cut costs? Well, the obvious reason is, what other cost:- have 'come down? What would the costs have gone to if the smaller boards had con- tinued to exist? The hypothetical questions have various answers, depending on who chooses to answer them, A quick look at the statistics and facts shows a considerable decrease in administrative per- sonnel in Huron County. Star- ting with the trustees them- selves, we find over 125 trustees have been replaced, initially by 14 and now 16 members. Unfortunately, some people feel this has caused a remoteness of the board from the people it serves. People have not chosen, or the press has been unsuccessful, or the board has not promoted just exactly where the people's representatives fit into this complex scheme. I say complex, because anything which is not understood is complex. Representation is very simple, however, and I will attempt to have people'see onee more how the board is made up. It was actually the duty of County Council in the beginning to set up areas based on a common base. They chose representation based on assessment and divided the County into ten areas and designated how many members each area should have. Starting in the northwest corner of the County, I will outline the areas, the number of representatives for each area and the represen- tative for 1973 and 1974: Municipalities Townships of Ashfield West Wawanosh Townships of Winghain & East Wawenosh Townships of Turnberry & Howick Town of Goderich Townships of Grey, Morris & Brussels Townships of Goderich & Colborne Townships of Hullett, McKillop, Bluth and Town of Clinton Townships of Tuckersmith, Stanley, Bayfield & Town of Seaforth Townships of Hay, Hensall & Zurich Townships of Usborne, Stephen and Town of Exeter Separate School Supporters in Huron County "These members form the larger unit of administration and replace all the small elementary school boards and the five secondary school boards that previously existed in Huron County. They are responsible for all the elemen- tary, secondary and the schools for the Trainable Retarded in Huron County. They each replace, on the average, 12 or 13 former trustees, "Administratively, the story is the same. On the business side two men, a superintendent of business and a chief accoun- tant with a small office staff replaced five business ad- ministrators in the secondary schools and 22 secretary- treasurers of the elementary school boards in the County. "Academically, the Director Of Education, 'two Superinten- dents and two Assistant Superintendents replace the in- spectors of yesteryear and are responsible to the County Board instead of the Depart- ment of Education as formerly. Add to this reduction in staff the savings incurred by volume buying of supplies, or services and of collective salary negotiations and you have an idea of the savings that have been made. However, larger units gave rise to new unions being established such as custodian and clerical workers, for these people were now numerous enough to be cer- tified. Huron County has one of the smallest administrative staffs per student of any in On- tario, and yet one of the most efficient. One has only to look back over the past four, or even two years, to see that this board has endeavoured to fulfil the prime reason for county boards: equality of opportunity. These representatives, and rightfully so, have not looked after their own areas at the expense of the overall County aspect. They have worked together to see that, all students received an equal share of all that was to be offered. It has not always been possible to achieve things like this in a ,short time, but those who have students who have been helped because of kindergarten, because of the addition of libraries, because of Opportunity Classes, because of all the forms of Special Education that are now existent in Huron County, speak highly of the system, because they have seen the results of what the larger unit can do. Those critics of the educational aspect of the en- deavours of the Huron County Board of Education are just not aware of the hours of the days that the members have spent trying to better com- prehend and hence, develop policy that would extend the learning processes to more and more students at a level they could understand and at a cost they felt the taxpayer could af- ford, The press in our County has reported through the past year meetings that were held with teachers, with superinten- dents joint discussions with academic people, within and without our system in an at- tempt to learn what is being done in our system to help the students become better and more learned citizens able to take their place in society, "As you know, our board took up its first residence in the County Council Chambers in the Court House in Goderich. It was not long, however, until we realized accommodation had to be more than was available there and so the Nurses' Residence adjacent to the Clin- ton Public Hospital was leased from the Clinton Hospital Board and renovated, at a minor cost, to the needs of the Huron County Board of Education administrative staff. This served until this year, at which time, the hospital board informed the Board of Education that they needed the space to accommodate doctors and perhaps the Huron County Health Unit in the quarters in the Nurses' Residence. The Huron County Board then in- vestigated the possibilities of a new home for their ad- ministrative staff. We have been criticized by many for choosing to renovate an older building rather than building a new one. I would like to point out to the citizens of Huron County that this is not money squandered, but money necessarily spent to house an efficient administrative staff which is attempting to carry on a 10.5 million dollar business in the County of Huron, and I do not believe that $200,000 is an exorbitant amount of money to spend to procure office space such as we have here in the Town of Clinton. Had we chosen a new building, we feel the cost would have been a minimum of $325,000 and for that amount of money we would not have received the space on one floor, which I believe to be an advantage. We would not have, in all probability, had it completed-as quickly to accommodate the Hospital Board in their need for more space, and I hope in the near future the public can be invited in to what has been called the "old knitting fac- tory", to see what has been done in the way of renovation. "I am pleased, as chairman of this board, to come to the people, to stand before you tonight unashamed of what this board has done, proud of the way it has worked together, of- fering no apologies for its con- duct, feeling that every minor, or major event that has taken place has been well thought out. I do not agree, personally, with everything that has been done, but it has ail been achieved in a democratic man- ner with a majority decision and with the rights of the minority respected. In a democratic society, one cannot ask for more. "There has been criticism of the committee system which we are using at the present time in the conduct of our meetings. I believe the committee system has served a useful purpose, has cut down on the amount of time required