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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2001-04-04, Page 11Hang time It was all for fun and a lesson in life as the students at Blyth PS enjoyed the antics of the Half Pints basketball team, who not only entertained but brought a message on teasing and bullying. Counties could see drop of 14 students by September PUBLIC OPEN HOUSES AND MEETINGS TO DISCUSS NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT OPTIONS RELATED TO INTENSIVE LIVESTOCK OPERATIONS IN HURON COUNTY You are invited to attend public open houses and meetings to review and discuss draft nutrient man- agement options related to intensive livestock opera- tions in Huron County Drop in to a public open house between the hours of 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. and/or attend a public meeting from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the following dates and locations. Tuesday, April 10, 2001 Blyth Community Centre Auditorium Wednesday, April 11, 2001 Hensall Community Centre Auditorium Additional information is available at the Huron County Planning & Development Department, Court House Square, Goderich 519-524-2188. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 2001. PAGE 11. Sep. bd. encouraged by test results Continued from page 10 across the two counties is expected to drop by the equivalent of 14 full- time students by next September, and the biggest . school-based changes will be at St. Mary's school in Hesson and St. Boniface school in Zurich, both of which will lose one classroom. But even with all these prepara- tions, the real planning can't begin until the provincial government comes through with details of the legislative grant. "That drives everything. That's all our financing for the whole year,': Thuss explained. Hbron East councillors once again discussed duplicate road names at the March 27 committee meeting. Some problems were alleviated when it was determined roads were unopened 'or had no residents on them. In some- cases, the road through two municipalities was actually the same road and should cause no prob- lem. Others, such as Huron Road He says board officials can make some guesses according to recent statements regarding the provincial budget. And even after the legislative' grant announcement is made, a lot of the decisions won't be finalized until subsequent provincial guidelines are determined. But last year, the gov- ernment successfully released the grant numbers just prior to March Break, and each day without the numbers this year means fewer days for planning. "The earlier we can get at it for the next school year, the better," Thuss commented. had already been changed to Kippen Road and Harpurhey Road. However, there are still 14 inci- dences of overlap. The road names include Albert, Elizabeth, Centre, Church, James, John, King, Main, Market, Mill, Queen, William and Victoria. Brussels has one of the highest number of repeats with 12 of the 14 names. SeafOrth has nine overlap- ping names. By Stew-Slater Special to The Citizen The Huron-Perth Catholic District School Board finally made an offi- cial announcement regarding its rel- atively heartening results from last autumn's standardized Grade 10 lit- eracy tests, weeks after most other school boards in Ontario issued their news releases. "(The board) is encouraged that its Grade 10 students scored above the Ontario average in October's stan- dardized tests assessing reading and writing abilities," states the news release, approved by trustees at a regular board meeting Monday, March 26..The release shows 70 per cent of Huron-Perth students who wrote the test achieved passing 2rades, ahead of the 68 per cent aver- age for the entire province. Most school boards officially released their success rates when board-by-board results were announced in early March by the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO), the By Stew Slater Special to The Citizen Finding enough supply teachers is more difficult this year than ever before, say officials of the Huron- Perth Catholic District School Board. And provincial trends sug- gest general teacher shortages aren't far behind. "I think it's probably a combina- tion of factors," explained Superintendent of Education Ray Contois, following a regular board meeting Monday, March 26, during which trustees received copies of a news release from the Ontario College of Teachers, headlined "Southwestern Ontario needs 12,500 new teachers." Direttor of Education Gaetan Blanchette said the implementation of the new four-year high school curriculum has created an increased over-all need for substitutes because full-time teachers must now spend more time than usual attending pro- fessional development activities to familiarize themselves with the changes. Add to this the provincial government-mandated reduction in the number of professional develop- ment days which can be taken Walkerton youth CKNX annual bursary A 'Walkerton-area student is the winner of the CKNX Radio Farm Advisory Board Bursary for 2000. Chris Brown, RR2, Walkerton, is a graduate of Walkerton District Secondary School, and is currently enrolled in the Bachelor of Agriculture Science program, with a major in Animal Science, at the University of Guelph. The criteria for winning the $1,000 annual bursary include the student's involvement in his/her community, their proven' leadership skills, and their interest in the agricultural com- munity. Brown has been invol‘ ed in Roots of Bruce, Walk Against Male Violence, food drives and other char- ities and non-profit groups. He's been a 441 youth leader, students' council president, and captained his school soccer and ti.' )(etball teams. He was also presidTif of his first- year class at the University of Guelph. arms-length government agency which administers the tests. But, despite the board's place ahead of all its Southwestern Ontario counter- parts, officials of the Huron-Perth board decided not to widely issue results, opting instead to fulfill spe- cific requests for information, including from the media. At the time, Director, of Education Gaetan Blanchette told reporters he wanted to wait until further informa- tion about the test was released, so greater context would be available by which to judge the results. He was also reluctant to assign signifi- cance to the test, partly because stu- dents knew a passing grade in last October's first-time version would not be required for high school grad- uation, and partly because he believes the role of such tests, though important, should be limited. "If it ever tomes to the point where a test becomes sacred, then it ends up that it becomes the major thing and the curriculum becomes secondary," Blanchette said at the time. directly out of the school calendar, and it means teachers are taking more time away from their regular classrooms. "You have to in-service people," Blanchette explained. "We do it sometimes in the evening. We do it sometimes on the weekends. But we also have to do a fair amount of pro- fessional development during school hours, and that means we need sup- ply teachers." The number of available supply teachers, however, is also declining, according to Contois and Blanchette. Blanchette attributes part of that to the limited availability of retired teachers, through a College of Teachers/teachers' pension plan reg- ulation stating retirees temporarily lose their pension if they teach more than a set number of days in supply situations. But he cautioned that the regula- tion is not new, ‘so its influence on the current teacher shortage is only significant when considered in conjunction with what has become a high rate of teacher retire- ments. The retirement factor is given high prominence by the Ontario College of Teachers in its news release, However, provincial regulations require that the board release its EQAO numbers within a given time frame, so Huron-Perth has now com- plied. The next step is currently underway, as EQAO officials inform each student separately whether or not they passed or failed the stan- dardized'test. According to a letter sent to the board by EQAO director Patrick Madden on March 20, "tech- nical difficulties" impeded distribu- tion of the student notices, meaning that "all schools receivetl the reports later than we had originally intend- ed." But Huron-Perth superintendent of education Ray Contois says he's certain all notices have now been received in the district. ("I was just wondering. Maybe the EQAO should be given a test and see if they can get 50 per cent or 60 per cent or 70 per cent," quipped board chair Ron Marcy, when trustees were informed of this development.) The next step is for the school-by- school results to be released. Contois says this will happen in mid- April. , which was dated Feb. 22. "The number of retirements we have seen in the past two years con- firms the College's 1998 forecast of a severe teacher shortage for years to come," says College registrar Joe Atkinson, in . the .release. "Southwestern Ontario is among the regions hardest hit with 41 per cent of teachers retiring within 10 years." According to the release, the high- est number of teacher vacancies in the province's secondary schools are expected to be in the subject'areas of English, physical education and tory. And it suggests that "the teacher shortage shows no sign of slowing down until the end of the decade " Blanchette says the general teacher shortage hasn't yet affe'.:ted the Huron-Perth board. But he's pre- pared for its effects. "Solar, we've been able to attract the good quality teachers that we need. But we do have the problem that our occasional teachers' list gets a little short sometimes," he said. "And we do have the same concerns that the boards in other areas are experiencing." "Because (the teacher shortage) is going to catch up with us, too." Huron East revisits road duplication issue Supply teachers in short supply