HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2001-07-05, Page 6e -THE HURON EXPOSITOR, July 4, 2001
Local board profile high
at annual general meeting
By Stew Slater
Special to the Huron Expositor
Profile was high for the
Avon Maitland District School
Board during the recent
Annual General Meeting of the
Ontario Public School Boards
Association (OPSBA) in
Kingston.
Wingham-area trustee
Colleen Schenk, veteran
OPSBA representative and
currently co-chair of the Avon
Maitland board, was elected
Western Region vice-president
at the June 16 meeting of the
province -wide lobby group.
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She becomes one of five
regional vice-presidents, and
now represents school boards
from Windsor to Woodstock to
Owen Sound on the OPSBA's
executive committee.
"I think rural boards like our
own will now have a more
influential voice at the
association," Schenk said at
the Avon Maitland board's
June 26 meeting.
During the meeting,
formerly alternative
representative -Don Brillinger
was appointed to replace
Schenk at the-OPSBA level
until the annual election of
Avon Maitland—officers next
autumn. -The association's
constitution states Schenk
cannot hold both= positions.
Also at the Kingston
meeting, a motion brought
forward by the Avon Maitland
board was the only one to pass
unanimously.
The motion called on the
provincial government to
reinstate some sort of
programming akin to the
outgoing Basic -level courses,
for students who have trouble
with courses geared towards
students proceeding to post-
secondary training.
"I just feel really strongly
about special education,"
New,,
Schenk explained. adding
"there's nothing that
adequately tills that gap" in the
province's new four-year high
school curriculum. She says
some courses equivalent to the
outgoing Basic subjects have
been included in the new
curriculum, but not enough to
inspire some teenagers to
remain in school.
About half a dozen motions
were brought forward from
different school boards at this
year's annual general meeting,
Schenk reports.
And finally, the Avon
Maitland board's distance
education program received
significant interest at the
OPSBA meeting, following a
presentation by board staff
member Laurie Hazzard.
The program, which is a
partnership with another
largely rural board near
Peterborough, provides a wide
slate of provincially -approved
courses -- in both core subjects
and specialized areas -- over
computer-based
communications systems.
It allows schools to offer
classes which might not
otherwise be available due to
inadequate registration
numbers or lack of suitable
staff members.
s.44.
Scott Hilgendorff photo
Making waves
Jenny Oliver eases her way into the wading pool on one of the rare, hot days experienced
Thursday.
Board passes balanced budget
after threatening to defy province
By Stew Slater
Special to The Huron Expositor
Despite talk of defying a
provincial order forbidding
school boards to operate with
an unbalanced budget at a
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previous
meeting, the
A v o n g
Maitland
District
School Board
passed a'
balanced
200 1 -2002
budget.
With three
of nine
trustees absent
from the June
26 meeting, a
5-1 vote
sealed the
passage of a
budget of just
under $130
million, down
about $1.5 million from last
year. Among the
cuts was more than $209,000
from educational assistants,
$327,000 from in -school
partnerships with the Perth
District Health Unit and the
Huron County Children's Aid
Society, and $133,000 from
special education supports.
Planned computer
purchases of $300,000 were
also axed, as were figures of
$8,000 and $32,000,
respectively, from
elementary -level regional
sports and secondary
competitions beyond the
local level.
Trustee Rod Brown agreed
with what appears to be an
assertion from the business
superintendent, Janet Baird -
Jackson, that some of this
year's cuts will have
detrimental effects.
"Any expenditure
reduction will, directly or
indirectly, affect students,"
Brown said.
He also read a prepared
statement from fellow
Stratford representative Meg
Westley, who was attending
her son's elementary school
graduation.
"We may be able to
manage but I believe the
quality of our education will
be compromised," Westley's
statement declared.
Three trustees -- South
Huron's Randy Wagler, East
and South Perth's Carol
Bennewies, and North
Huron's Colleen Schenk --
agreed the cuts threatened
educational quality.
But all three argued quality
would be more severely
compromised if the
government follows through
on threats to remove elected
boards which pass deficits.
It was these three who
drew the particular ire of Bill
Huzar, the District 8
president of the Ontario
Secondary School Teachers'
Federation union. Huzar, who
attended the meeting, used as
his starting point the
unanimous passage during
the same meeting of several
policies relating to the
province's Safe Schools Act.
"What someone should say
to those three trustees is that
the school board has a policy
on harassment which
identifies bullying as
something that is wrong,"
Huzar said. "And
(bullying) is exactly what the
government is doing to
school boards."
Quoted
'We may be
able to
manage but 1
believe the
quality of our
education will
be
compromised,' -
Mom Westley,
Stratford
repro ontatiw
Brown
agreed the
A v on
Maitland
board should
have joined
two other
boards which.
at that point.
had approved
unbalanced
budgets. H e
suggested the
risk to the
trustees isn't
nearly as great
as the political
risk the
government
would face if
it stepped in
to take control, especially if
several boards defy the
balanced-budget law.
"It's a politically -sensitive
time right now," the Stratford
trustee argued. "The current
political climate would
dictate to (the Conservatives)
that they should, at least.
tread very lightly. And now is
the time that we could have
capitalized on that, and we
missed that chance tonight."
At a previous board
meeting, trustees had voted
to ask the superintendent of
business to provide two
budgets: one balanced and
the other a so-called "needs -
based" document reinstating
all programs and services
deemed necessary to
adequately serve students.
Baird -Jackson delivered
those budgets to a special
June 20 meeting of the
board's Audit Committee.
and portions of the "needs -
based" version remained in
her final report to the board
on June 26.
One page lists the cuts to
be made in one column, with
the next column indicating
the "cuts that reflect
minimum need."
These include half the total
cuts from computer
purchases and the health-
related partnerships, the full
level of educational assistant
cuts, and a full freeze on the
government's continued
cutbacks to school allocation
and school renewal grants.
Baird -Jackson called on
the government to consider
several areas which she says
resulted in unanticipated
expenditures: less -than -
adequate transportation
funding from the
government; a so-called
"anomaly" between Junior
Kindergarten funding and
Early Learning expectations;
a jump in teacher retirement
gratuity pay -outs due to a
governmental policy change;
the halving of textbook
funding for the lead class of
the new four-year high
school curriculum; and
continuing adjustments td
pay equity settlements
brought on by the
amalgamation of the former
Perth and Huron County
boards in 1997.
"That amount of money
certainly would go a long
way towards reinstituting
those things you see listed,"
the superintendent of
business said.