to handle the volume of business necessarily handled each month by the board. The committee system has given every member of the board a chance to debate in Committee and also at the open meeting, if he so desires, any point which he wants to discuss. I think the committee system could be improved by two things -- 1. That only those members who are elected to a committee should be allowed to discuss, in committee, those points which are on ten com- mittee's agenda. ." fwever, every board member hould be notified what the agenda will be when the committee is meeting and be allowed to at- tend and listen, thereby being given the chance to prepare any pertinent information to be presented, at the open meeting, and thereby giving the public a clear insight into the workings of the Board of Education. As it stands now, a member debates at the committee level and by the time a decision ,comes to the open board, there is no debate left, because everyone has had an oppor- tunity to have his say and so the public perhaps is not as aware of the thought and discussion that has gone into a decision when it reaches the Board level, This, in effect, would make the committee presenting a report the "Gover- nment" and the members who are not on the committee the "opposition". As it now stands, two major standing committees exist--management and education. The names imply their duties--one being business, the other academic, half of the board and the chair- man and vice-chairman are on each. 2. A committee which has served a very worthwhile pur- pose has been the chairman's advisory committee. This com- mittee is comprised of four members, the chairman, the vice-chairman, the chairman of the education committee and the chairman of the management committee. These people have not met often, but they have met when necessary as a sounding board for the chairman, to discuss very con- fidential personnel problems and to present to the Board reports on these problems whenever deemed necessary, and handling of necessity, must be kept confidential. Some people say there should be nothing confidential in public business, but I believe that anyone who has dealt with per- sonnel or personal problems knows this to be untrue. However, because of its con- fidential nature, this committee has perhaps caused some suspicion, and although I am an advocate of it and though I am chairman, I would have to vote against its future use sim- ply because we cannot afford to have any group, or organization within the board which does not have the wholehearted sup- port of all the members. "It would be my hope for next year that the committee system, two standing commit- tees, (education and management) will continue to exist and will be handled in the way that I have just outlined so that. the people will be better informed--not that the work will be more fairly handled than it has been, but that more people will know how it has been handled and have faith that all facets of a problem have been discussed. There is no doubt that sometime it will be necessary for the chairman to call on senior members of the board for advice or opinions and this should not be taken as a sign of secrecy, but only to, confirm or reject his own opinions. As most of you knows we have in the past year moved some of our elementary prin- cipals to new locations within the County. These gentlemen, and I call them gentlemen sin- cerely, have done an excellent job in picking up the reins in a new school, in fulfilling their duties as principal and, chief administrator in these new areas and have organized smoothly functioning educational institutions fulfilling the purpose for which they were built. These men and understandably so, were riot initially, entirely happy with their moves, but I am happy that they now have seen that the need of the system has been answered by their wholehear- ted co-operation and ability to adjust and fulfil the position entrusted to them, My thanks and congratulations to these men, and I hope that this prac- tice will not be abused, but will be used in the future so that all schools may benefit from a change of our capable Prin- cipals. "My congratulations also go to the other fine members of our staff whether they be ad- ministrative, teaching, custodial, clerical or engineering. They are all part of the educational process in Huron County. We have had our differences, we have had our agreements, we have had ups and downs, but through it all I feel quite confident that everyone felt' the other was striving to achieve the same goal--that of a better educational system for the students of Huron County at a justifiable cost. "My thanks to my vice- chairman, to the other fine members of this board who have worked with me throughout the past two years. It is my sincere hope that those of you who are remaining, and those of you who are coming in for the first time, will strive to work together, will strive to achieve mutual trust as you work together with the ad- ministration so that the people of Huron County can continue to feel proud of their system and, if there have been any errors that thise At Daytona Beach, a steam car reached 128 mph ... in 1906! This was a record that stood for 15 years, says the Ontario Safety League. In that same year, 1906, a Cadillac Model M sold for $950; a Ford Model K sold for $2,500. Independent Shipper to United Co-operative of Ontario Livestock Dept Toronto Ship Your Liv•stock with Roy Scotc'hmer Monday Is Shipping Day From Varna Stockyard CALL BAYFIELD 56542636 By 7:30 cm. Monday For Prompt Sorslco Mg Char.'s on Plekrso ti ie • a • i• • will be corrected and that hopefully there will be no more marle,e but don't count too highly on that! It is also my wish that members will con- finite to be broadminded enough to see the total aspect of the County system, It is won- derful to be able to represent an area of the County, but the Huron County Board can not function as a group of 16 in- dividuals, it must he a unit which looks at the total picture, with the rights of the in- dividual areas respected, "1 have given more time than I like to think about to the Board of Education, but I do not regret it. I will miss the work, the fellowship, the sense of challenge and accomplish- ment that comes from working together with other dedicated individuals. May I wish all of you the best in the years to come, and ask for your support for the new chairman, It is not always an easy task, but never unbearable when fifteen fellow members are giving you their wholehearted co-operation. "Compliments of the Season to all, Thank you, • • • • • • • • • a • • • 0 • • • a • • S . • • • • • • a • • a a a a a • No. of Reps. Reps for 1973-74 1 Mrs, M. Zinn * Mr, J,P, Alexander 1 Mr, A, Corrigan Mr. E,C, Hill 2, 4' Mrs. J.W. Wallace Mr. D. McDonald Mr. W. Shortreed 1 * Mr. J. Westbrook 2 Mr. J, Henderson * Mr. K.C. Cooke * (Please Note: Newly elected representatives for 1973-74) 7 - '72 Ohev.Impalas 2 &4 dr.II.T's. 3 - "72 Buick Skylarks 4 dr. LT's. 1 -'72 Ventura 4 dr, 1- '72 Grand Torino 2 dr. H.T. 2- "72 Buick Customs LaSabre dr.I1,T,'s 2- '72 Le Mon 4 dr. Sedan 3 •-"72 Chev. 4 dr. 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