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Home My WebLink AboutHuron Expositor, 2002-11-20, Page 1December 12, 2001 Si (includes GST) AMANDA POPPE Travel Planner BAIWAIAS December 16" Air & Note :298 p.L CALL '_' As. Fvi; .• tiw 1110101101014 D -40111' Email: TPI TRAVEL SEAPORTS dirioIYij balceIO IMS 43 Mein St., 5%2062 tplc4th 0 tcc.on.ca In brief 7.1•.1.• Youth charged for taking pop machine in truck Two 17 -year-old males and one 16 -year-old, all from South Huron, were charged with two counts of theft, one count of possession of stolen property and one count of possession of break-in equipment after a pop machine was taken from the front of the Dublin General Store on Dec. 8 at approximately 3:15 a.m. The store owner told police the three loaded the pop machine into the back of a green pick-up truck and fled east on Highway 8. Police stopped the truck later that morning, finding cash, pop, tools and a pop machine in the truck. As a result of the investigation, police also recovered a 2002 Polaris 500 X Scrambler ATV that had been stolen from a business in Elma Township in Perth County at the 16-year-old's residence. The ATV four - wheeler was valued at $7,600 and had been* stolen Dec. 4. The 16 - year -old was also charged with possession of stolen property over $5,000. The three are scheduled to attend court in Goderich next month. Barbecue stolen A Broil King barbecue and two weedeaters, valued at a total of $900, were taken from a shed on Regina Road in Vanastra on Dec. 8 between 8 and 8:30 p.m. The shed was left unlocked. Anyone with any related information is asked to call the Huron OPP or Crimestoppers. Inside... Bill Weber a citizen of the year.. Page 5 Obedience school... Page8 More on the current sdtool closure crisis... Pogo 6 High school remains listed for trustees' consideration Brussels, Grey schools no longer on list as board considers schools to study for closure By Susan Hundertmark Expositor Staff While both Grey Central and Brussels Public Schools will no longer be considered for closure by the Avon Maitland District School Board, Seaforth District High School remained one of four schools to be studied for closure in a pared -down list considered by the school board at last night's meeting. After an initial study of 19 public schools and one high school for possible closure in Tluron and Perth Counties, the revised director's action report named SDHS along with Robertson Memorial Public School in Goderich and Juliet and King Lear Public Schools in Stratford to be identified for possible closure. The revised director's report was made available to the public on Friday but any decisions made by school board trustees Tuesday night were not available by press time. SDHS was recommended in the Seaforth District High School report to be possibly closed by September, 2002, with its students moving to Central Huron Secondary School in Clinton and Seaforth Public School moving to the high school building. Seaforth Public School was recommended to be moved on or before September, 2003 after facility changes are made to accommodate an Out of style... OAC student Erin Rock dressed in old her mother s closet for last Wednesday s Day at Seaforth District High School. Scott Hilgendorff photo clothes she found in Dress in your Worst elementary population. Options considered in the report included closing SDHS and moving Grades 10 and up to Clinton with Kindergarten to Grade 9 being located at the high school building as well as closing SDHS and moving Grades 9 and up to Clinton with SPS moving to the high school building. While the Kindergarten to Grade 9 option resulted in a higher enrolment at the high school than the second option, the report said that its unlikely that sufficient numbers of Grade 9 students would want to remain at a public school setting. Timetabling challenges would also cause the need for extra teachers being assigned to the school if the first option were adopted, said the report. The option of moving Grades 9 to OAC to Clinton will result in a loading of 89.4 per cent at Central Huron and a loading of 78.5 per cent at a relocated Seaforth Public School. The report said the annual savings resulting from the closure will be $421,595 and a one-time savings from the closure - deducting the necessary building additions and renovations of $500,00 from a projected 10 -year facilities renewal cost of $549,039 - will be $49,039. The community -supported solution of moving Grades 7 and 8 from SPS into SDHS was also explored in a further appendix but was shown to only produce savings of $25,000. "It wasn't a very viable option. There's really no comparison with a savings of $400,000," said Seo GRADE, Pogo 2 Bluewater board stand gets temporary relief Director of sister board says everyone must take fight to provincial government to change funding formula By Susan Hund.rtmark Expositor Staff Even the courageous passing of a $1.3 million deficit budget by Bluewater District School Board recently will not prevent the board from studying 44 of its schools, looking for as many as 15 possible closures, said Bluewater Education Director David Armstrong. "We're almost in identical situations at Bluewater and at the Avon Maitland. We're a similar size and configuration with a rural population and one well - populated urban centre," said Armstrong Friday. But, while the Avon Maitland District School Board in Huron and Perth Counties was able to cover a $1.2 million operating deficit in 2000-2001 by depleting all of its reserves, using a $181,000 sale of bus fleets and routes and benefitting from an annual savings of $550,000 from the closure of four schools in 2000, the Bluewater board in Bruce and Grey Counties was not able to cover its deficit. Armstrong said the $1.3 million deficit is the shortage between what is needed for transportation and what the board is getting in provincial funding. "We are not getting enough to bus kids to school and we had no other (funding) envelopes to go to, to make it work. And, the trustees said enough is enough," he said. Armstrong said that because Grey MPP Bill Murdoch took Bluewater's concern to Education Minister Janet Ecker, Bluewater administration and trustees may avoid the severe penalties of passing a deficit budget - including personal liability for the $1.3 million - if the province agrees to give Bluewater one-time emergency funding to meet the shortfall. "We expect to hear within the week," he said. Other penalties could include the province taking over the Bluewater school board, the firing of administration and trustees, who could be disallowed from running for office again, along with the personal liability for the deficit. But, Armstrong said the board's legal advice was that trustees could end up in court fighting the fairness of being expected to pay the deficit. "It was a unanimous vote and it was quite courageous. Our trustees are pretty Quoted Like your board, we re being penalized for being efficient, -- David Armstrong, Bayswater Director of Education frustrated," he said. Armstrong said the deficit might provoke the province to look closer at its transportation policy and how it penalizes rural boards, especially those, like the Avon Maitland, that has been sharing busing with the Catholic system for years and cannot save any more money because they've already reached peak efficiency. "Like your board (Avon Maitland), we're being penalized for being efficient. In fact, we're more efficient than their (the province's) model because we've been cooperating with our Catholic friends for years. SN ARMSTRONG, Pogo 2 r..-- ••••1•4.,`. FOR TICKETS CONTACT Marie Hicknell Frank Nigh John Stennett Winston Powell Gord Glen Sharon Flanagan Ross Ribey Lyle Haney Jim Floyd Pat DeJong 345-2948 522-0477 522-1103 233-7108' 233-3175 348-0688 527-1390 522-1300 527-1583 482-7971