The Lucknow Sentinel, 1985-05-15, Page 1„ Single copy_ 35c.
SENTI
Published in Lucknow, Ontario, Wednesday, May 15, 1985
20 Pages
Th Lucknow concert band presented Band
The Sleeping Beauty with newer songs like
house. Here, members of the junior band
Helm, Debbie Atkinson, Tanya Neufeld and
Music '85 at the Lucknow Community Centre on Friday. The band mixed older songs such as
The Empire Strikes Back, to round out a fine evening's worth of entertainment before a packed
play a selection for trumpets. They are, Brad Murray, Sandy Macltntyre, Paul Helm, Robert
Donald Pickard. . (Photo by Alan Rivett)
Board budget
up 4.8 per cent
By Sharon Dietz
The Bruce County Board of Education's
1985 budget of $38,109,803 shows an
increase of .4.8 per cent over the board's
total expenditure last year. The imRact to
the local ratepayers however, will result in
an average increase in the mill rate for
education purposes of 8.7 per cent because
of a reduced year end surplus and minimal
increase in provincial funding.
Based on a local assessment of $25,000,
the increase in taxes for education
purposes will be $39:
The mill rate increase is due in part town
increase in assessment throughout the
county, said Leslie Abell, chairman of the
finance committee. ,The increase was kept
to 8.7 per cent by careful and frugal
budgeting on the part of the board,. said
Abell.
Board chairman Mike Snobelen com-
mented that a mill rate increase of 8.7 per
cent shows restraint because the beard
only •funded one request out of 10
considered. Snobelen said there have been
requests for additional special education
classes, smaller class siies, more teachers
for the gifted students' programs and the
only request included in the budget is the
installation of electrical outlets at Brant
Central School to permit the mobile shop to
be used.
Director of finance, Teake Veenstra, said
Turn to page 3
Bruce school secretaries on strike for wage parity
By Sharon Dietz
The se tari and clerical staff employ-
ed with e ce County Board of
Education eo strike May 8 to back
contract d ds for wage parity with
custodians and executive secretaries em-
ployed by the board.
The strike affects .46 school secretaries
and clerical staff as well as secretaries and
clerical staff employed at the board office
in Chesley. They walked off the job
following a May 7 board meeting when the
board passed a motion endorsing the last
offer by its negotiating 'committee.
The staff, all women, are members of the
Canadian Union of Public Employees
(CUPE) and are the smallest bargaining
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unit the board must negotiate with.
The secretaries want parity with the
custodial, staff who do work of equal value
and the executive secretaries who do
similar work. The custodian staff is paid 16
per cent more than the school secretaries
and there is a 24 per cent differential
between the executive secretaries who are
non-union and the unionized secretaries
and clerical staff.
Presently school secretaries can make a
maximum of $16,107 or $8;85 per hour.
Janitors make a maximum of $9.58 .per
hour and executive secretaries can make a
maximum of $10.54.
The board is offering 12 per cent phased
in over two years; four per cent up front,
four per cent June 1, 1985 and a cost of
living increase (C.O.LA.) approximately
four per cent plus increment effective
September 1, 1985.
According to CUPE representative Beryl
Cote, the secretaries and clerical staff are
substantially behind other boards in the
province, but the Bruce County board
refused to look 'at wage parity with other
boards. Cote said the union then asked the
board to look at the imbalance within its
own jurisdiction. She said the union is
prepared to spread the adjustment over the
two year oontract.
The union and the board had reached a
tentative agreement, according to board
chairman, Mike Snobelen, but the union
failed to ratify the agreement. Snobelen
said the board is ready to return to the
negotiating table as soon as the mediator
contacts them and the board does not
intend to lock out the secretaries.
Snobelen commented he believes the
board's offer is fair and equitable and at
some point the board has to be prepared to
take a stand. "You see what the public can
take,” said Snobelen who went on to say he
thinks the board has- acted in good faith.
Snobelen cominented the board will have
to review the possibility of using supply
teachers to relieve prinhipals to cover in the
offices of schools while the secretaries are
on strike. When it was suggested to
Snobelen this could be called strike
breaking, he remarked, "It's in the eye of
the beholder. Does a rose smell any
different by any other name?"
Cote said the union is prepared to
remain on strike for as long as it takes. She
Turn to page 3
Economic conditions eliminate program
By Sharon Dietz
The Bruce County Board of Education
has decided not to introduce junior kinder-
garten programs in the schools because of
the difficult economic conditions facing
many Bruce County taxpayers.
The junior kindergarten study committee
considered a pilot project for the program,
but decided the board had other CO unit-
ments, said committee chairman Jean
Woods.
A significant factor in reaching the
decision was the estimated cost for the first
year of junior kindergarten operation which
is nearly $1 trillion. A sizeable amount of
this cost is recovered through grants but
the Bruce County elementary tax rate
would increase by approximately four per
cent.
Ideally, said the study committee's
report, a junior kindergarten should have a
self contained washroom and funds would
be required for renovations. In rural areas
there was also concern about the transpor-
tation of three and four year olds on long
bus rides// and during winter storms.
The committee's report commented that
junior and senior kindergarten classes
cannot be grouped. Space is requiredto
accommodate the high level of physical
activity and talking, and for materials'
which allow children to play with another
child, to move about easily and to satisfy
their curiosity. In short, says the report,
learning at this age is play centred and
individual.
More of the benefits of a junior
kindergarten program are of a socializing
nature, Woods told the board. Children
learn sharing and behavioural skills as
most of their time is spent in back and forth
relations with other children.
"Since three and four year olds have
much to learn about themselves schools
encourage' the establishment of self
identity and promote self reliance," said
Woods. "Thus, we rhust provide a physical
environment which is scaled to and
planned for their exuberance and develop-
ing awareness of the world around them."
Theereleased
committeerevieweda study paper
recently by the Ministry of
ibm to page 3
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