HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2009-05-07, Page 7After an Avon Maitland DistrictSchool board staff’srecommendation last month,
members of the community are
fighting mad.
The board, however, is defending
the decision that would see Grade 7
and 8 students in high school two
years early, students end up in
portables and two schools close their
doors for good.
There are concerns that instead of
a fully-equipped new facility,
proposed by the Central East North
Huron Accommdation Review
Committee (ARC), children will be
relegated to old facilities, which will
need portables to accommodate the
new amount of students. There are
also concerns about the schools’
Grade 7 and 8 students headed to
secondary school two years early.
Superintendent of education Mike
Ash says the scope of the Centre of
Excellence was not feasible from the
beginning and that the staff’s
proposals achieve the perfect mix of
education and economic quality.
“The board staff provided a
recommendation to the trustees
based on the fiscal reality that we
have at the present time,” Ash said.
“It would have been irresponsible
for us to recommend that the trustees
build a school that we don’t have the
finances for.”
Ash says that while he feels the
Centre of Excellence proposal has its
problems, the board has applied for
funding for three different projects,
one of them being the North Huron
project, in this round of the Local
Priorities Grant, which is allocated
by the provincial government. If the
board is approved for funding to
build a new facility, Ash said, there
will be time to alter the proposal to
include this information.
Even if the funding is approved,
however, he said the board’s
proposed school would be on a much
smaller scale than the proposed
Centre of Excellence.
“The community’s
recommendation certainly is a
positive one in terms of educating
the kids. Where we disagree is with
the logistics of how we would fund it
and whether it addresses all of our
concerns in the North Huron area
and whether it addresses those needs
going into the future,” Ash said.
ARC member and Morris-
Turnberry councillor Mark Beaven
stated earlier that declining
enrollment in the area’s secondary
schools is not a task that the ARC
was charged with, so for a solution
to come out of this process for the
secondary school problem, is not
fair.
Beaven calls the grouping of
Grade 7 and 8 students with
secondary school students as old as
18 and 19, “ridiculous,” pointing out
that all members of the community
who attended ARC meetings were
against this proposal above all else.
Beaven says there are parents from
Stratford, where a similar proposal
was carried out, who support the
ARC’s claims that students are
exposed to higher levels of drugs,
alcohol, smoking and sexual activityin secondary school.Ash, however, disagrees, sayingthat the grouping of these studentshas resulted in a mentoring system,where older students tend to take
younger students under their wing.
He is disturbed by the image being
presented of the students of F.E.
Madill Secondary School.
“Inadvertently, I believe, the
members of the community have
painted a picture of the students of
F.E. Madill Secondary School as
drug fiends, smokers, alcoholics and
child molesters, and that is the
furthest thing from the truth,” Ash
said.
“These are good kids. These are
the kids that babysit our young
children, these are the kids that work
in our businesses. They are
responsible, well-behaved students
that have a lot to offer the
community and they have a lot to
offer the Grade 7 and 8 students in
terms of mentoring.”
A trip is currently being planned
by the board that will take concerned
parents to Stratford to see this
system in action.
Beaven, however, takes offense to
this.
When he and several other ARC
members proposed a bus trip to see a
similar school to the Centre of
Excellence, the board denied the
request, even after payment was
proposed, Beaven said.
Ash says that any Grade 7 and 8
students who are placed in a
secondary school setting will now
receive two orientation sessions, one
as they finish Grade 6, ready to enter
a secondary school for the first time,
then the traditional session in Grade
8, as they enter Grade 9.
Under the staff’s proposal, Ash
says, the elementary students in a
secondary setting will remain in
their designated area where they will
be taught and supervised by
elementary teachers. They will,
however, have access to secondary
school facilities, such as a science
lab, drama class and a larger
gymnasium.
However, when it comes to
assemblies and school activities, the
elementary students would be
included, to make them feel like
members of the school community.
“The worst thing we could do is
isolate the Grade 7 and 8 students so
much that they’re not part of the
school community,” Ash said.
“There are concerns surrounding
social interaction, in our experience,
that hasn’t been an issue.”
Beaven insists the staff’s proposal
was something the board was
prepared to implement from the
beginning of the process.
Ash refutes that allegation, saying
the board had some proposals
already mapped out, but that is part
of its job, to be prepared.
“Did we have our recommended
scenario as part of our consideration
as we went through the process?
Most certainly. We wouldn’t bedoing our jobs if we didn’t look at anumber of scenarios,” Ash said. “But we also listened, throughseven public meetings, to theconcerns of the community, which is
why, in our recommendation, we
indicated in the preamble that our
preference would be to build a new
school, but unfortunately, we don’t
have the dollars to do that.”
Despite the ARC’s funding
proposal, which included money
from lower-tier municipalities,
private donations and federal and
provincial funding, Ash says there
has been no indication any level of
government is prepared to support
the project financially.
“We have been told there may be
announcements later this spring, but
until those announcements come, we
can’t budget based on something
that we don’t know,” Ash said
“Certainly we cannot ignore the
finances. We at the board are in
charge of a public trust and as such,
we have to make sure to balance the
budget, and with the money we do
receive, provide the best possible
education. That best possible
education is something we take very
seriously,” Ash said.
