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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2001-04-04, Page 10MUNICIPALITY OF CENTRAL HURON in cooperation with M.P. Russo & Associates LOGO DESIGN CONTEST The municipalities of Clinton,Hullett and Goderich Townships formed the new Municipality of Central Huron on January 1st of this year. A new municipal logo that recognizes the tradition and history of our area but one that will make a statement of the unique offerings of the municipality is required. We would like to invite anyone interested to submit his or her ideas or designs for the newly amalgamated township. We have also invited the graphic design departments of area schools to encourage their students to participate in the contest. Many designs were submitted following a recent newspaper article and these would all be considered as contest entries. M.P. Russo 8, Associates have generously agreed to donate the time of their artwork department as well as a prize to the individual whose design is selected. The winner can select either an Oxygen long-base Scooter or an Original Swiss Army Watch, both with retail values in excess of $150.00. The Council will shortlist the entries and post the finalists submissions in the newspaper asking the area residents to vote on their preferred design. A formal presentation will be scheduled and then your winning design will be used on many articles from business cards to the municipal flag. The deadline for Submissions is Friday, April 20th, 2001. Entries should be forwarded to: Executive Committee Municipality of Central Huron 23 Albert Street, Box 400 Clinton, Ontario, NOM 1L0 The municipality will retain the rights for use of the winning design in all applications. Designs may be combined at the discretion of the municipality. Hair-raising experience Hullett Central Public School Grade 8 student Charlotte Worsell definitely had the highest hair last Friday when she did her best at designing an interesting style for Wacky Hair Day. PAGE 10. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4„2001. Avon Maitland to spend $1 million on tech upgrades By Stew Slater Special to The Citizen Over $1 million from the sale of five Avon Maitland District School Board buildings will be put towards improvements in the technology pro- grams at Listowel District Secondary School, Stratford Northwestern Secondary School, Stratford Central Secondary School and Central Huron Secondary School in Clinton. Trustees unanimously approved the funding allocation at a regular board meeting Tuesday, March 27,. allowing for the use of $1,013,482.67 from a special Facility Reserve created last November when the board auctioned five recently- closed buildings — the former Walton Public School, Vanastra Community School, the Atwood annex, Falstaff Public School in Stratford, and McCurdy .Public School in Huron Park. According to provincial regula- tions, money from such sales cannot be moved outside what's called the "facilities renewal" portion of a board's budget. In a report to trustees prior to a vote on the motion, Superintendent of Business Janet Baird-Jackson stressed that facilities renewal money was already spent on the schools which received students from the closure of the five schools. As a result, she said, board officials looked elsewhere for immediate needs, and decided on the technical facilities upgrades. "It has been 10 years since the last significant infusion of dollars," into the board's technical progrnms, states an action report presented at By Stew Slater Special to The Citizen This coming June, report card day won't just be for students at Exeter Public School, but also for the insti- tution itself. Under a new pilot proj- ect of the Avon Maitland District School Board, parents will receive what board officials describe as a formalized evaluation of the entire school's performance. • "It will be a description of what the school's goals and action plan were at the beginning of the year, what the results were with regards to that plan," explained Director of Education Lorne Rachlis at the board's regular meeting Tuesday, March 27. "It will also be a descrip- tion of the school's programs, and the student awards that were achieved over the year, such as aca- demic awards or sports' teams awards." Following the meeting, Rachlis explained the report card is being formulated through the co-operation of Avon Maitland communications officer Steve Howe, Exeter Public principal Ric Graham, and the school council. He says "the inten- tion" of the pilot project is that the experience gained will lead to the initiation of similar documents in ."many more" Avon Maitland schools next year, both elementary and secondary. "I would expect that the (educa- tion) ministry might be requiring something similar to what we're doing at Exeter Public at some time in the future," Rachlis told reporters, after stressing that the pilot project is strictly a board initiative and not in response to government regulations. "The ministry has shown an intent to go in a direction towards more accountability an_d. more public dis- closure." Chief among the results on the report card will he Exeter Public's the meeting by Baird-Jackson and Education Superintendent Bill Gerth. "The demand for skilled labour has resulted in a resurgence of interest in hands-on 'hard' technology, skills training and related co-op courses." According to the action report, the four sites were chosen partly due to explorations of "the current status of these facilities in comparison with the condition of other schools' tech- nical facilities." • However, there are other factors, which allows for the inclusion of sites which are already better- equipped than board counterparts — most notably in Stratford, where Northwestern's