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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1970-10-22, Page 11 No. 42—ALWAYS FIRST WITH THE LOCAL. NEWS i ZURICH, ONTARIO, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22. 1970 NEW SAFETY OFFICER - OPP Constable Wayne Moulton, of the Goderich detachment, is the new safety officer for schools in this area, and during the past week has been visiting some of the children in thetarea. He is shown here demonstrating the proper use of seat belts to Scott Armstrong, Darlene Steckle, Brian Horner and Kathy Love, at the Zurich Public School. Bomb Threats Disturb Huron Members of the Huron County Board of Education instructed director of education= John Cochrane to get an up-to-date report from Clinton Town Police on the investigations into the recent bomb threats in Clinton schools. Gordon Moir, Wingham, said he had had disturbing reports and rumors concerning the happen- ings in Clinton. He hesitated to elaborate on heresay, but urged the board to get some kind of an official report on the matter. There was also full reports from the principals at Huron Centennial School, Brucefield and Central Huron Secondary School in Clinton about recent thefts and vandalism. It was learned that between $400 and $500 in damage was found at Huron Centennial, Fri- day, October 16 about 2:50 a. m. Ontario Provincial Police of the Goderich detachment were highly commended for their Huron. Board of Education ,Name Special Committee to Study Cafeteria Operation John Taylor, Mrs. 1.W. Wal- lace and John Henderson have been appointed to act on the Huron County Board of Educat- ion's committee to study the operation of the cafeterias in the five secondary schools. A preliminary report showed there are four different kinds of operations in existence now - contract with caterers, informal contract with operator and wages subsidized, informal contract with operator and a guaranteed subsidy and an informal contract with no assured subsidy of any kind. The recommendation is to standardize the method of oper- ation and the committee will be in charge of suggesting the best system to adopt county -wide. Another report produced by M.E. Malpass, manager of purchasing and services, showed that board owned buses were just a little more economical than contracted buses in the elementary school division. A recommendation to stay in the board owned bus business to the same extent as at present was approved by the board. It was also agreed to replace five buses at Howick and Turnberry at an estimated cost of $43, 000 after trade-in allowance. A report of board expenditures to date this year was tabled by R. B. Dunlop, superintendent of business affairs. It showed that $7, 033, 605 has been dispersed already. That accounts for 68.85 percent of the total budget. "We're pretty close to where we were last year at this time, " said Dunlop. Official enrollment in the county's elementary schools stands at 8779, it was learned with a pupil -teacher ratio of 26.3. 0 PP Report Only One Accident During the week of October 11 to 17, the Exeter detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police' reported an injury and fatality - free period, with only one minor accident taking place. On Friday, October 16, Prov- incial Constable Wilcox invest- igated a two car collision involv- ing cars driven by Clifford Ken- ney of Crediton and Herbert Little, of Exeter. There were no injuries and damage was listed at $1, 000. OTHER INVESTIGATIONS: On Tuesday, October 13, the (continued on page 9) and prompt discovery of the break- in. At CHSS, $220.35 was taken from the school. The board discussed the mat- ter fully and agreed that a pol- icy be established that no more than $100 be left overnight in elementary schools and no more than $200 in secondary schools. An impromptu report of the findings of a Perth -Huron com- mittee to study religious educ- ation in the schools was given by chairman John Lavis and vice-chairman Robert Elliott. They reported there was no dec- ision concerning religious educa- tion at the elementary level, However, it was suggested that religious education should be offered as an option to second- ary school students and that teachers should be qualified to teach the course. 10 CENTS PER COPY Transportation Offered For All Kindergarten Students Subject to a cost survey which is approved by the Huron County Board of Education, members of that board agreed to offer half day kindergarten from September to the end of December to all schools in the county with trans- portation both ways to be prov- ided by the board. The offer also includes alt- ernate full-day kindergarten from January to June for those same kindergarten students. The decision came after a delegation from Stephen Town- ship asked for transportation all year long to half-day kinder- garten in Stephen Central School Vice-chairman Robert Elliott pointed out that in his opinion, this request could not be treated as "an isolated case. " He pred- icted that all county elementary schools would probably want the same kind of kindergarten system for their students - and would be justified in that request if Stephen Township was granted this concession. Elliott suggested that half-day kindergarten until the end of December with the board furn- ishing all transportation would give the youngsters an opportun- ity to become accustomed to school before having to attend on an alternate full-day basis. Mrs. David McClure, one of the spokesmen for the Stephen delegation present at the meet- ing, said she could not speak for all parents in Stephen, but in her opinion it was "a good com- promise." James Coulter, superintendent of education in Huron. County, claimed that he was very pleased with the alternate full-day prog- ram for kindergarten students in Huron County. " At this time of year there is some tiredness displayed, " he stated, "but we haven't had any evidence to say the system is in- ferior to the half-day program." W. H. Kinsley, another super- intendent, disagreed. He said he had been involved in a study of the two types of kindergarten programs in another area of the province and there was conclus- ive proof that students in the half-day program had absorbed much more throughout the year than the youngsters who went to kindergarten all day every other day. Mrs. McClure set on her "pet peeves" was the amount of money spent to equip and trans- port one secondary school foot- ball team for one year. As a former physical education teach- er, she wondered at the priorit- ies of a board which provided complete football programs and skimped on the program for kindergarten youngsters. Another member of the del- egation, Keith Gill said that he 1 had heard of one youngster who would not be able to attend kindergarten in Stephen Town- ship next year unless transport- ation was provided by the board. Gill said the mother was unable to cope with the problem of getting the child to and from school daily. "I think it is pretty important that this item be included in (continued on page 21) 0 Board roves Two Scholarships The board of education in Huron County meeting Monday evening at Clinton, approved two new scholarships for two Huron County Schools. The board was advised that the late George Roy Menzies, of the village of Brussels had be- queathed the sum of $29, 000 to be deposited in a trust fund, the earnings from which is to provide scholarships to pupils who have graduated from the Brussels Public School for the purpose of enabling them to attend university or school of higher learning after graduating (continued on page 21) EYE TESTS - Pupils of area schools have been receiving eye examinations in recent weeks, by Staff members of the Huron County Health Unit. In this photo Mrs. E. Scot; of Goderich, is shown explaining the operation of the unit to Peter Datars, at the Zurich Public School.