The Lucknow Sentinel, 1982-05-05, Page 2n
LUCK
Single Copy 35c
Lucknow
Bruce Board negotiates
with secondary teachers
To date three meetings have been held
between the Board's negotiating committee
and the Secondary Schoo`I. teachers' nego-
tiating committee. Both sides have made
complete proposals for a new one-year
collective agreement that will commence
September 1, 1982.
The Board has offered salary increases for
,teachers :of 9.6% (including increment)
which .will bring the .top teacher's salary to.
$38,727 and the average teacher's salary to
$34,507. These salary figures, which in-
crease the, average teacher's . salary by
$3,056, do not include additional responsibil
ity allowances paid to approximately a third
;of the teaching staff ranging from $1,300 to
$2,700. The Board's offer also continues the
Board's contribution to staff benefit plans
(O.H.I.P. Extended Health Benefits, Croup
Term Life I.nsurance, Long Term Disability
Insurance) at 90% of , the premium cost
which costs the Board $816 per teacher and
the offer raises . the maximum principal's
salary to $52,222,'
The Board is also seeking changes to the
procedures used in ' : delcaring teachers
surplus when enrolment declines. The Board
wants to include program protection and
performance of stab as additional factors to
consider. Thus a program : that otherwise
would have to discontinued: would be
protected for the students,
The proposals of the Secondary School
Teachers' Negotiating Committee include
increases for teachers of 25.3% (.including
increment) which will bring the top teacher's
salary to. $43,029 and the average teacher's
salary to $39,404 not including , any respon-
sibility allowances. The teachers' committee
is, requesting a. top principal's salary of
$64,544. Some of the other •. significant
requests of the teachers' committee include
the following:
1. The Board to pay full salary during
pregnancy leave of seventeen weeks,
2. Paid personal leave of up to five days per
teacher each year. This is in addition to
leaves already granted for sickness, funer-
Fire calf
Lucknow Fire Department answered a call
in West Wawanosh Township, just south of
St, Helens on Sunday evening about 9.30
p.m, it turned out to be a .false alarm as the
fire was,: burning rubbish.
Entertain guest
from India
David Finnigan; Evelyn Henry and family
entertained an interesting dinner guest at
their home on Sunday evening.
Milan Kundu of Calcutta, India, a Second.°
Officer with the. freighter, Fucia of Mon-
rovia, Africa met ,the fancily 'while they were
walking about the Goderich Harbour on
Sunday afternoon. He gave them a tour of
his ship and . accepted the invitation to a
backyard barbeque when he got off duty at 4
p.m.
Kundu was surprised to.learn the family
lived in Lucknow as there is a city named
Lucknow in India: Mr. Kundu has been
aboard ship for the past nine.' months and
they arrived in Goderich from Russia. The
ship was loading corn and was due to leave
Goderich Sunday evening or early Monday.
The Henry children plan to correspond
with Mr, Kundu who intends to send tapes
Sof songs in his native tongue for them to
enjoy,
Published In Lnclmow, Ontario W
Gf.,.ednesday My 5, 1982
•
als, graduation, and examinations.
3. Paid leaves of ten days each for the
teachers' negotiator and president as well as
a one-year leave with full salary and benefits
fora teacher to spend full time on Teachers'
Federation business'
4. A change in workload provisions that
would require that no teacher be assigned
duties (teaching, supervision, etc.) for more
than four hours per day. In addition there.
,are requestsfor smaller limits on class sizes,.
extra librarians, and guidance counsellors.
These demands, as determined by the
Board, represent a requirement for approx-
imately 80 additional teachers at a cost of
about $3,250,000 which would be fully paid
by the local taxpayers as per -pupil spending
at the secondary school level is above the
'.ceiling on which the province pays grant.
This would increase next year's complement
of teachers from 20S to 285.
5. A reduction in the number of years for a
teacher to qualify' for a retirement, gratuity
that can be as high as a half -year's' salary
upon retirement.
6. An early retirement incentive plan that
would give qualifying teachers who have
retired twenty days of employment each year
to age 65 at $400.00 per day.
24 Pages
The Lucknow. Brownies, Guides and Pathfinders held a rummage. and bake sale 'at the
., location of the former IM's Place Store in Lucknow on Saturday afternoon. The girls -also
served tea and cookies to those who came to browse. Shown serving tea are Luclmow Guides, • .
from the. left, Sherry Nixon,, Kim Tyler and Michelle Henry. Seated at the tea table are left,
Annie Stanley and' Vera Schmidt, right., . ' [Sentinel Staff Photo]
OFA brief to Qntario cabinet comments•
on decline in agriculture's
The president of the Ontario Federation of
Agriculture. commented he is disheartened
by the rapid decline of agriculture's
profitability in Ontario when he addressed
Premier Bill Davis and several prominent
cabinet minister April 28. Barrie's remarks
were made when a delegation from the OFA
presented its annual brief . to the provincial
cabinet.
