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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1996-05-01, Page 5Education Catholic board wants to remain `lowest spending' and maintain quality education BY DAVID SCOTT Expositor Editor The. Huron -Perth Roman Catholic Separatc.School Board (HPRCSSB) -is look- ing for_ a balance between being thc lowest spending • hoard in the province and not sacrificing the quality of edu- -cation for its students. At a public budget informa- • tion session held April 24 al St. Patrick's .School in Dublin, separate _ school ratepayers had a chance to voice. their concerns on how to lower the potential 14.65 per cent • increase (or $1,280,530) arrived at during preliminary -budget meetings. St. Anne's Increases Costs - Most of the increase conies from St. Anne's Secondary School starting up in Clinton in September last year. The new high school will contin- ue to have a hearing on bud- .... gcts.tor the next tour to five years, ratepayers were told. At a meeting. the previous night, trustees were unable to agree on expenditure reduc- tion of $690,000 in the 1996 -budget-which would reduce the. increase in local taxation to 6.6. per cent (or $582;018). For every $88.(}0() the hoard -can cut it will reduce taxes by onc'per cent. Thc Huron -Perth separate board began cutting hack any • unnecessary expenditures in 1989, before budget cutting was "fashionable." However, • as the hand-out to the ratepayers stated: -"We cannot do more with less. We cannot - do the same with Icss" "We can't morally or ethi- cally abuse our staff." said Dr. James Brown, Director of Education. Do More With Less? • One .ratepayer challenged the hoard on the point of not. doing •rnore or same with less. "We -have to do more or the same with Icss'all the time. You don't believe. you can do the sante- with less?" asked the ratepayer. _ "This isnot an assembly line.. -We're in the ,human development business: If we have less we're -not going to get results. We're going to have to do things`diffcrently with less." said Brown. Comparative per pupil costs were reviewed by Ron Marcy of Stratford, chair of the - HPRCSSB's -management committee. . . - "These arc figures from the Ministry of Education. Public Boards spend $1.000 more (per -pupil) on average." said Marcy. • Figures from the .Ministry. of Education showed the average separate school hoard spends $5,267 per pupil where the average public hoard spends $6,199.. The Huron -Perth . separate hoard spends $4:5:22. the lowest in thc province. corn- pared to the Perth public, hoard at $5..214 and the Huron public hoard at $5.378. Although the Huron -Perth Roman Catholic hoard is list- -cd as the lowest spending hoard in the province per public. for instructional costs. plant operation and mainte- nance, it is a high spending board when it conies to trans- portation. High Transporation Costs The Huron -Perth separate hoard spends $737 per stu- dent on bussing compared to $426 for the Huron public hoard and $374 for the Perth• public board. Presently, 75 per cent of the separate hoard's Huron bus routes are shared with the public hoard and 35 per cent arc shared with the Perth public hoard. One area of expense is inner-city bussing in Stratford where the public hoard docs almost none. Presently the separate hoard Musses students in Stratford who live within a half -mile radius of their school. There have been discussions to increase that distance to three-quarters of a mile for an estimated savings of $159,000. One ratepayer said bussing is the place to cut to achieve balance. Not all secondary bus routes can he shared either. "There arc five public high schools in Perth. We operate one. There- arc five high schools in Huron. We have onc. The (high school) busses •are changing direction all the time," said Brown. The HPRCSSB applied recently to the Ministry 'of Education for a "hardship. grant" to help lower trans- portation costs. • Thc Halihurton hoard of educa- tion was -recently granted one..Howevcr. it is a slow process, said Brown., and must he reapplied for each year. Much sharing and transfer- ring of students from onc bus to another on routes is now being done. But Brown says for every transfer on a route, the bus loses 15 minutes. "There are kids getting on the bus at 6:45 on our earliest route," said Brown. "They're on first thing in thc..rnorning and late at nighties a family concern. In rural areas, those students might have to, do chores." - Additional bussing costs have also arisen because of St: Anne's. "As we add stu- dents, St. Anne's will be more efficient. It's in