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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1993-01-27, Page 2Education rnfin %er's reori speaks of nits. 1 Edd of the line for boards of education By Kellie Eticoli and Adrian Harte, of the Times Advocate TORONTO - A more effective education system in Ontario could jeopardize the 'province's 171 school boards, according to Tony Silipo, education minister. Silipo's comment has been interpreted by some edu- cators as meaning that such a change in the system could establish greater power for parents and taxpayers or dal t1EAoo1 boaru,, could be elimienated altogether. Actomding to the London Free Press, ,there are more than 2,100 trustees in Ontario and they directed an ex- cess of $1 I -billion in education expenditures in 1992. Silipo suggests that public consultation is needed to meet the needs of the individual communities. Current Ministry won't be saving any money, predicts Huron trustee �. t NTRALIA - Bob Hey - mood, Stephen Township's trus- with the Htwon Board of Ed- • a acation, predicts the Ministry of education will neither improve education, nor save money by` eliminating local school boards. "I can't 'see them saving any -maostey by doing this," said Hey- witatildewhe called the boards the last -touch the community has with edeeation. - Heywood referred to the pre - 1969 era when each school had .its .own board as being a much `-teuer system. Once it was "cen- odized" under ..the :Bill Davis provincial govea znent, Hey- wood said much of the. local con- -Anil was lost forever. The cen- fr iLsed system has "played right sno the hands of the Toronto itlltwcd unions", he said, and spec- ' deleted that complete ministry control.could only make that sit- -station worse. "It's a fumbling government that's trying to take mare power .away from the people and put it 'into bureaucrats in Toronto," said Heywood. Heywood did say, however, that should .the ministry favour school ba ed,agth¢tmittees to ad- minister kiataiducation needs, he could.wsaisii Ikat. "I would be a1nost inclined to agree with that_..[but) if -they're talking about less power for the people, vetoing power, and more power for Toronto, then I'm against it," insisted Heywood. Heywood said a unified educa- tion policy only tends to reflect ,the needs of Metropolitan To- ronto, not the more solidly Ju- daeo-Christian background of Huron County. School Christ- mas pageants are only just bare - Ay tolerated today, and he said they are likely to be eliminated altogether as a concession to To-. ronto's multicultural back - "If there was funding for Christian -based schools there might be a mass exodus from the public system," said Hey- wood, who said he would rather see local public boards decide on the religious leanings of their schools. Heywood said the ministry, instead of eliminating local boards, should be relaxing legis- lation to allow boards to trim back their bureaucracies and to allow thein to decide what pro- grams to support or decline, such as junior kindergarten. Heagreed that trustees often don't have the kind of power the public expects of them. "In a lot cases, you're a paper shuffler...there's a lot of mandat- ed programs from Toronto," said Heywood. "If we had more clout, we would exercise it." But as .bor,:ting local boards to -reduceucracy and cost, Heywood said he would have to see some "hard and fast" proposals before he would believe the ministry. "Don't think it'll save any more money. It's a lie; they've never done it before." Osborne stalls plans for staff wage increase EXETER - A wage increase for the staff of Usborne Town- ship will have to wait awhile as council reconsiders its options. Deputy -reeve Margaret Han made a motion at the January 19 greeting of council to approve a two-peroent salary increase for the township's full-time staff. That motion, however, died on the table without a seconder. Another motion by councilor Ken Oke for a one -percent wage increase was seconded, but failed to pass after discussion led it to be atelld slit the next tiavetai. "We decided rather than being one of the fust to set our salary bylaw, we would think about it a bit more," said reeve Pat Down, noting that )992 had been a bad year for the faint economy and council should gear its tax rates accordingly. "We're going to see what we can do with Amon of the bud- get before alio; *cide," said Down, adding that council would "think it over a little long- er, and maybe some people will criticize us, but that's what we're going to do." OPP lay charges in two collisions EXETER - Two charges have been laid against a Goderich man after a parked vehicle owned by Centralia Farmers Supply was struck by a car which went through a stop sign on Riehmoaad Street in Centralia Saturday =ruin sad collided with the perked vehicle in a Janeway. The Exeter OPP report that dam- age from tie oellision areas el aatte- sive and that Kenton Baer of Gide- rich has been charged wish disobeying a stop sign and for•fail- ing to ►.fort an aoaident. Nie