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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1996-04-24, Page 22 -THE HURON EXPOSITOR, April 24, 1996 Education Wage freeze, no layoffs Teachers ink pact Huron County's more than 260 high school teachers rati- fied a new three-year contract Thursday, which approves a- -.wage' freeze with no layoffs. The Huron County Board of Education had ratified the three-year collective agree- ment at a special meeting two days previous. "All restructuring will be accomplished through regular retirement and other attrition of staff," states Friday's press release from the board, fol- lowing the teachers' union (OSSTF) ratification: The contract expires five - months before the turn of the century, in August 1999. "The agreement restruc- tures the schools in a way that limits the impact of provincial government cuts on the students in the class- room," says John Clarke, of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation - District 45. "Win-win bargaining is rare in negotiations," adds District 45 president Judy Cairncross. The human resources administrator for the Huron board, Jeanne Dionne, is also upbeat about the new con- tract. "This agreement verifies that when employer and employee groups sit down together to solve problems, joint solutions which benefit both parties can be found," she says. Downsizing is to be accom- plished mainly by regular employee turnover. The number of department heads in five secondary schools will be reduced by about one-third starting in September, which the board expects will reduce adminis- tration. Five leadership teams will be developed in the schools, clustering classes with a "nat- ural fit" together, for instance math, science and technolo- gy, rather than having three separate departments. Separate board s b1 • cram ing St. Anne's Catholic BY MICHELE GREENE Secondary School in Clinton SSP News Staff caused the local share for Separate school trustees are working hard to reduce a potential 14.63 per cent bud- get increase to its taxpayers. The Huron -Perth. Roman Catholic Separate School Board lost $1.73 million in provincial grants this year. Cuts in transportation grants and increased costs' associat- ed with additional students at, transportation to go up by mote than $575,00. Superintendent of Business Gerry Thuss said the board needs a 14.63 per cent budget increase to simply break even. At Monday night's board meeting, trustees voted to apply for special grants' from the province payable to boardssuffering undue bur- den. SUBMITTED PHOTO BEST PRACTICAL PROJECT - Michael MacLean (left) or Dublin won an award for best practical project in his course at Conestoga College for this secretary .with a fold -down writing surface. storapreiwerwrid bookshelves fronted by glassed double doors: He now works for Harrowsmith Construction in Seaforth. . Support for Blyth's tax revolt Blyth Council has had "refusal to collect the educa- strong support for' its tax revolt, a recent decision to not collect the education por- tion of municipal taxes start- ing the beginning of next year. Clerk John Stewart reported to council's April 15 meet- ing, 132 responses had been deceived from a total- of 754 letters sent seeking the sup- port of other municipalities. Twelve councils. supported Blyth in principle, but 10 did not agree with the village's tion portion of local tax. 'Stewart -told council 83 municipalities to date had voiced support for the posi- tion Blyth has taken. Reeve Mason Bailey and Coun. Gerald Kerr say Huron County Director of Education of Education Paul Carroll expressed approval of Blyth Council's action in a recent meeting between the hoard and Huron MPP Helen Johns, because the board wants funding methods changed. Zeroper cent not even reasonable, Carroll explains BY AMY NEILANDS enough property tax Kase to support their education sys- funding model. It doesn't Carroll said this equip-, work anymore." • ment was borrowed from a SSP News Staff "This is a result of what school. He added it would he the province has done, not fnuch moire difficult to'do a A acro per cent tax increase from the, Huron County Board of Education -• "is not even reasonable to think about", even if some ask for it, hecausc the board would have to reduce spend- ing about 60 per cent. "We operate .30 schools today, we would only be able to operate 13 or 14 schools," Director of Education Paul Carroll told about 100 people at- the public meeting to explain the intricacies cif edu- cation finance. at Clinton -on April 11. "We would have 70 to75 stu- dents in each class he said. "We have 150 buses on the road, we would only have 75. These are•the kinds of reduc- tions we vyould be looking at. This is not even reasonable to think about." Dowloading on the Huron taxpayer for 1996 would have resulted an 11 per cent •increase in the local public education mill rate if hoard spending had not been cut. It is a shrinking fiscal pic and the system of• funding education by this province is' to blame and needs urgent reform. Carroll said. ' "For some strange reason: our spending.is decreasing and taxes are increasing," he told thc concerned citizens and Huron County municipal council members who packed the hoard room at thc Education' Centre. In Huron County the provincial property tax requirement has increased by 34 per cent from 1992 to now, according to hoard cal- culations. In that same time period the Huron hoard has cut its spending about $5 million. The hoard cut spending by $2 -million this year but still has had to up the mill rate because Ontario :sets the min- imum property tax level. "It only makes sense to us that if spending is decreasing, then so should the tax level.,' Carroll said. MPP RESPONDS Huron MPP Helen Johns was also there and said in Ontario every community .doesn't get the same funding. "It depends on different areas and needs of those areas," she said Toronto and Ottawa do not get sup- port from the province because they have a high tems themselves.. In the last 20 years, Carroll said, Ontario paid the largest share of education, "now, more than the reverse has happened." In 1995 the property tax share of education was $8.6 - billion, with $5.9 -pillion of that determined by the province and $2.26 billion determined locally. But last year the province's share was $5.6 -Killion of a $13.77-bil- ,lion total. Carroll guessed next ycar $5.2 billion would come from provincial sources and $6.3 billion from provin- cially determined property taxes with less than $2.26 bit - lion determined locally. The present funding sys- tem was set up in 1978 when "it was a different kind of expanding economy when there were lots of dollars to spend on public services and tax services tike puhlic"cdu- cation," the Huron education director said."This is not the case anymore. There must he a dramatic change to the the locali trustees," said $62 -million budget without Superintendent' of Business computers. Janet Baird -Jackson. "The When asked about laying -trustees have been handed a , off staff, Carroll said the $3"1 don't believe we have a Huron board is "committed lot of room' to manoeuvre," to trying to reduce through. said, Carroll. "The board and natural retirement and attri- the taxpayer have been penal- tion rather than layoffs" ized for being frugal." through the use of low cost "This is real," said retirement , incentive pro - Graham Russells a tc: r at grams in elementary schools. Central Huron Secondary He said there will he no School in Clinton who said layoffs. they can't make photocopies Everyday on the news, for students, which cost there arc reports of school about t�tree.cents per sheet. boards laying off teachers; They have the students make Carroll observed, adding their own handwritten copies. these are only surplus notices "It frosts 14 cents every each board hands out every mihute a student. is' in the - ' year. ' "I signed rcaom. 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