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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. Allan Carter, Broker • Home • Auto • Commercial • Farm 522-0399 Seaforth 1-800-265-0959 Strathroy 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 SUMME SIDEWALK S July 4th 'til July 15th "Great beals On All Your Summer Fashions eit More" FREE LOTTERY TICKET Be among the first 500 people to present their receipt tota=lling $25 or more at the lottery booth and receive a FREE lottery ticket valued at. $1.00 MAR 1067 Ontario Street, ACL (519) 273-6724 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.