the. - growing stage." Different Fiscal Years Another problem Brown secs with snatching up figures is the fact that the school year runs from September to June, the Ministry of Education budgets from January to December and thc Government of Ontario's frs- . cal year is April to March. "The ministry repeatedly says its going to change its funding year to match the school calendar,". said Brown. The Huron -Perth separate hoard has the distinction of having the lowest number of school board employees per pupil. But the board also has one of the highest pupil - teacher ratios in the province. "It can't be something we're proud of," said Dr. Brown. "Our teachers carry a heav- ier.work load. We have a cen- tral Operation that's smaller. That's. what keeps our costs under control. We have a payroll department of one person, a technical depart- ment of onc person, a pur- chasing department of one • person," said thc HPRCSSB director. . One ratepayer asked if apti- tude studies had been done on how Huron -Perth separate students, coming from the lowest spending hoaid and a hoard with a higher pupil - teacher ratio, fair against other students in the public school system. Brown said thc only indica- tor is Grade 9 testing which has been conducted by the Ministry of Education the last two years. . _ "Our children did better than almost any other hoard in the province. We did Netter than thc Huron and Pcrth public hoards," said Brown. "If every hoard in thc province hudgetted the same as us, the province would save $2.6 billion. If all the hoards followed the separate school average in the province; the savings would he $1.3 billion," said Brown. Further budget meetings for the Huron -Perth separate hoard were held April 25 and Monday night, April 29. Separate board will _ raise funds with lottery BY MICHELE GREENE SSP News Staff . The Huron -Perth Roman Catholic Separate School Board will participate in a lottery which could help up to five boards deal with funding cutbacks from the province. Director Education Dr. James Brown said the separate board.and the London/Middlesex Roman Catholic Separate School Board agreed to sell $100 tickets for a raffle. The prizes will be a cottage, a condominium, a recreational vehi- cle,.trips to Hawaii and trips to Las Vegas. The Oxford, Elgin and Lambton school boards are also discussing the possibility of being a part. of it. Tickets wouldlikely be on sale from November 1996 until February 1997 with the draw being held next spring. . "These hoards in western Ontario are very poor boards. We have to do something," said Dr. Brown. Superintendent Gates Blanchette attended an organizing meeting with representatives from the other boards. A limit- ed number of tickets would be sold `for the prizes and the proceeds would be shared among the participating boards based on the number of tickets each board sold., Dr. Brown told trustees at their April 22 meeting that the lttery could bring in $200,000 in revenue to the board. "It's an attempt to deal with what might be called a volun- tary tax," said Dr. Brown. "We're all short of money." The separate board has never held a fundraising event. Although some hoards have held fundraisers, Dr. Brown said this is probably the first onc of this scale in this part of Ontario. Separate board increases kindergarten class sizes BY MICHELE GREENE SSP News Staff Sites 01' separate school kindergarten classes will increase next fall. At the April 22 meeting of the Huron -Perth Roman Catholic Separate School Board, trustees approved a plan to allow up -to 25 stu- dents in the junior and senior kindergarten classes. Currently, the maximum class size is 24 students. "Right now, we create a new class with the twenty- fifth student. We will now add the class with the twenty- sixth student," said Dr. James Brown, director of education. He said thc separate hoard lost $180,000 in provincial funding for junior kinder- garten. Increasing the class sizes gives the schools a little more flexibility in class orga- nization and also helps avoid increased costs. Adding an additional classroom requires hiring a teacher and equip- ping another classroom. The change isn't likely. to affect many classes, said Dr. Brown. The average kinder- garten class size in the Huron -Perth system is about 20 students, which gives each student maximum opportuni- ty for the teacher's time, he added. After the provincial fund- ing cuts to junior kinder- garten, the Perth County Board of Education decided to no longer _offer it in its schools. 1 4 THE HURON EXPOSITOR. 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