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Home My WebLink AboutThe Citizen, 2007-07-05, Page 21On the one hand, the Ontariogovernment’s Specialist High SkillsMajor (SHSM) initiative has the potential to improve the education system’s ability to prepare students for the workforce. On the other, however, initialstages of the program locally haveseen most of the benefits go to largerschools and communities.“Next year, if you live in Stratford, technically you’ll have access to three different High Skills Majors. If you live in Goderich; if you live inExeter and you don’t want to have todrive, you’ll have access to none,”said Ted Doherty, educationsuperintendent for the AvonMaitland District School Board. Doherty delivered a report about the developments in the board’s SHSM program to trustees at their final regular meeting of the year, Tuesday, June 26. He explained the board had just one SHSM this year – the first year it was introduced in Ontario – but that will expand to five next year. The initiative allows secondary schools – if they are approved to offer an SHSM – to create a timetable of credits which fulfills Ontario’s high school graduation requirements, but also puts emphasis on one particular subject area. Last year, 27 high schools were approved to offer pilot SHSMs, including a manufacturing program at Stratford Northwestern Secondary School. At the time of the meeting, either six or seven students were expected to graduate with a diploma this year from the Northwestern SHSM. Doherty described this as a laudable graduation rate, considering the program is designed to take four years to complete and these students only had a year to catch up on any credits they hadn’t achieved. Next year, the school’s manufacturing SHSM will continue. It will be joined by a program in hospitality, linked to the school’s well-known, student-run Screaming Avocado café. Other SHSMs to be introduced next year are an arts and culture program at Stratford CentralSecondary School and constructionprograms at Listowel DistrictSecondary School and Wingham’sF.E. Madill Secondary School.An agriculture-themed program will be introduced at the Huron- Perth Catholic District School Board’s St. Anne’s high school in Clinton. Doherty said there are challenges in expanding the initiative across the district. It’s not yet known what the long-term response to SHSMs will be from potential employers or post- secondary education institutions. And to date, there has not been a commitment for long-term funding from the province. So board administrators are wary of spending too much money on something which may fizzle. The biggest challenge, however, is introducing SHSMs in schools which don’t already have a sizeable technical education component within their classroom space. “It looks like we were concentrating on our biggest schools (when new programs were introduced). And we were,” Doherty confirmed. “That doesn’t preclude us from expanding those into other schools in the future, but at this point it doesn’t make sense” to put programs in schools with smaller enrolment or less technical education infrastructure. After questions from South Huron trustee Randy Wagler, however, top administrator Geoff Williams argued “equity” shouldn’t necessarily mean offering the same level of programming in each school. “If equity is defined as having the exact same programs in everyschool, that is going to cost hugeamounts of money,” said the board’sdirector of education. He added thegoal should be to “enhance programsat the local level” by introducing what’s most valuable to each community. And if that means introducing more SHSMs in the future, hopefully that will be possible. Across the province, 153 SHSMs will be in place next year. Last year, there were five subject areas approved: manufacturing, construction, hospitality, arts and culture and primary industries (including agriculture). Next year, four more have been introduced: transportation, environment, health and wellness, and business. According to Doherty, the Education Ministry had also hoped to approve SHSMs in the area of energy, but only received an application from one school. A former principal at Goderich District Collegiate Institute, he wondered aloud whether the Huron County port might be an ideal location for an energy-based SHSM. “If you think of the windmills north of Goderich, and the fact we’ve got some really keen science teachers at GDCI, I think it would be a great fit,” Doherty said. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 5, 2007. PAGE 21. Program benefitting larger communities, schools Thanks President of the Blyth Festival board of directors Deb Sholdice, presents Steven Sparling of Sparling’s Propane Co. 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