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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1979-03-08, Page 6PAGE 6 ---7,GODER ICH SIGNAL -STAR, THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1979 Vandalism drastic costs to board of education BY JEFF SEDDON Incidents of vandalism, at county schools has got the Huron County board of education scratching heads with one hand and writing cheques with the other. The board received several reports Monday from schools in the county that received property damages as a result of vandalism. , Board chairman John Elliott told the board he was concerned about the costs and frequency of vandalism and warned that if the board did not come up with some sort of preventive schemes the costs would become a real burden on the board's budget. "In all my years ex- perience on the school board I have never seen anything as serious," said Elliott. Exeter area schools were hardest hit ac- cording to reports given the board bS, principals. Vandals at Exeter Public School slashed 100 win- dow screens, bent and • slashed five other screens and smashed two storm windows and the window of the principal's office. Jim Chapman, prin- cipal of the school, said in his report that damages to the screens were estimated at between $450 and $500, the cost of the glass was about $70 and that custodians spent about six hours repairing the damages. South Huron District High School did not escape vandalism. During January and February the school was hit with over half a dozen incidents of wilful damage costing an estimated $1,300. The damages range from broken windows and damaged equipment to plugged urinals in a washroom after someone poured quick drying cement into the fixtures plugging the pipes. If at first you don't succeed ...try summer school BY JEFF SEDDON Secondary school students that can't grasp a subject during the ten month school year can now use the summer months to pick up necessary credits rather than repeat ,the course the following year. The Huron County board of education decided Monday to operate summer school programs in the county this year as a pilot project. The programs are' designed to allow students with below passing grades to pick up those grades, during the summer. The programs will be taught at Central Huron Secondary School in Clinton only if enough students enroll in. the courses to 'make them worthwhile. The approval by the board is conditional. Trustees were concerned the summer school would be a costly project because teachers would have to be paid for two months and there was no indication there would be students • in, classes for tr. those teachers to in- struct. Superintendant of education Bob Allan told the board there was no indication yet on how much the summer courses would cost the board but added he was "fairly confident there will be enough students to operate the program". The superintendant said he. felt the minimum number of students needed to justify• the course would be 150 with a minimum 20 students in each course offered. Se added that the only salary at risk for the board would be the principal of Central Huron. He said the CHSS administrator will spen,d a considerable amount of time planning and ad- ministering the summer courses and the board may want to consider making • provisions for that. Clinton trustee Dorothy. William"s said she was concerned the board would get involved in the summer school courses and students who ap- peared eager when they started the courses would drop out before they were completed. "-Is there no guarantee when they start the course that they finish it?" asked Williams. Allan explained that teachers hired for the summer school will probably be paid on the per diem rate of their contract. He • said the teacherswill not be working if no students' show up for the courses. John Cochrane, director of education, explained to trustees that there was no way of determining now how many students could need summer school. The director said students do not know their marks until the end of June and until. those marks are known administration can't pin down the number of students that may need summer school. Ther director, said the return to basics philosophy of the ministry of education had prompted the establish-, ment of summer school. He said the ministry changed the credit system in secondary sc-hools putting more emphasis on subjects such as English and sciences. Up until now students were permitted to abandon caurses they found difficult and still attain credits for a pass but under the new system more credits are, com- pulsory forcing students to attain passing grades in more subjects. Cochrane said the summer school programs are designed to help ' students who need • passinggrades achieve those grades or to better the grades they achieved during the school year. He said it is not meant to allow students to pick up an extra course. The board plans to operate one bus per day. from the secondary schools in Wingham, Goderich, Exeter and Seaforth to Central Huron and will tell students to find -their own way to their school to catch that bus. HANIMEX 35 mm: COLOUR SLIDE PROJECTOR We have the projectors with the features people ask for most •Quartz Lighting - •F28 -85 mm. Lens - ',Remote Control - ',Blower Cooling- Magazine - 