Under the current proposal and
with the board’s current enrollment
projections, there will be a
temporary need for one portable at
Wingham Public School and as
many as four portables at Hullett
Central Public School.
Ash says while the portables
would be a temporary solution, with
enrollment projections showing a
decline over the next school year,
there is no concern over a possible
educational decline due to portables
at the board level.
“I can appreciate some parents are
concerned about the prospect that
their children might be in portables,”
Ash said. “We have been able to deal
with this situation in a straight-
forward manner so it doesn’t impact
the students negatively throughout
their day at school”
He admits that years ago, there
were health concerns with portables,
but no longer.
“We have taken a very serious
approach to ensuring that our
portables are up to standard,” he said
In recent years, Ash said,
certicification testing has been
brought in where every portable in
the board is tested annually. And if
the board were to purchase or lease
any portables, they would have to go
through that testing before they are
placed on school ground.
Doug Garniss, a former board
trustee for Morris-Turnberry, says
that by the time he had left the board,
it had done away with portables,
almost completely, there were
mould issues at the time. Whether or
not portables had an impact on the
value of education, he said, was
always debated at the board
level.
“I had some students and even
some parents, in the later days, comeup to me and tell me that they likedthe portables better, because theywere air-conditioned,” Garniss said.Garniss, who served on the boardfor six years, wrapping up his term
just before amalgamation, says he
had a feeling the board wouldn’t be
in support of the Centre of
Excellence proposal, mostly because
of cost issues.
Ash says, however, that vacancy
issues in other area schools could not
be ignored when building another
school. He said that funding is often
allocated based on who is making
the best use of their existing space.
“For the coming year, we will have
approximately 3,000 elementary
spots vacant and 1,400 secondary
school spots vacant across the
board,” he said. “Unfortunately forus, we get funded by the number ofbodies in the building, not by thesize of the building.”While federal and provincialfunding has yet to be determined,
Beaven says that a motion will be
coming through Morris-Turnberry
council very soon to allocate an
undetermined amount of funding
towards the Centre of Excellence
proposal.
In a similar vein, North Huron
council will also be supporting the
ARC’s recommendation officially at
an upcoming meeting.
Beaven is still urging concerned
parents to continue to protest the
staff proposal and attend meetings.
The next one is at Wingham Public
School on May 12 at 7 p.m.
THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2009. PAGE 7.Board’s option has residents fighting mad
During the early morning hours of
May 2, unknown suspect(s) broke
into JJ’s Fireside Café in Morris-
Turnberry.
The culprits disabled sensor lights
and entered through a window on the
rear of the building.
Once inside they removed a
quantity of food, liquor and
restaurant property including cash.
The investigation is ongoing.
Anyone with information is
encouraged to call the Huron OPP at
1-800-31-1122 or Crime Stoppers at
1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
On Tuesday, May 12 a bus has been arranged to transport
interested individuals to visit the 7-12 schools in Stratford. The
bus will leave the North Huron Wescast Community Centre at
8:30 a.m. and will arrive at Stratford Northwestern S.S./P.S. at
approximately 9:30 a.m. A tour will be provided, followed by a
question and answer session with parents, students, staff and
administration at that school. There will be a lunch break from
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. and then the bus will take participants
to Stratford Central S.S./P.S. Following a tour and question
and answer session at this school the bus will head back to
Wingham with an expected arrival time of approximately 2:30 p.m.
Individuals wishing to be part of the bus trip
are asked to book a spot through
Sue Hicks at the Education Centre
at 1-800-592-5437 ext 110
or by email at
suehick@fc.amdsb.ca.
Please book your spot
no later than Friday May 8.
Learn More About Grade 7 & 8 in the Secondary Setting
Community Meeting
Monday May 11
7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. at F.E. Madill
Bus Tour
Tuesday May 12
8:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Stratford 7-12 Schools
A delegation of parents, students, staff and administration from the
two Stratford 7-12 schools will be on hand to describe their current
program, the process that they used to transition to the current
model and the successes and challenges that they have had over
the past six years. Later in the meeting Martin Ritsma, principal
of FEMSS, will discuss what the model could look like at FEMSS.
Nordic Walking in Huron
Four weeks, one hour per week.
Cost $20.00 for 4 classes.
Poles are provided. Classes will be the same
days/times for the whole sessions.
Pre-registration is required!
Please call Nadine at
Town and County Support Services
519-482-9264
Take notice that the Council of the Municipality of
Central Huron will be considering an
ATV Bylaw at their regular meeting,
Monday, May 11, 2009 @ 7:30 p.m.
For further information or a copy of the draft bylaw
please contact the Municipal office at
(519) 482-3997, email info@centralhuron.com
or in person at 23 Albert Street, Clinton, Ontario.
Brenda MacIsaac, Clerk
Municipality of Central Huron
PUBLIC
NOTICE
Construction
Ph.:519-523-9354
Cell:519-525-8615
Custom
5" seamless eavestrough
in aluminum or steel
New
By Shawn LoughlinThe Citizen
OPP investigate May 2
restaurant break-in