The Lucknow Sentinel, 1985-02-20, Page 7lucknow Sentinel, Wednesday, Febrluary 20, 1985—Page 7
Trustee active on management and computer committees
By Tony McQuail, Trustee, Ashfield
and West W awanosh
Now that the excitement and controversy
regarding French Immersion has been put
to rest I would like to report on some other
items with which I, as your Trustee, have
been.. involved.. '
This past year I served on the manage-
ment committee of the board. This commit-
tee has beenContinuing its work on
improving the 'energy efficiency, of our
school buildings by supporting improved
insulation and sealing of buildings during
routine maintenance_ and renovations. We
• are also exploring: ways to improve the
efficiency of energy use within' our build-
ings through energy using equipment
when it ,is not needed. Reducing energy
• use in our schools offers both short and .
long term savings.
• The management committee has also
been studying the use of .the schools by
groups in the community: We are working
on a policy that will ensure that rules,
governing school use are similar across the
county. We are also looking at the rates
charged for the use of the schools. I believe
our schools are an , important resource for
our communities. I think it is appropriate
that school rental charges should cover the
• --costs of : heat, . light and custodial time
associated with the use of the school. I do
not think the school board should • be
• :charging more than that.
Other items the management committee.
has dealt with include transportation and
building adjustments to accommodate
phsyically handicapped students, ••routine
and emergency building and roof repairs,
school... grounds improvements, a county
• wide inventory of audio visual equipment,
' school bus agreements and the disposal of
surplus board equipment.
I served on the ad hoc committee on
computers in education which looked at the
current level of computer use in our schools
and has made a series of recommendations.
regarding future use. We met with repres-
entatives from other boards to learn . of
their approaches and then looked at what
we felt was needed and would: work in
Huron County. The committee is recom-
mending increases in the amount budgeted
for computer purchases to ensure that our
high schools have adequate computers for
the number of classes and that each
elementary school has at least one.
We propose standardizing -the comput-
ers used in the county to allow for bulk
purchasing and equipment wmpatability
across the county. We felt that there
should beone standard computer for the
elementary school and introductory high
school courses. At the upper level .high
school courses a more expensive machine
would be required but again it should be a
standard model.
It was also felt that simply, sticking
computers . into the schools was not
enough. In fact it would be money poorly
spent if they were not well used. Fbr this
reason the committee is recommending the
appointment of a computer coordinator
who would develop a central library of
educational computer software and work
with the class mom teachers to make full
use of the computers we can afford.
I have served for two years on the
Supervised Alternative Laming for Excus-
ed Pupils committee. In this committee we
work to -develop alternative studyy programs
for children who for some reason cannot
attend school but are not old enough to
quit. We try to help the student by
selecting courses which are within their
ability and related to interests which will
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be of use to them in the future.
As' your trustee I have tried to attend all
my committee meetings. I have been at all
regular board meetings and only missed
one special board meeting which oocirred
when I was a delegate at the Federation of
Agriculture Convention. I like to visit the
schools in the county. I have been
generally impressed with the quality of
• teaching and student involvement in our
schools: I recently had the opportunity to
be a judge at the public speaking contest at
Goderich District Collegiate Institute. I
have also had the pleasure of sharing one
of my childhood books with Mrs. Worsell's
grade 3 class at Brookside.,
I am an accessible trustee and welcome
calls from my constituents on generale
concerns or specific problems. I will ensure
that your concerns are heard either by the
board, a committee or the school depend-
ing on the .particular situation. Usually I
can get the information you need and in
most cases resolve a partiarlar problem be
it business, speech therapy • or unaccept-
able books.
The board will be looking at several
items when it strikes •the 4985 budget
which may be of special interest in our
area. These include the extension of family
studies and industrial arts to all...element-
ary school students. The adoption and
iinplementation of the computer studies
report. The provision of industrial arts and •
other facilities for basic level children in
secondary school., And the provision and
extension of musicinstruction at element-
ary and secondary schools.
I have visited the mobile industrial arts
trailer used in Bruce County and feel it is
an economical and educationally sound
way to provide industrial arts to rural
schools.,. The concept could be adapted for
TRUSTEE'S REPORT
family studies as well. I would appreciate
hearing/hem my constituents if you would
like these. programs extended to the
schools in the north half of the 'county.
I would like to invite all the public school
supporters in Ashfield and West Wawan-
osh Tbwnships to join me for a .distession
of Education in Huron County. It will be
held from 7.30 to 9.00 p.m. in the library
at Brookside, School on Tuesday, Fbbruary
.26. As your trustee I would like to hear
from you about the things that are good,
that need improving and changes you
would like to see. One item whith will not
be on the agenda is French Immersion. It is
is a topic which deserves a rest and I..hope
to give it one after I summarize it in
concluding this report.
The controversy which arose around
French Immersion highlights the challeng-
es whith periodically confront a trustee.
Myconstituents hada variety of concerns
• and positions. Some wanted early total
.immersion. Some didn't want any inuner-
• sion for,themselves-or anyone else. And
many. were somewhere in between. The
two most polarized groups tend to thew
most heavily on a trustees ear and one gets
a lot of advice on what to do and
occasionally where to go.
Most ..controversies have at least two
sides, one group sees all the good points
another sees all the bad. A clever politician
might try to tell everyone what they wanted
to hear. However, I felt it was important to
share with concerned constituents both
• Turn to page 8•
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