"Participants in a once robust industry
now watch as more and more parts of it grow,
feeble because farmers `continue to lose
equity," Barrie said.
Barrie has heard this opinion from many
people working in businesses which depend.
on agriculture for survival. He said agricul-
ture in Ontario is "failing fast", but that "it
serves, no purpose trying to find a scapegoat
for that failure".
Barrie said farmers, bankers .and politic-
ians are all to blame for the current problems
in agriculture and "we must work .to find a
remedy".
Barrie said he hopes the new provincial
budget will show to what extent the
government is "actually. committed to agri-
culture". • .
The 15 -page brief concentrated on areas of
major 'concern to . Ontario's farmers. it
offered suggestions on how existing pro -
grants could be improved and recommended
some new courses of action. Besides
economic issues, the brief looked at the
'eoftironment, education, absentee foreign
ownership and utility corridors. ,
Economic: Issues •
Ontario had the highest number of fart%
bankruptcies in Canada 'in 1981, and the
profita
bl lity
outlook for 19821 isn't encouraging. For these a
reasons, economic .issues dominated the
OFA's brief to the provincial cabinet.
The brief said farmers are ' "disappointed"
in the Ontario Farm Adjustment Assistance
Program because they ',`feel the program's
inadequacies outweigh any possible bene-
fits.
The brief said the program ''is in
desperate need of revamping", and said its
structurewas the major "hindrance":
"The case committees are acting as
judges, whereas they should be playing
supportive roles. This was our understand-
ing about the role of the agreps and the case
committees," the OFA said in the brief.
The brief said "it makes absolutely no
sense to guarantee a new line of credit' to a
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Huron education budget up 13 percent
By Stephanie Levesque
The Huron County Board of Education
approved a 13.8 per cent budget increase,
from $8,748,562 in 1981 to $32,712,999 in
1982 at a special meeting on April 26.
The amount to. be raised locally is
$10,530,161 an 11.5 per cent increase over
the 1981 requisition of $9,441,842, The
remainder is funded by the Ministry of
Education.
The average mill rate will increase 10.36
mills from 105,93 mills in 1981 to 116.29
mills in '1982. This represents a 9.8 per cent
increase. -
The taxpayer with an average assessment.
of $3,110 will pay 532,22 more this year. The
average education bill in 1981 was $329.44
and this year will increase to 5361.66.
"I am very pleased that we have been able
to keep the increases as low as 'we have,"
said board chairman Dorothy Wallace.
She said when the surrounding boards
come . out with their budgets, the Huron
•
board will "look pretty good". She compli-
mented the, "dedicated and hard• working"
administration staff for their part in putting
the budget together.
"We're trying very hard to keep quality
programs, without penalizing the taxpayers
as much as we can possibly help," said Mrs,
Wallace.
There was considerable . paring of the
proposed 1982 expenditures at an executive.
committee meeting on April 21. The total
budget at that time was $33,203,044. A
psychologist, at an estimated cost of
$19,200, and a special education reserve
fund of $430,845 have been deferred. An
expected need for five secondary school
teachers was 'reduced' to two for a further
$40;000, leaving the final board approved.
figure. °
Elementary
'The total elementary school budget
increased 13.7 per cent, from 513,441,462 to
$15,278,163. The largest single expenditure
is in salary and benefits, including teachers"
salaries, for a 12.3 per cent increase,, from
$10,581,663 of $11,887,135. -
Transportation' for elementary. schools
increased 21.9 per cent, from 5987,743. to
$1,204,467. Operating the board's own
buses has been budgeted at 5202,742, up
from 5165,506. Contracting of school buses
has been budgeted at $983,678, •up from
$803,653 in 1981. '
Capital projects have been budgeted at
5614,030, a 197,4 per cent increase over the
1981 expenditure of $206,471. This includes
the budgeted replacement of eight board -
owned school buses estimated at 5240,000.
Other capital projects include a new roof at
Hensall Public School estimated at $68,000;
a new roof at Clinton Public School'
estimated at 5218,000; and, new boilers at
Colborne Public School,, estimated at
$28,600.
Secondary
The total secondary school budget increas-
es 13,2 per cent, from 513,353,709 in 1981 to
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