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Clinton News-Record, 1986-10-15, Page 1NO 42 . 121 YEARS WEDNESDA Y, OCTOBER 15, 1986 50 CENTS • Clinton Public and CDC undergo ren ova tions By David Emslie CLINTON - Two local schools, Clinton Public School and Clinton and District Christian School (CDCS), have been renovated or are currently being renovated this year: While Clinton Public began their school year with a newly renovated library, renovations are currently under way at CDCS. "Basically what we did was remove part of one wall and made two classrooms into one," Clinton Public's Principal Ron McKay said of their enlarged library. The work was started and finished during the summer. "It was finished the Thursday before school opened," school librarian Alice Andrews said. "I had three volunteers who really helped me get it Set up that week before school opened for the children." iOne of the things Mrs. Andrews ap- preciates most about the new library is the fact that it fits into Ministry of Education guidelines fop a program called Partners In Action. Through this program students do a lot of research in the library rather than having teachers giving out all of the facts. Mrs. Andrews said the program, "Helps make the students become independent." The program also helps the teachers -as they can pick a topic and ask the librarian to pull all of the books on the subject to see whether there is enough research material. "I know my main push when speaking on this was the fact that we'd be able to do so much more research," Mrs. Andrews said. Some of the research material that can be found at the library include film strips, resource kits, transparencies, records, pic- ture files and unit planning kits. With the expansion she has found more -teachers using the library. "It's easier to come in and do work, it's easier to find books. I have found teachers using it more for their own needs in teaching," she said. Aside from the teachers, the students are also getting more use out of the library. "The Grade 8s are coming down for study time. I think that will gradually spread," Mrs. Andrews noted. "The younger children have an area that is sort of'theirs. They don't have to vyorry about the older children," Mrs. Andrews ad- ded as another positive point of the larger library. "The teacher in charge is finding it a nicer place to work," Mr. McKay added to the list of those enjoying the new library. With. the expansion of the library at Clinton Public School, the students are getting more opportunities to do research. While their librarian, Alice Andrews gives them a hand, these students carry out their research on trees of Ontario. Researching, from left to right, are Nikki Oliver, Kevin Meade, Ben Lobb, Ken Colquhoun and Cathy Sproul. (David Emslie photo) "I feel like working. I'm much more en- thusiastic,",Mrs. Andrews agreed. "I think the main thrust is for the public to see how their tax dollars are being spent. It's a totally different atmosphere now. It's a library; a professional library," Mrs. Atli drews concluded. Over at CDCS renovations are being car- ried out on a larger scale as three new rooms are being added to the school. Two of the rooms will be classrooms, one of which will be a kindergarten class, and the other room will be a supply room. "They started working in the first week of September and we hope to move everything over before the Christmas holidays," the school's principal, Ralph Schuurman, said. With the additional rooms there will be some changes in how the school is laid out. "The present kindergarten room is going to be a full sized library, the present office will be added to the -staff room and one of our present classrooms will be divided into remedial for part of the room and one-third for secretary's office and principal's of- fice," Mr. Schuurman explained. He added, "Basically :we're adding a library and remedial room and the rest are renovations." A new roof for the wholeschool was in- cluded in the renovations, as were two new sets of double doors. "What we gain by it is not having the students coming in the front entrance. It makes it a lot nicer, really, to work with," Mr. Schuurman said of the extra double doors. The changes are coming at a good time for the school as they will be celebrating their 25th anniversary next summer. "Since 1962 to now we have grown from a two room school to a full fledged eight room school," Mr. Schuuraman stated. Board ratifies a one year agreement... The Huron County Board of Education ratified a one-year agreement Monday that gives 80 of its unionized workers a four -per- cent salary increase. The average hourly rate under the new pact, which is retroactive to July 1, will be $9.40. The contract covers clerical and secretarial staff, teacher aides and audio- �visual technicians who belong to Local 1428 if the Canadian Union of Public Employees. The union had already ratified the agreement. Trustee Graeme Craig of Walton also said a mediated negotiating session between the board's personnel negotiating committee and negotiators for Huron secondary school teachers will be held Tuesday night in an ef- fort to reach a 1986 agreement. A provincial fact -finder will attend a meeting on October 14, between board and elementary school negotiators also trying for a 1986 contract. The fact -finder is Eric Runacres of Col- dwater, appointed by the, Education Rela- tions Commission. He will meet with the parties and write a report setting out which matters haiie been agreed upon and ,which matters remain in dispute. The report may also contain recommendations for settlement. In other business, the Huron County Board of Education and the Huron -Perth County Roman Catholic Separate School Board have established joint committees which will permit the continuation of the former informal liaison committee formed 410n 1984. The new joint education liaison commit- tees will consist of three trustees and one ad- ministrative representative from each of the two boards. Those representing the Huron County Board of Education are Trustees John Jewitt of RR 1 Londesboro; Tony McQuail of RR 1 Lucknow and Joan Van den Broeck of RR 4 Goderich. Those representing the Catholic board will be appointed at its regular meeting on Oct. 14. The joint committee will hold public meetings to , eport on its work. Its duties in- clude exx�x�le opportunities for transferr- ing faciliti,leasing facilities or sharing services, facilities, resource§ and staff. The boards will receive written reports of/prow ceedings=and rec'orntnendations and to t'e planning and implementation emmulssion, leprea'entatives of the Prank Gowan In- surance' Company and the Board's Agent of Record, Gaiser Kneale Insurance Company of Exeter attended the meeting to discuss the 1986 Risk Management report. The board decided to continue with its pre- sent carrier. the Gowan Insurance Com- pany, rather than join the Reciprocal In- surance Exchange — The Ontario School Boards' Insurance Exchange. The reason to continue with Cowan is because the board's current policy expires Nov. 1 and the board requires coverage for November and December as reciprocal coverage will not be available until Jan. 1. If the reciprocal is successful it is probable the board may par- ticipate in another year's time. A 20 member committee represents all employee groups of the board and it is anx- ious • to determine a number of effective strategies _ for building _ better public understanding and support for the school system. 1t will survey ail employees of the board, as well as providing an opportunity for parents in selected schools, to offer sug- gestions about how the board might improve its image with the families served by the school system. Members of the general public will be en- couraged to contact local trustees or school principals to offer comments and sugges- tions or the board office before Oct. 27. This information will be the, basis for a major presentation to all board employees at a special activity on May 4. Chairman Joan Van den Broeck of the Education committee recommended that the draft copyright policy the committe had been studying, be accepted and distributed to all schools. This was given board approval as wen as the committee's recommendation that the book The Family, Changing Trends in Canada by Maureen Baker as requested by F.E. Madill Secon- dary School in Wingham, be approved for use in Senior Family Studies Courses, Also receiving board approval were the following recommendationst that the boaard in'creas eletnefit. ray col ?tench instrric- tion,in� Grade 5 and 6 to 40 minutes Per day (upp from 20) to comply with the Ministry of Education requirements for a total of 600 hoars of French at the end of Grade 8. In answer to a question of which course the.* minutes of French would be takes ;- Hold .1VMatherS Su crone ndedt .y replied at i i ,Ministry ha " the course�btit a etc t r6 the Language, Cc ursse. Approval was given: to 'have the limn County schools continuing the use of the Wawanosh Nature Centre on a per capita basis. Board approval was given to adopt the report cards that are recommended for students from Kindergarten to Grade 8 as revised by a teacher and principal report card committee representing all schools. The increase in enrolment for the Huron County Board of Education was noted in- dicating there are 167 more students in the schools this year than in the 1985-86 term, 40 more elementary students and 73 more secondary students (excluding the 57 students at the Bluewater Secondary School at Goderich.) The board approved a recommendation made by Chairman Tony McQuail of the Management Committee that the board establish the rate of $14.80 per hour to be charged to groups when custodians are re. quilted for school functions. McQuail reporting for the Management Committee, said all six roofing projects to be done this summer, were completed. He said minor facilities to aid the handicapped were added to two schools and major renovations related to an elevator insta la - tion at Victoria Public School are nearing completion. He said the window wall replacement pro- gram was continued at six schools for 16 classrooms, two gymnasiums and six office areas. Ten schools received attention under the energy conservation program, McQuail said, for a total of 48 projects. McQuail said the committeeecommends that five school buses and one Van with a lift be included in the board's application for 1987 to the ministry's capital grant plan. It was reported the baord presently owns 44 certified and serviceable buses ranging in age from 10 years to five l:.r; buses. The board authorized the development and submsiotr of a pipposal under the ties to lushness and rndustry Incentive Fund with a two-year',com Hutment which will mitre a $40,000 budget tent and a local r+ titilternetit of tip to $5,000 in each of the two years. The possibility of a local industry sharing in this cost will be considered. This concent of the Minister of Education n, d l en en or establish I.rt 0.11001S' and busifiese t+f ctrl el bion. SSW Turn foliage' 2 41 County Council doesn't mention the library dispute What at times last month appeared, ready to explode into the drawing of full scale battle lines was conspicuous in its absence during the regular October ses- sion of Huron County council. In fact, the only reference to