Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2000-02-23, Page 1February 23, 2000 $i _Includes GS1i • Local weather Wads sday--Occasional light rain, fog. High 6. Thursday --Mainly cloudy with showers. High 8 Low 3 "liftll' "r Friday --Periods of rain. High 10. low 3. Saturday --Periods of rain ending, High T0. Low 2. From Environment Canada In brief r -- Tulip Tulip help Legion celebrate• 7 in preparation for next year's celebrations of the Royal' Canadian Legion's '75th anniversary, special tulip bulbs are being sold fora limited time this year so they may planted in; time to mark the occasion if. bloom: "They are absolutely beautiful," said Legion member Barbara Scott who had a chance to purchase some bulbs when they • were offered a number of years ago to mark another special occasion. "They lasted for years and years." said Scott of the bulbs that produce 24 -inch• high tulips with large, bright flowers. - The bulbsstand•as. a symbol of the- bond between. Canada and the Netherlands. after annual gifts of tulip.; bulbs were sent to' Canada as a thanks _ to Canadians who liberated - Holland during World War -11. Now. ekery year the Dutch Royal Family 'sends a gift of tulips to Ottawa each spring. - Scott said part of that tradition aiso tonnest the fact a 'member of the Dutch . Royal Family was born in Ottawa during an official visit a number of Yeas ago. - She said the room where the child was born -was declared Dutch territory so the child could be born on Legion members across Canada are selling the 'bulbs until the end of March with the tulips arrived in September or October, in time to be planted for next spring and the 75th anniversary celebrations. The Legion was formed in 1926 to help Canadians return to civilian life after World War L • Thele are now more than 1,600 branches across Canaria helping Canadian veterans: including serving .ander-military personnel and Royal Canadian Mounted. Police. receive suPPort in Seafortb,bulbs can be purchased from Ann Wood � Thelma Coombs. They. are sold in packages of 10 or 100 in. Legion Gold. Legion Crimson or Legion Brilliant - Scott suggested people may want to buy different coloured packages and split up the bulbs among friends for a mix of colours. By Scott Hilgenrk»ff Inside... Riopelle 10uroatre tri Nt1ttM! .. Pep• toganPoist psarmeviwx Pose 10 NNW 114 mi taontpolet rote funds_ Pup lib Parents preparing to pull students from schools mpu' bhc system delegations. - Agar,. who handed her written'notice to finance superintendent •Janet Baird- Jackson that her two children will be pulled from the public -system if Seaforth District High School closes, Said she's heard from more than 10 parents of students at SDHS_ who plan to do the same.• - "I encourage everyone. to send their intention to pull By Susan Hundertmork xpositor Staff The • Avon Maitland District School Board is - already receiving notice from parents that they will pull ' students from the public school system if Seaforth • District High School closes. SDHS school council chair- Maureen hairMaureen Agar "last week challenged local .parents to prove to .the board they're not bluffing and give written notice that their children will no longer• attend the puhlic school system if trustees vote to close the school. . "The director t of education Lorne Rachlis) has said we're bluffing, that parents in the Ottawa -area .threatened the same thingwhen their schools were closing but nothing came of it. said Agar last Tuesday after a special hoard -meeting to hear' students from the system in .writing so it can he documented," she said. Rachlis.said the number of parents following Agar's lead has not been large enough to he drawn.to his attention. • 'On Thursday. Rachlis had also ;aid he didn't believe it would happen. That= was the same day parent Jan Alcock called The Expositor td say she had sent written notice to the hoard IS THE :;ARD OF" JCA1l0,N ••f IG TO t �l s e. OWN, t The potential fate of Seaforth District Hgh School was voted Scott Hilgendorff photo on last night by the Avon ylaitland District School. Board. Judge won't allow board to imp lenient school closure osure Board expected to close schools at last night's mee By Scott Hilgendorff • Expositor Editor An anticipated decision to close Seaforth District High School• last night (Feb. 22) cannot hold any weight until a Perth County court rules on - a civil action filed against the board. "I think it's a sensible way to proceed." said -Justice Thonias Heeney - of. Woodstock on Thursday. • Heeney was expected -to hear a case about the fairness of the process followed by the board toward the Seaforth community. Community leaders say they were not given as fair :an opportunity as other cotnmunities to prepare .and present options toward keeping Local •schools Win. • The Avon . Maitland District School Board was expected to make a decision. last night on the