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Home My WebLink AboutThe Citizen, 2000-11-01, Page 9THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2000. PAGE 9. School board officials hear from OPSBA president By Stew Slater Special to The Citizen Just 16 days before Ontarians elect new school board trustees, the presi dent of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association (OPSBA) said nothing about the Nov. 13 municipal elections as she addressed a gather ing of parent volunteers and Avon Maitland District School Board offi cials on Saturday, Oct. 28. Speaking at the board’s School Council Forum 2000 at Stratford Northwestern Secondary School, Liz Sandals did, however, have some thing to say about the Nov. 27 feder al election. She criticized the opposi tion Alliance Party for promising to give tax rebates to any parents who pay tuition fees for their children to attend private schools. “I would sug gest to you that, either way, the money ends up in the hands of the private school and that this tax cred it scheme is a voucher scheme in all but name,” said Sandals, a Guelph resident who has been an elected school board trustee since 1988. Sandals pointed to three main issues facing public education in Ontario: choice, demographics and funding. Her criticism of the Alliance came as she discussed Grey Central PS news Kindergartens study A The Grey Central kindergarten A and B classes are studying the letter A. They did animal sponge paintings or apple sponge painting. They sorted alphabet cereal, look ing for s and a. They got to eat the other letters. The students have some new dress-up hats and shoes to try on. In kindergarten C they studied the letter s and did spider counting. They coloured scarecrows and glued string on a big letter s. They did squirt paintings. Grade l/2s are learning about the changing seasons and doing Halloween arts and crafts. They have been walking through the bush and looking for signs of fall. Grade 3s are learning about pioneers. They have talked about warm and cool colours. Grade 4s are enjoying singing Halloween songs. They are learning about cool and warm colours in art. They are also creating their own food chains. Students are studying New Brunswick. The Grade 5/6 class is finishing its first science unit on light. Students are presently working on a social studies project of locating newspaper stories around the world and places in Canada. Grade 6/7s are currently working on geometry, native peoples, flight and finished the week with a poetry recitation of the “Underdog”. In music they’ve been singing Building Me Up Buttercup and Hey Jude which was by the Beatles. The Grade 7/8s went to the CIBC in Brussels. They saw the vault and the money counting machine. In math they’re starting a unit on geometry. They have opened a new learning station choice, and she suggested the party’s policy would create a two-tier sys tem of education, where those who have appropriate cash flow will use private schools and the public sys tem — which has become funded based on the number of pupils it serves — will suffer as a result. “I’m sure that you’ve figured out by now that I’m not all that happy with this (policy),” Sandals said. “We’re talk ing about a fundamental shift in the way we fund education in Canada.” The University of Guelph faculty member was equally willing to address other controversial topics. When discussing funding, she offered her version of an ongoing legal battle being waged by a Jewish group in Toronto, charging the Ontario government with discrimi nation because it funds Catholic based education but provides noth ing for other religious-based sys tems. Sandals noted a recent United Nations ruling in favour of the Jewish group has led to calls for the establishment of widespread reli gious-based funding in Ontario. But she suggested that’s not the only answer; the province could also decide to end funding to the Catholic system altogether, and she cited Quebec and Newfoundland as provinces which have already in the class - woodworking. Students in the library have been creating Halloween pictures in Kidpix and thank you notes to the CIBC for the tour. They also decorat ed the library for Halloween. Last week kindergarten A and kindergarten B made skeletons, jack- o-lantems and witches to decorate the room for Halloween. They learned some new Halloween songs. At gym they played Charlie over the Ocean and did ball and hoop activi ties with Mrs. Henry. Each student put their picture on the birthday graph on the month that they cele brate their birthday. They practised computer skills with Mrs. Newman. They had a farewell party for Justine and wished her well in her new school. Grade 1 /2s decorated their class for Halloween and wrote Halloween sto ries. They are learning a play called Halloween Stew. Grade 2/3s finished snail study and released the snails. They had a unit on co-ordinate geometry using chess boards. Grade 3s are doing an author study on Dr. Seuss. They did Halloween crafts and learned about pioneers. Grade 4s learned to make a wash using paint to go over our Halloween pictures. The Grade 5/6 class is studying lat itude and longitude. They started an Energy Unit. In math they are doing division and the metric