the con- troversy came as a brief mention in the presentation of the Huron County Library Board report to council at last Thursday's meeting in the court house at Goderich. In the report, presented by. Hullett Reeve Tom Cunningham, council was in- formed of a board decision to refer the con- troversy to its solicitor. The board had resolved to refer a letter from C. Scott Ritchie, a London lawyer, — "with regard to a personnel matter" — to the board's solicitor "with power to, ex- plore a mutually satisfactory settlement." Cunningham, library board chairman, was the target of criticism at the September meeting for the library board's reluctance to discuss an apparent dispute between the board and the county's chief librarian William Partridge. The criticism began at council's September meeting when Hensall Reeve Jim Robinson was asked to elaborate on the proceedings of two closed sessions of the board which were mentioned in its monthly report. - Robinson, a member of the board, presented the report to council as Cunn- ingham had not attended the board meeting on which the report was based. The Hensall reeve said that the closed ses- sions represented a "very delicate stage of deliberation" in personnel matters and asked council's indulgence in allowing the board a bit more time to work out a solution. Partridge, however, made it clear to council that the personnel matters were related directly to him. Some "serious allegations" had been made by library staff on how he has conducted library operations, he added. The chief librarian also told council he had engaged a London lawyer to protect his interests and added that he would not be opposed to having the allegations made public. Following this, the main thrust of coun- cil criticism at the September meeting was focused directly at Cunningham who again asked councillors to grant the board a little more time to work out a solution to the pro- blem. He promised council the board would try to resolve the matter before Oc- tober's council meeting but he could not guarantee it would happen. At last Thursday's meeting there was no mention of a solution nor were -there any questions from councillors regarding the status of the controversy. In an interview following the council meeting, Cunningham said the letter refer- red to in the board report was from the lawyer who represents Partridge. "That letter is in the hands of the board's solicitor who has advised us not to com- ment on the issue," Cunningham said. Asked to speculate on when he felt the issue might be resolved, Cunningham said he had no idea at this time but did not rule out the possibility of a solution by the November council session. Architects hired for the Huronview project By Alan Rivett ' Huron County Council reached a deci- sion to hire the architectural firm of R. Ritz Architect of Stratford along with Stin- son, MBntgomery and Sisam Architects of Toronto at a cost of $275,000 at the copncil meeting on October 2. However, the choice of architects was challenged by Hay Township Reeve Lionel Wilder. Mr. Wilder questioned Huronview. Committee Chairman Clarence Rau as to why the architectural firm of Snider, Reichard and March were not hired for the lower tender price of $261,000 as they had already done the preliminary drawings for the renovations. "Snider, Reichard and March have done the preliminary work and would be quite knowledgeable about the project. Why are you changing horses in mid -stream?" said Mr. Wilder. Stanley Township Reeve Rau responded that the firm which was hired had address- ed every question with the committee of management at Huronview and provided a more ' comprehensive presentation than the firm of Snider, Reichard and March. "We thought that their figure was right in the ballpark, and we felt strongly that that's the route • that we should go," said Mr. Rau. Reeve Rau also explained that the Snider, Reichard, March bid of $261,600 was the lowest because the bid was minus the $20,000 cost of the preliminary designs. All things considered equal, the bid would have been $281,600 which would make the Ritz along with Stinson, Montgomery and Sisam bid the lowest at $275,000. One other architectural firm was in the running for the $1.3 million renovation plan for the county -run nursing home east of Clinton. Eians underway -to es#ablish.. a mental health group A committee has been established to form a branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) for Huron County. This was a recommendation of the Huron Perth Mental Health task Force. Three planning meetings have been held and a strong core of interested persons have committed themselves to continue to meet. This is done on a voluntary basis. Barbara Adams, special consultant with the CMHA Ontario division, met with the group and explained the procedures necessary for the formation of a local branch. The Huron County group would have to -apply to the CMHA Ontario Division for a branch charter. Dr. Harry Cieslar, former MOH, who chaired the initial meetings, explained, "We expect the whole process may take approx- imately two years. When we explored this possibility several years ago there was not nearly the support or interest that is being shown now. I think this indicates a change in attitudes towards the need for this service." The group is applying to be recognized as a formal CMHA Steering committee. Members of the committee agreed that Huron County lacks the number of social services that are available in other counties. A Canadian Mental Health Association Turn to page 16. aim at the Huron Fish and Gant] . hi0olt, iletlt Was a group gathered to taker p in Curl eb li! r " a O lett, (WIke y hoe -Hoist photo).