Friday evening, police report Bast vehicles driven by Lynn Stephens of Exeter and Brian Nakamura of RR2 Goderich collided at the inter- section of County Road 4 and Con- oeasion 2-3 of Stephen Township. Damadge was extensive to both tars, but no injuries were reported. Stephens has been charged with failing to stop for &atop sign. Oth- er charges are pending. On Sunday, a vehicle driven by Paul Boyd of Mitchell went out of control on Cowry Road 4 east of Concession 4-5 of Stephen Town- ship and struck a tree. While the vehicle was damaged severely, there was no injury. changes in the education system, such as destreatning in high schools, curriculum changes and special educa- tion, require such input according to the minister. Silipo said that he would announce some formal re- view poomoioof the administration of the school'sys- tem, commission task force, within the next few weeks. Paul Klopp; Huron MPP, was in' Toronto last week and saw the issue unfold. He said that he made it clear to Queen's Park that he felt the current education sys- Join, don't eliminate boards, says Catholic board director DUBLIN - Dr. James Brown director of education for the Hu- ron Perth Roman Catholic Separ- ate School Board said that the education ministry is "well aware they can't do anything m impact on Catholic School con- stitutional rights" and so does not sip the proposed restructur- ing changing the position of sep- arate schools in Ontario. While no official proposal has been made, Brown said he ex- pects the ministry will be consid- ering amalgamating boards into "larger entities" perhaps as boards controlling large regions of the province. School commit- tees could provide input for par- ents into the system, but other- wise Brown said the ministry doesn't seem to have any con- crete plans. "I don't think it's well defined in their minds," said Brown, who argued that this entire' plan to eliminate • school boards came out of the government's nasponte to one Scarborough board meet- ing where 500 parents attended to force the board to roll back an $8,000 stipend increase they had granted themselves. "Government legislation grants school trustees to-do ex- actly that, to grant themselves a gay increase...why they would ;dliminate school boards instead taif adanging the legislation, I tdon't know," said Brown. The Huron Perth Catholic ibaartd, however, is already run- ning pilot projects in two of its schools to examine the benefits of greater input from commit- tees made up of school staff, parents, and parish representa- tives. The insult, sid Brown, will be a committed "far more sophisticated than a A". -Brown said he could see the .eventual amalgamation of sever - •al public boards, or divisions of regional boards into four catego- lies, based on language and re- ligion. "That region could be signifi- cantly bigger than existing boards," said Brown, but said he wouldn't want to see decisions on education coming solely d'Kan the ministry in Queen's Side. That would result in a spidiorninantly s urban -oriented education system. Decisions, said Brown would be based on "the greatest good for the greatest number of peo- ple, and quite frankly, we lin Huron-Perthl aren't the greatest number of people". Council freezes pay GRAND BEND - Council here decided not to give itself a raise in the upcoming year as•their honorar- ium remained the same. Mayor Tom Lawson will receive 5400 a month while councillors Cam Ivey, Bill Uniac, Phil Ma- guire and Ed Fluter will receive 5300 per month. Council members and committee appointees will receive 540 for a half day meetings which are out-of- town and 570 for full day. Sentencing delayed GODERICH - The sentencing of a Parkhill area woman charged with fraud has been held over until March 19 at 1:30 p.m. in Goderich Court. Leona McIntosh, who pleaded guilty on November 27 to eight counts of fraud over $1,000 frau commercial customers of the Bank of Montreal in Exeter in Goderich Court, was scheduled for sentenc- ing Friday, but a conflict in the prosecution's timetable made a de- lay necessary. McIntosh awaits sentencing for the theft of over 5200,00 from bank accounts between 141114_0$ 1991. Hay employees get over thaw wage ZURICH - Hay Towtal;lip council is preparing to vote en a wage package bylaw for munici- pal staff that will see an average increase of a little over three percent. Reeve Lionel Whirr said that most township illoploloosa 111 receive wage lammed between two and three and a half percent if the bylaw is passed. Wilder said the bylaw is based on infla- tion rates and what other munici- palities pay their staff so that the township remains in the middle of the pack. The reeve said he is not yet sure what effect the wage in- creases will have on the overall township budget, but promised that council was 'going to.try to hold our budget to a very low in- crease". However, Wilder - lid the province's recent �dl'e0latanglc- ment" announcement that mu- nicipalities would take the full share of road maintenance and construction while