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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2001-10-03, Page 7Catholic schools in pilot project • • • • IVES INSURANCE BROKERS LTD. Visit us at: WWWIVESINSURANCE.COM "All Classes of Insurance" DOUG GOUGH, Broker 184 Dinsley St. W., Blyth Tel.: (519) 523-9655 Fax: (519) 523-9793 gliattli Vett Buy The Pound/Mercantile will be closing Friday, October 5, 2001. We wish to thank all our customers for four great years. Look for our coffee bar opening in November at the Green Gallery at our same location. We will be serving the same great coffee and goodies. Sheilla & Gary .111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111114111111111111111111111111111111(1111111111i= ii111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111i11111111111111111111131111111111111fIlliirlit*MIIIIIIT: p Pay NO TAX on all giftware throughout the store. Now is a great time to start your Christmas Shopping The Green Gallery Queen St. Blyth 523-4944 Tuesday - Saturday Moving to 408 Queen Street - Buy The Pound Mercantile Nov. 1 WEDNESDAY, OCT. 3 THRU SATURDAY, OCT. 13 MIN 0 off Selected prints ,A1,0"1:r,:kY)! Pizza Night at School Blyth Public School held its Meet the Teacher night on Tuesday, Sept. 25. Parents and students could also enjoy a pizza supper while waiting to have a look at the classrooms and'talk to the teachers.. (David Blaney photo) THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2001. PAGE 7 . Smith wants target of 85-90% capacity in schools By Stew Slater Special to The Citizen Central Huron trustee Charles Smith, through a "Notice of Motion" submitted at a regular meeting Tuesday, Sept. 25, hopes to force the Avon Maitland District School Board to declare a target of 85-90 per cent capacity in its schools, on a "full-time equivalent" (FTE) basis. No discussion on the issue was carried out at the meeting. Smith submitted the document at the con- clusion of the evening, under the "new business" section, and expressed a desire to have it dealt with at the board's next meeting, Tuesday, Oct. 9. There's some question as to whether or not this will happen, since the board has committed the bulk of that meeting to 30-minute presentations from Community Accommodation Study Committees, as part of its process of examining how to deal with excess student capacity. But Smith feels the FTE issue should be dealt with promptly, since it could have an effect on the student accommodation study. In his Notice of Motion, Smith states board officials have continual- ly calculated a board-wide under- capacity of about 4,000_ students, using a 100 per cent FTE basis. He suggests, however, that both a board- commissioned consultant and the provincial Ministry of Education have acknowledged that optimum FTE capacity is actually somewhat less than that. Reasons for this include the fact That kindergarten and junior kinder- garten students account for only 1/2 FTE, despite the fact that, during time periods they're actually in the school, they take up an entire student space. "In Perth County, every school which is at more than 90 per cent capacity on an FTE basis has portable classrooms," Smith told reporters following the Sept. 25 meeting. "Existing permanent facilities are healthier and better student accom- modation than portables," Smith's Notice of Motion states. in," noted Smith. "But it would seem At the same meeting, Smith used a from this perspective that, perhaps, report on 2000-2001 student suspen- (Grade 7 and 8 students) would be sions as an opportunity to promote less disruptive of the JK to 6 students preserving high school buildings and if they were in that (high school) decreasing portable utilization by building." relocating Grades 7 and 8 students In the past, Smith, along with other from elementary schools. supporters of Seaforth District High The report, delivered by Education School (SDHS), have proposed relo- Superintendent Bill Gerth, showed eating Grades 7 and 8 students from the number of student suspensions, Seaforth Public School, which has board-wide, for both Grade 7 and 8 portables, as a means of preserving students was above 250, putting SDHS. those grades at similar levels to stu- Following the meeting, Gerth said dents in Grades 9, 10 and 11. he chose not to respond to Smith's Suspension levels for Grades 5 and comment. However, he said, "even if 6, meanwhile — as well as in Grades I were to agree with that' point, I 12 and 13 — were 166 or fewer. think you would have great difficul- "Of course, I don't know which ty convincing most parents of schools those suspensions took place that." School bd. hopes alternative ed keeps numbers up By Stew Slater Special to The Citizen Officials of the Avon Maitland District School Board hope various alternative education programs help ease what has traditionally been a significant drop-off of secondary school enrolment following Sept. 1, and help keep enrolment numbers close to what board planners had pro- jected for 2001-02. Education Superintendent Bill Gerth presented opening day enrol- ments during a regular board meeting Tuesday, Sept. 25, but he noted that By Stew Slater Special to The Citizen At least five elementary schools in the Huron-Perth Catholic District School Board will be among those participating this school year in a pilot project ,to study awareness among children about safety issues. The study is being conducted by neurologists at the injury prevention research office of Toronto's St. Michael's Hospital. In the spring of 2001, researchers sent out information about the study to school boards across the province, stating the first year would be a pilot project involving only students from the most important enrolment dates, from a Ministry of Education funding perspective, are Oct. 31 and March 31. And with Sept. 4, 2001 secondary enrolment sitting at 42 students above the Oct. 31, 2001 projection, he hopes the traditional post-opening day drop-off will be relatively small. "Recent experience would indicate that enrolment on the Oct. 31 count date will be approximately 50-150 students less than opening day," Gerth's report states. Dropping below projected levels by Oct. 31 could adversely affect the board's provin- Grades 1-3. According to Huron-Perth curricu- lum director Dennis Mackey, four of the board's schools have already agreed to take part, with others pos- sibly joining them before implemen- tation of the study begins this com- ing January. Mackey says the project, called Think First, will feature six 1 /2-hour presentations, using materials sup- plied by a group called the Think First Foundation and funded through TD Canada Trust. Children's knowl- edge about safety issues will be test- ed before and after the sessions, and there will be opportunities for parental involvement. cial funding. Initial reading of the report sug- gests elementary enrolment could be a bigger problem, since actual Sept. 4 elementary enrolments were about 50 below projected Oct. 3l values. But Gerth explained the board can't do much about that now, since elemen- tary levels don't traditionally change following opening day. Secondary enrolments, however, can be more fluid over the school year. That's why he hopes the board can effectively promote what he called "a variety of programs for folks who would not normally be a part of the "It fits well into the health studies program that we have in our schools already, which covers material about personal health and safety," Mackey explained. Schools from about 17 school boards have committed to the pilot project, but Mackey says the injury prevention research office, hopes to expand on both the number of schools and the number of Grade levels, following the pilot project. Among the schools participating from the _Huron-Perth board are Jeanne Sauve in Stratford, Holy Name of Mary in St. Marys, St. Patrick's in Dublin and St. Joseph's in Stratford. regular day school program," some of which weren't reported on opening day because their "alternative" nature means students weren't actually enrolled by Sept. 4. These programs include on-line learning and cooperative education initiatives. "We think, through judicious mar- keting and proper counselling, maybe we can ameliorate the amount (of enrolment) we lose between opening day and Oct. 31," Gerth said, follow- ing the meeting. He also noted that an economic downturn and accompanying scarcity of employment opportunities can inspire more people to remain in school. "History would tell us that, in diffi- cult economic times, our high schools tend to maintain their enrol- ment." Asked about the board's failure to meet .projected levels of elementary enrolment, Gerth attributed it "almost entirely (to) families that-have moved out of the district."