4. FCS lamp is bright, Long life and inex- pensive For greater light transmission and wide angle viewing Forward reverse and focus by remote control Powerful impeller cooling- projector never overheats 120 capacity . Rondex Rotary slide magazine M.S.L. 79.95* OUR PRICE $ -'*M.3.t.Ien bt necessarily the regular or lowest 'slung price In the market area. but Is meant as a pricing guide. Ca 139. ROYAL SANK *LOCK ameras GOICIERICit4 524.4332 95 Extra reel included 1' qr. Bob McVean, plant superinteridant for the county schools, said Tuesday the theory of quick drying cement was only a guess pointing out that something is in the plumbing that won't budge. McVean said some type of material has got three of four urinals in one washroom at the school plugged solid and not even power augers can break up whatever it is. He said attempts are being made to, free the drains using pneumatic hammers and if that fails there will be no recourse but to break up the washroom floor and remove the pipes. He said the floor of the washroom was terrazo and was very ,costly. He, added that the washroom is in the old portion of the building an d the blueprints available on the Structure 'are rather vague. He said he only has drw(ngs of the building and not exact blueprints which show how it WAS built. "We don't know the depth of the pipes or how far we have to dig to find the traps," he said. "We may.get lucky and fix the plug for less than the $1,000 or we may have to go deeper than we think and it could cost more than that. There's a lot unforseen." South Huron principal J.L. Wooden said in his school vandalism report that in January two windows in the school were smashed. One was broken by snowballs and another. was shattered when a beer bottle was thrown through it. In _ February a hole was punched in a plaster wall, an outside light was broken, an outside fire hose connection cover was removed and thrown through a plate glass window costing about $40 plus labor, and an outside drinking fountain and two windows were broken costing about $200. In other schools reporting to the board damages were con- siderably less. Goderich District Collegiate Institute was broken into but damages were few. A door panel was broken, a window was removed to gain entrance to an of- fice, a c.upboard door was removed and • paper scattered on the floor. In another incident a beer bottle Was thrown through a window. Total damages for the two are „$50 plus Custodial time. At Robertson Memorial Public School in Goderich signs were removed from two washroom doors and a window broken. No costs were listed. At Central Huron Secondary School a pane of glass in a door was broken and the school entered illegally. Two office filing cabinets were badly bent, two interior door glass panels were .broken, a cash register was damaged and rifled of ten dollars and several cupboards were damaged. No estimates of damage were reported. John Cochrane told the board the reports received from the principals do not include the.daily pranks students pull such as throwing pails of water and plugging toilets. The director said the pranks are not necessarily ex- pensive to repair but they do take custodial time. McVean said custodial time does not always get T charged against the acts of vandalism because in some cases the custodia i can repair damage during his normal eig hour shift. He said the average • costs for custodians is slightly less than six dollars an hour. He said in some cases overtime is required to repair damages but in many only normal' 'houiekeepihg matters are delayed because of the nuisance. Cochrane said the board's administration planned to document all cases of vandalism to keep a record of the costs. He said principals were being asked to report all damages and costs to the board offices and a seperate ledger will be kept on them to give the board a good idea of what vandals cost. Wingham trustee Bert Morin said he wondered if parents and students "had any idea what it costs". He said it may help if they knew what the board • spends repairing damages from vandalism pointing out that the money could be spent on schodl books. Board chairman John Elliott told trustees that most of the expenses from vandalism were not covered by insurance. He said the board's policies carried $5,000 deductible meaning most of the repairs were below •the minimum. He said the costs for the ' board to carry a smaller deduc- tible , figure would probably be greater than the damages. Elliott said it appeared the only way to curb the damages • was to inaugurate some sort off preventitive programs. He said the' costs of vandalism were "drastic" and asked that trustees give some thought to what can be done to stop the damage. "How someone Can get quick drying cement into a school and dump it into a urinal shows that something is fairly lax someplace," he said. Cochrane pointed out that the vandalism is not necessarily the act of students of the school. He said the urinals at South Huron were, plugged sometime during a weekend when the school was open to the public for a winter carnival. The soft burst of colors, bright, sunny looks . . . spring dreams . . . and fashions are made of this. Step into our store for clothes you dream of. Dresses, pants, skirts in a flower garden of colors are in our spring collection.