technical programs are among the best in the district and Central is now up for improvement in its communications technology facilities, despite the fact few other area schools have comparable capa- bilities. One major factor is the history of the school's co-operation •with busi- ress and industry. Private involve- ment comes in the form of direct donations, matching funds, advice and guidance, and co-op education opportunities, the report states. "Partnerships with business are important across the district, but most significantly in the four sites listed," Gerth told trustees. Following questioning by Stratford trustee Rod Brown, Gerth also revealed the board hopes to use the funding allocation as "seed money" in applications for further support from other government agencies. Brown explained that provincial Colleges and Training minister Diane Cunningham recently toured over-all performance in the stan- dardized Grade 3 and Grade 6 math and literacy tests, administered by the province's arms-length Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO). In fact, it was a discussion about efforts to 'improve the board's EQAO results which inspired Rachlis to tell trustees about the pilot project. At the March 27 meeting, a report entitled "Focus 2000-2001: Improved Student Learning in Language and Math" was presented by Senior Principal Marie Parsons and co-ordinator Wally Webster. . Webster was hired specifically to help raise the board's EQAO scores, which have continually come in below the provincial average since the Grade 3 and Grade 6 tests began being implemented five years ago. The report points out both areas of By Stew Slater Special to The Citizen • Next year's enrolment projections have been calculated by officials of the Huron-Perth Catholic District School Board, and staffing decisions are being made (including a plan to split the twinned Stratford-based St. Aloysius and St. Joseph's elemen- tary schools, giving-each a separate principal starting next autumn). But despite a substantial delay already from the' provincial govern- ment, school boards across Ontario are still waiting to find out how much money they'll. have for the 2001-02 school year. "We're ail getting anxious to start our planning," said Huron-Perth Superintendent of Business Gerry Thuss, following the board's regular meeting Monday, March 26. In February, Director of Education Gaetan Blanchette told trustees the board had received word from the Northwestern's facilities, adding that "it is amazing what they're doing in that school. The community partner- ships that they've been able to estab- lish over the years are just astound- ing." Following the meeting, Brown told reporters that "employers are crying for skilled tradespeople," and expressed delight in the funding decision. But he added the board must pursue further cooperative ven- tures and government funding avenues. "This is a nice first step," he said. "But $1 million doesn't go all that far when you're talking about $50,000 for one machine or for the expansion of one instructional space." Proportidnal allocation of the Facility Reserve money isn't out- lined in the action report but, pressed by questioning from East Huron-area trustee Charles Smith, Baird-Jackson revealed that Listowel will probably receive the largest sum. "The understanding is that we would add what would equate to quite a large lab, but it would be sub- divided into four smaller spaces," Baird-Jackson responded. "So, dol- lar-wise, the biggest chunk would be flowing (to Listowel)." Included in the Listowel upgrade would be an expanded automotive technology facility, as well as new spaces for metal fabrication and elec- tronics. Central Huron is also slated to receive metal fabrication and elec- tronics facilities. At Northwestern, possible upgrades include "an electrical/elec- tronics/computer lab and upgrades to improvement and areas where Avon Maitland scores have not gone up from year to year. It' also outlines various strategies for increased. EQAO success. But Rachlis decided to speak about the Exeter Public report card after Stratford trustee Rod Brown wondered if the board is using tot) many resources attempting to raise EQAO scores, instead of working to improve other aspects of student success. Brown suggested the board devise ways of measuring postLgraduation success in the workplace or post-sec- ondary education, or student adapta- tion when moving from elementary to secondary school. Rachlis said school-wide report cards could be used to publish such information, as well as other non- EQAO success determinants. government that announcements about what's called the "legislative grant" — basically, the value of the board's entire budget for the upcom- ing school year — would be -delayed from the previously-planned date just prior to the March Break. At the time, he predicted the government would release details near the con- clusion of the student holiday. But school boards across the province are still waiting, nearly a month after the originally-planned release date. And Blanchette says the government has provided no infor- mation regarding the delay. In the meantime. Huron-Perth offi- cials have planned the staffing change at the StrattOrd schools and released what's called the Projected Elementary Organization plan for next year, based on enrolment esti- mates. Both plans were approved by trustees at the March 26 meeting. Catholic Elementary enrolment Continued on Oge 11 assembly areas- and horticultural facilities." And at Stratford Central, a media arts lab will be created for visual arts and music. According to the motion approved March 27, detailed upgrade plans will come before the board when they are finalized. Exeter school to get report card Sep. bd. waits for news of funding