fate of Seaforth District - High School. Seaforth Public School. Walton, Public School and several other schoolswithin the system. The group, 'led by Alf Ross. Carolanne Doig. Mayor Dave Scott, Maureen .Agar and Charles Smith` was hoping the court would prevent the board from making that decision but. instead, lawyers for the two sides delayed court proceedings for about an hour and negotiated the terms of a recommendation to Justice Heeney. Those terms allowed the board to make its decision. last night at its regularly scheduled meeting with the understanding .should the high school be closed, it cannot begin to implement the decision with respect to the notification of teaching staff and' it cannot ask students to make course selections for the different high schools they may be 'attending until March S. See MIKE. Pag. 3 Students evacuated from St. James school lay Scott HllVsndorff ExpositorEdltor Students from St. James Catholic School were sent home shortly after arriving at school Monday monnins after a threat to their safety was found on the school's answering machine. "We want to always take the measures to ensure the students are. safe," said Huron Perth Catholic District School Board Director of Education Gaeten Blanchette of the decision to send the students home. OPP are not releasing the content of the message, keeping it as part bf their investigation. Huron OPP Staff Sergeant Gary Martin. Seaforth/Clinton OPP Staff Sergeant George Lonsbary and an investigating officer conducted a search of the building, as did staff, looking for anything out of place or out of the ordinary.. • "As far as I know. nothing was found Martin.' of place." said Martin. • . He said the call "would appear to lack any significant substance:" "When it was listened to on the answering machine, the school reacted - appropriately and called the police to investigate." said Blanchette. adding they decided to send the students home rather than take any chances with their safety. He said they used the school's inclement weather policy to send the' students home, using that plan's telephone tree to locate places for the children to go if parents were working or away. Those who could not leave the school when dismissed Monday morning were supervised at St. James Church until parents or guardians could arrive. "We erred citrate side of safety," said Blanchette. " Students were beck at school on Tuesday. Martin said if there had been any further safety concerns. the students :would not have been allowed back to school. He said there was a time frame mentioned on. the answering machine and that time passed without incident. He also said there was no obvious. connection between the threat and the currently emotional public school closure situation which was coming to a head at a school board meeting in • Seaforth the night following the discovery of the message. • our community rte wspuper Sucre '800 that she will he removing two of her children from ahe elementary school system and putting them in St. James School d the puhlic school is moved and the high school - closes. - She' said- it-'• : intportanct people:support-Agar in this- effort. 'Agar said she is looking . into the idea of creating a - private high school. in; See AGAR; Page 2 • 4 Expositor barred from covering meeting While the Avon Maitland: District -School Board . • met , with representatives 'from ever,,,, municipality in Huron and Perth ; Counties.'the media was excluded and The Huron Expositor was aeensed of trespassing - for insisting it be able to -cover the meeting. { fixe Avon Maitland • District School ,Board • .invited a representative' from Beach municipality to attend a 'meeting tri • 1 discuss the provincial funding of schools and' . the situation that has led _' the hoard to. look at dosing local :uhitols. , including Seaforth District High School. . Director of Education. Lorne Rachlis aid tt was not a. formal meeting and. therefore, the press did not .have a , right to attend. • The Expositor attended and. .when •.tsked to leave. argued • because it was a•meeting composed .primarily of L:tected • leaders,_ it could not he declared a•closed meeting. - 1n agenda from lite gathering ,called it a; "meeting of Avon Maitland District School Board with Mayou and Reeves of Huron and Perth County." The school board had also faxed a list of upcoming meetings to 111 area media listing this.reeting as a "future meeting with. trustee participation." When The Expositor continued to question how this meeting could not •be. considered public, Rachlis, said the newspaper.. was trespassing and • the meeting would - not .start until the reporter was gone. He said the media could speak with him and any • of the politicians after the meeting to discuss what had taken place. Rachlis's assistant, Wendy Francis, said they wanted to be able to: hold the. meeting without • Media so See M ETtwa, Pogo z