The Citizen, 2002-12-18, Page 11Youthful donators
Students from Brussels Public School made a tremendous donation to the Huron County
Food Bank and Christmas Bureau this season, gathering more than 700 food items, $209.41
from a silver collection at the Christmas concert and boxes of toys for the Bureau. Student
council representatives and the executive show off just part of the collection. (Janice Becker photo)
Westley named board chair
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THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2002. PAGE 11.
Students make gains in reading, writin
By Stew Slater
Special to The Citizen
Last year's Grade 9 students
followed up on the Avon Maitland
By Stew Slater
Special to The Citizen
A year ago, Stratford's Meg
Westley had been a trustee with the
Avon Maitland District School
Board for just a year, and wouldn't
have accepted the job as chair even
if it was given to her. Tuesday, Dec.
10, Westley not only let her name
stand as the only challenger to
incumbent Colleen Schenk, an
eight-year trustee, but took Schenk's
job away by earning majority
support from her counterparts.
But Westley's willingness to serve
in the board's top elected post isn't
the only thing that has changed in
the past year. The Stratford trustee,
who teaches communications skills
at the University of Waterloo and the
Stratford Chef School, was at the
centre of an 1 I th-hour reversal
during last summer's Avon Maitland
budget deliberations, dramatically
removing herself as the unofficial
leader of a group which wanted to
deliver an illegal deficit budget to
the provincial education ministry.
"Maybe I was a little more
idealistic about it then," she
admitted, in an interview following
her election as chair.
Westley explained that the
reversal came after the government
made it clear it would appoint
administrators to take over the
power of school boards in Toronto,
Ottawa and Hamilton, after the
passage of deficit budgets. And
having seen the aftermath of those
cases, she's now even, more
convinced that her reversal was the
right thing to do.
"I guess you have to temper your
idealism with a bit of realism," she
said.
In a speech seeking trustee
support, made prior to the vote for
chair, Westley admitted she lacked
the experience of Schenk, who was
the only other nominee for chair.
Stratford's , Rod Brown, the
incumbent vice chair, was
nominated but declined to allow his
name to stand.
Schenk. meanwhile. mentioned
District School Board's success from
the previous year, by again placing
among Ontario's best in a
standardized math test.
Meanwhile, Grade 3 and 6 Avon -
her experience in her speech, in an
attempt to retain support for her re-
election. But after losing the vote,
and then being asked to let her name
stand for election as vice chair, the
outgoing chair congratulated
Westley.
Still, Schenk hinted at Westley's
lack of experience in her speech
prior to the vice-chair vote,
suggesting that she could bring
experience to the chair/vice-chair
relationship. Likewise veteran
trustee and former chair Wendy
Anderson, also nominated for vice-
chair, referred to Westley as
"relatively inexperienced."
Following the vote, Westley
admitted to reporters that she "will
probably stumble a little bit. There
Maitland students again made gains
hot h reading and writing, bringing
the hoard closer to — but not quite
achieving — the province-wide
average in those areas.
will probably be some procedural
issues that will catch me, and I'll
have to look for help on that.
"But I've had two very good role
models who are still with the board,
plus this board works very well
together to get through things as a
team."
Earlier, she told trustees she hoped
to emulate Schenk "for her fairness
in the conducting of meetings, and
to emulate Anderson's decisiveness
as well as her ability to present the
board to the public in an insightful
and eloquent manner."
Schenk was elected vice-chair,
ahead of Brown and Anderson,
while South Huron trustee Randy
, Wagler decided not to let his name
stand.
There was little or no
improvement in Grade 3 and 6 math,
leaving the board slightly below the
Ontario average.
Last week, board-by-board results
from last spring's standardized tests
in Grade 3 and 6 math, reading and
writing, as well as Grade 9 math,
were released by the arm's-length
government agency which
administers the tests, the Education
Quality and Accountability Office
(EQAO). An Avon Maitland news
release about the results was
subtitled: "Grade 3 and 6 students on
the move; Grade 9s setting the
pace."
Among the board's results, the
largest improvement over the
previous year came among
academic-stream students in Grade 9
math. Last year, the board topped the
province, with 62 per cent of total
eligible students equalling or
surpassing the government standard;
this year, 71 per cent of eligible
students achieved similar success.
Across Ontario, 63 per cent of
academic-stream Grade 9 students
met or surpassed the provincial
standard in the most recent results.
Province-wide, a key area of
concern is the over-all lack of
success among students taking the
standardized applied-stream Grade 9
math test.
This continued with last spring's
test, with just 21 per cent of
Ontario's students meeting- or
beating the provincial standard.
Avon Maitland students again fared
much better than the provincial
average, however, raising their
success rate from 26 per cent in 2001
to 30 per cent in 2002.
Right behind the academic-stream
Grade 9s, in terms of improvement
from the previous year, were the
results from Grade 6 reading. In that
case, eight per cent more Avon
Maitland students met or surpassed
the provincial standard, compared
with 2001.
There was also a lour per cent gain
in results from Grade 6 writing, a
five per cent gain in Grade 3 reading,
and a two per cent gain in Grade 3
writing.
Success rates among Avon
Maitland Grades 3 and 6 students are
still slightly below the provincial
norm, however, as the provincial
level has also risen — albeit at a
slower pace than the board's
improvement — since the tests begin
in 1998 and 1999. The same can be
said for Avon Maitland results in
Grade 3 and 6 math, where there was
a levelling off of improvement in the
most recent EQAO results, for both
the board and province as ,a
whole.
"We need to bump up the math
scores, and we know that,"
commented Education
Superintendent Marjatta Longston,
after informing trustees about the
EQAO results at a regular board
meeting, Tuesday, Dec. 10. "We still
see that we have to make gains here,
and we hope to be able to tie it
together with some of the gains
we've made in reading and
writing."
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Season's
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6)*