system. In math, the Grade 6/7s are study ing geometry, measuring and draw ing angles with a protractor. A unit on Flight is what is happening in sci ence. says Sandals weathered the political fall-out of making such a move. Sandals also provided her analysis of why Mike Harris’s government was re-elected for a second term, despite pre-election polls showing many Ontarians had become quite concerned about two issues: health and education. She suggested the ruling Conservatives made several announce8 Shifting demographies ments in the health mm behind PC re-election. istry as the 7 vote drew near, and that was enough to appease the majority of concerned citizens. And she blamed that phenomenon on the province’s shifting demo graphics: the population is getting older, and people are more con cerned about health than they are about education. “We have an aging population and an aging population votes based on healthcare, not edu cation,” the OPSBA president said. “We’re getting a pretty scary picture unless we can convince the aging contingent of the population that investing in children is important.” In an interview following her speech, SandSls said her aim wasn’t to inspire conflict between those Grade 7/8s are studying measure ment, perimeter and circumference. In science they finished a unit on solutions and mixtures. They are starting the settlement of Upper Canada in 1850s. They are reading and reporting on novels in both writ ten and oral form. naHmiPaCTion ••••••••••••• Pound Foolish Healthwise Carrying extra weight is hard on your body. Lose those extra pounds - eat sensibly, be physically active and consult your doctor. Doing Business* Without Advertising is Like Flexing Your Muscles in the Dark... You Know What You’re Doing But No One Else Does! there- their person who advocate for increased health care funding and those who support public education. She said both sys tems are vital, and stressed the need to reach people who believe increased funding to either will dam age the economy. “I guess the job of school boards becomes joining the dots so that people do see the con nection between the health and the education systems and the health of the economy and, fore, own al prosperity,” she said. Sandals admitted the role of school boards has changed since the Harris government came to power, with the most significant alteration being a reduction in budgetary free dom. She said dealing with the province’s funding model will be an ongoing, yet ever-changing struggle across the province over the three years following the Nov. 13 election. “One year, it’s special education, another year it’s transportation,” she said, referring to the different fund ing struggles faced by school boards. “One thing that’s going to become a huge issue is, with the deregulation of hydro, can we pay the utility bill?” But in the interview, she said the biggest issue facing the incoming trustees could be the delivery of the province’s new four-year high school curriculum. For starters, changes were made at all levels to fully prepare students for graduation VOTE NOVEMBER 13 JOE SEILI Brussels Councillor for Huron East Complimentary rides to polls available Call 887-6289 Nov. 13 Experience Counts! On November 13 Re-Elect Graeme MacDonald Councillor of Grey Ward 16 years council experience in Grey Township Council representative Brussels, Morris & Grey Medical/Dental Clinic Council representative and volunteer for International Plowing Match 1999 Huron County Council representative Huron County Plowman's Association Council representative Cranbrook & Moncrief! Hall Boards Council representative Cranbrook Cemetery Board Former council representative Seaforth Hospital Board Born and raised in Grey Township on third generation family farm after Grade 12. And, though changes are being implemented gradually at the secondary level, they were put in place all at once in elementary schools. “So the kids who are in Grade 8 or Grade 9 now, are running on the new curriculum,” Sandals said. “But they didn’t have the six or seven years of background, so they missed a whole bunch of stuff.” And, looking particularly to rural boards such as Avon Madland, Sandals pointed out another prob lem. She suggested the new curricu lum includes the possibility of more diverse streaming in Grades 11 and 12, right at the time when class sizes begin to decrease as students make choices other than continuing their education. In small schools, that could lead to class sizes too small to actually offer the course. “If anybody had any understand ing of the issues around trying to put together a program in a small, rural high school, they would not have designed the provincial curriculum the way it was designed,” she said, “because you just can’t do a good job of delivering the new provincial secondary curriculum in a small school.” To conclude her speech, Sandals apologized to those who thought she sounded pessimistic. She suggested, instead, that school council members take her words as a rallying cry to drum up support for public educa tion. “Those of us who are con cerned about education are going to have to fight really, really hard to get education on the public agenda,” she said. 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