the province takes full control of welfare would likely hurt rural mudici- palities like Hay. Wilder said large urin cen- tres like Toronto would be glad to get rid of welfare costs and take over roadworks, but "in a rural municipality, it works ,in the opposite direclifer• Hay, be said, has much hislwAood paps than welfare. As fara4u's Pro that diasoda 'Mrif would be "revenue neutral" for municipal- ities, Wilder said he "would have to see it bete re 1 believe it." tem has too many levels and too many people making decisions. "It is necessary to look at everything and review the whole system --policies, finances, rules and regula- tions—not just the school boards," Klopp said. ."There is certainly room for improvement and I think the gov- ernment Should be run like a business." He said that he does not care for the attitude of those in the government who feel that their jobs are untouch- able. Principal says school boards virtually obsolete GODERICH - Bruce Shaw, mayor of Exeter and principal of Goderich Distri 'ollegiate In- stitute, has Lab ....en a critic of the current role of Boards of Ed- ucation in Ontario. In fact, he says they can almost be consid- ered obsolete. "School boards are out of date. They are no longer relevant," said Shaw, pointing out that lo- cal boards have control over only about 15 percent of their annual budget, the other 85 per- cent of expenses are mandated by the province. He also said that duplication of bureaucracies in some areas of Ontario borders on the ridicu- lous. The Regional Municipality of Ottawa -Carleton, for instance, has seven distinct school boards: two public English language boards, two Catholic English boards, two Catholic French lan- guage boards, and one public French board. Shaw said each board has as owe superinten- dents, trustees, and presumably its own busing system. "There's got to be an incredible volume of dollars wasted," said Shaw. In the two counties of Huron and Perth, there are three school boards serving a population of about 100,000, with a total of 11 high schools, a smaller number than the entire London public board. "There is some integration with the bus system," said Shaw. "That's good; you save some money there. But you still have three bureaucracies, three sets of trustees." .Shaw said all three boards share similar issues and con- cerns about the education, and its costs, as delivered to the tax- payer, regardless of their schools' religious alignment. "I'm not convinced that be- cause one school has a different 'ethos', they face different prob- lems," said Shaw. "The Separ- ate system is not immune from problems facing the rest of us." Straw said the taxpayer can "no longer afford all these sys- tems" and that the general edu- cation system is versatile and flexible enough to meet the spe- cial needs of each school. He referred to the "Edmonton mod- zl" which relies in school-based •decision making and manage- ment, rather than board policy. Each school has a committee of teachers and parents to decide how their individual budget should be spent., within ministry parameters. Such a system is in use in Hal- ton Region and is working well, said Shaw and predicted it might become she -basis for the ministry's restructure of the edu- cation system. He said he could see some teachers and their un- ions not liking such a system, however. "I can see a coaaimitiee,saying Winstead of giving the teachers a =wise, we'll build a new class- room'," said Shaw. In all, as a principal, Shaw called the ministry's proposal an "interesting notion" and a step towards eliminating a lot of the wasted money in education. Exeter firefighters were called out midnight Saturday after a van stalled and began leaking propane on Wellington Street in Exeter. The area was cordoned off as the gas dissipated, avoiding a fire or explosion. Here firefighters and van owner Ronald Amerongen of Exetgr trace the leak to a faulty valve. JK costly babysitting? CLINTON - Ju is nothing more bysitting service tax payers mere Deuwciler. A Mori, 'Township rp $it t, I)euweiler addressed the Board of Education trustees at the January 11 meeting on the issue of the pro- posed implementation of Junior Kindergarten in Huron County. Dettweiler opposes the initiative and is concerted that the government is using blackmail tactics to impose Junior Kindergarten in the county for 1994. "Does Tony Silipo have intentions of blackmailing the Board by with- garten a glorified be- gat will cost the says Allan holding funding if JK isnot imple- mented?" he asked the trustees. Dettweiler, whose youngest child is in Kindergarten, explained that some people are supporting JK by way of an economic measure where their child is ensured care at least or a part-time basis. The governinent is suggesting that JK be taught by Early Childhood Education graduates, rather than ful- ly certified teachers. "it's the biggest waste of mpncy. Tax payers arc over -burdened. We still can't afford ECE teachers -- fording JK is not economically fea- sible," he explained.