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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2006-05-17, Page 10Page 10 May 17, 2006 • The Huron Expositor News Board seeks input on 10 -year accommodation plan Stew Slater leaders. "In a sense, it's really good to have the dialogue now because we've already said we're not going to be in an accommodation review for a cou- ple of years," she said in an inter- view. There is some urgency, however. The board is asking to receive any input by the end of June, so staff can present trustees with a final 10 - year plan in September. It won't necessarily make recom- mendations for possible school clo- sures or construction 10 years from now, but it may provide some insight into how each community would like to see issues of declining enrolment and aging buildings addressed. "As we've closed schools in the past, people have wanted to see from us that we have a long-range plan," said Baird -Jackson. "I think this process has allowed us to come up with that long-range plan." Background information dis- tributed at the Top administrators and trustees have just wrapped up a series of meetings with school council repre- sentatives across the district, in the Avon Maitland District School Board's version of public consulta- tion into its draft capital plan. In what is a new requirement this year, Ontario's Education Ministry asked school boards to create a 10 - year plan for accommodating stu- dents, submit it for approval, and seek public input. The Huron -Perth Catholic District School Board chose to put its plan on its website and seek online feed- back. But according to Avon Maitland business superintendent Janet Baird -Jackson, the board's top brass decided instead to use in-person dis- cussions with school community r DOMINION DRIVER TRAINING ARE YOU TURNING 16 THIS SUMMER? Come Join us in ONE of our FOUR DAY CLASSES & Learn to drive while the sun shines. 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With attendance sought from school council representatives from each school in the area, meetings were held through late April and early May in Stratford, Mitchell, St. Marys, South Huron, Listowel, Wingham and the Central Huron/Goderich area. Information provided at the meet- ings included enrolment projections, a database called RECAPP that pre- dicts when structural work might be necessary on each of the board's facilities, and the draft capital plan. "We're leaving it up to the various communities as to how far they` want to take the community input," Baird -Jackson said. School council leaders in some communities plan on having follow- up meetings with their area coun- terparts before the June deadline for feedback to the board. That includes the St. Marys area, where Pat Weir is chair of the Arthur Meighen elementary school council. According to Weir, the information provided at their meeting about enrolment, necessary repairs, and the 10 -year plan wasn't surprising, since parents generally know about the trends in enrolment and the condition of their schools. But she said the ideas brought by the board (including the possibility of expanding a rural school to take some town kids, because its one - level nature makes it easily accessi- ble to all students) made for very interesting discussion when com- bined with ideas brought by school council members (including one per- son's notion of disposing of the town's two aging elementary schools and ' putting all students on one site at the existing high school). She was supportive of the process, however. "What we're trying to do is work through what makes sense for stu- dents over a long period of time. It's about knowing that change is going to happen . . and being at the lead of it and being proactive instead of trying to pick up the pieces after- ward." SPS places in Techno Challenge Seaforth Public School came second in the construc- tion challenge and third in the electric car challenge at the Junior TechnoChallenge for Grade 6 students throughout Huron and Perth Counties on May 4. Hensall Public School came first in the Junior TechnoChallenge vehicle challenge. Seaforth Public School also came second in the triathlon in the Senior TechnoChallenge on May 11. At right, Brodie Cairns, a Grade 7 student at Seaforth Public School, helps his team build a marble run as part of the con- struction challenge at the Senior TechnoChallenge at the Seaforth arena last Thursday. The team with the slowest time won the challenge.