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THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23. 2006. PAGE 23.
`Transparency' an issue with AMDSB trustee
By Stew Slater
Special to The Citizen
The Avon Maitland District
School Board will purchase lighting
fixtures for an upcoming renovation
directly from a Guelph-based
manufacturer, through a process that
has South Huron trustee Randy
Wagler wondering about
transparency.
"It just seems like there's a lot of
decision-making that's happening
that I don't see," Wagler told
business superintendent Janet Baird-
By Stew Slater
Special to The Citizen
Administrators of the Avon
Maitland District School Board's
early kindergarten registration made
a presentation to trustees on
Tuesday, Feb. 14, urging them to
support expanding the initiative.
Early registration, which provides
a variety of services to prospective
students almost a year before they
begin kindergarten, first ran in the
Avon Maitland board as _a pilot
project in Clinton and Mitchell in
2004.
In November of 2005, with co-
operation from the Huron and Perth
County Health Units, the
provincially-funded Early Years
Centres and other community
partners, it ran throughout the
Huron-Perth Catholic District
School Board.
But funding limited it to only
Huron OPP would like to remind
everyone that the ice on lakes and
rivers is not very safe.
Changes in weather conditions
hasn't allowed for the lakes or rivers
to properly freeze. -Generally, the ice
on most lakes and rivers is not thick
enough for people to safely
snowmobile on or cross.
It is critical that the ice quality or
type of ice is evaluated before you
travel. Clear, hard, new ice is the
only kind of ice recommended for
travel.
Avoid slushy.. ice, ice on or near
moving water, i.e. rivers, currents,
ice that has thawed and refrozen, or
layered or rotten ice caused by
sudden temperature changes.
Jackson on Tuesday, Feb. 14, after
hearing about board staff's
recommendations for lighting
upgrades at F.E. Madill Secondary
School in Wingham.
Trustees voted seven to one in
favour of accepting the low bid of
$251,730 from G&S Electric
Limited, with Wagler opposing —
not because of anything that was in
the bid but because of something
that wasn't.
_ According to a report provided by
Baird-Jackson, "in order to ensure
direct, cost effective and consistent
about half of the Avon Maitland
board's elementary schools.
In some cases, a space in the
school was opened up on a morning
or afternoon for service providers to
set up displays, and parents or
caregivers brought prospective
kindergarten students in for some
fun, some snacks and some
assessment of where they were,
developmentally.
System principal Laura Hodgins
recalled one father who, after
watching his son struggle through an
assessment expert's directions to put
on and take off his coat, declared, "I
didn't know he was supposed to be
able to put on his coat by this age.
He's going to do it all the time now,
by himself."
Much of the assessment is based
on something called a "Nipissing
Assessment Screen," and covers
aspects like speech and language,
fine motor skills, cognitive abilities,
Other risk factors that weaken or
rot ice are: snow on ice that acts as a
blanket to prevent hardening of ice
and pressure ridges due to wind or
current pressure.
If the ice is 3" (seven cm) or less
in thickness — stay off. Four inches
(10 cm) is good for ice fishing,
walking and cross-country skiing.
Five inches (12 cm) is good for one
vehicle, a snowmobile or ATV. Eight
to 12" (20-30 cm) is good for one
vehicle, a car or small pick-up.
Twelve to 15" (30-38 cm) is good
for one vehicle — medium truck.
No ice is without some risk. Be
sure to measure clear hard ice in
several places.
supply of light fixtures and mitigate
delays in completion of the project,
administration chose to purchase the
light fixtures directly from a local,
environmentally friendly
manufacturer."
This decision, to purchase just
over $103,000 worth of fixtures
from Guelph-based Metalumen, was
made by staff in consultation with
the board's engineering consultant,
and was not subject to a tendering
process.
"I don't see any other prices (than
the Metalumen price) so I don't
social and emotional interaction and
self-help capabilities.
Without the 'early registration
initiative, such assessments are
either carried out in a doctor's office
or by parents trying to administer the
Nipissing Screen or something like
it on their own. With the initiative,
it's much more likely that possible
deficiencies will be identified, and
parents then have several months to
seek assistance from service
providers (many of which are in
attendance at the school-based
registrations) before school begins.
"What this initiative aims to do is
to ensure students entering
kindergarten are as equipped as they
can be for the programs our school
board provides," said primary
curriculum coordinator Sandra
Lusk.
"There was a lot of interest in this
project from principals and staff,"
reported Hodgins, who added she'd
like to see it expand across the board
in the coming years.
•
• Fad & Voe .: '...
FOR
SLIM
(Jamie Dalton) ° •
JENNIFER HUGGINS
SATURDAY,
FEBRUARY 25
9 pm - 1 am
Seaforth Community Centre
Light Lunch & D.J. (\
Tickets: $5.00 each °.•\..
:• . Age of majority iiir
. • , • _,__,.
know if this is a good price or not,"
Wagler complained.
Baird-Jackson explained the board
has run into difficulty in the past,
when contractors delayed projects
due to what they said were delays in
the delivery of fixtures.
"We believe there's less risk (of
delays) with this approach," she said.
As for cost, she assured Wagler that
the board's ' consultant feels
Metalumen's price is competitive.
Speaking to reporters following
the Feb. 14 meeting, the business
superintendent called the Guelph
company environmentally-sensitive,
thanks to its practice of taking back
all packaging for recycling, and
providing suitable disposal for
discarded fluorescent lights.
She also said board staff will
examine the process used for
selecting the fixtures for the F.E.
Madill project, and. decide if they
need to increase the transparency for
trustees before using such a process
again.
The Brubachers of Ethel
Restaurant & Bakery
siitsnfibmftlf t
jlappy 65th
birthday ,41)
Mom & Grandma t
February 20th '
"We love you"
Love from your family
-1110 tm tilo
OPP issue reminder
to snowmobilers
Trustees urged to support
expanding early registration
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