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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1988-03-16, Page 5'Ftar CiiiiE finishes 1987 $:5 million in the black 1987 ESTIMATED EXPENDITURES The Huron County Board of Education went over its unaudited 1987 estimates of ex- penditures and revenue tt its March. meeting and found the actual expenditures represented 99.13 per cent of the estimates. In monetary terms the net effect is that the board has underspent the estimate: by $387,320. In addition to this, the board's revenue ex- ceeded preliminary estimates by approx- imately $95,000, to cause an over requisition in the amount of $469,965. FIRST AID AND STAFF The Education Centre staff have been con- ducting surveys and organizing classes to instruct school staff in first aid. It is currently a requirement under the Occupational Health and Safety Act for the Province of Ontario that employers provide first aid training for a certain number of employees per worksite location. In an effort to comply with this require- ment St. John's Ambulance first aid courses have been organized at three locations in Huron County: F. E. Madill Secondary, Cen- tral Huron Secondary, and South Huron District High School. Course costs are being payed by the Workman's Compensation Board, and there are 60 board staff taking instruction from all employee groups. Par- ticipation is strictly voluntary and on the worker's own time. In addition to board sponsored courses there are 27 staff members from seven schools who have completed specialized first aid training. At least three schools have provided first aid refresher training or CPR training for their entire staff in the current school year. "WOW" SUMMER PROJECT The board encouraged and indicated its support of a Work Orientation Workshop (WOW) to be undertaken at South Huron District High School in the summer of 1988. The program 'is targetted at students of the age of 14-15 who are at risk of becoming early school leavers, to show them what the working world is like. The WOW projects are basically work placements with a job counselling component, and are similar to the typical job experience programs spon- sored frequently by the HCBE. The program would be funded by Employ- ment and Immigration Canada. CONSERVATION AUTHORITY AWARD The Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority chose the HCBE as the winner of its annual Conservation award for 1987. The HCBE held one Professional Develop- ment Day which was concerned with conser- vation, and has had an association with the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority for the past 22 rears. A formal presentation of the award was made at the Coldstream Hall on February 26 and Tony McQuail and Arnold Mathers ac- cepted the award on behalf of the board. BOARD'S APPROVAL PROCESS The Executive Committee considered the board's approval process and the best way to manage approvals during the course of the budget year. The topic was raised at the February meeting when the board agreed to support the Quest Program at a cost of $8,400. Trustee John Elliot was concerned about how this would affect the budget and stated "if we're going to pass motions they should be done subject to the budget. I don't want to Communications Goderich Police Commission secretary Larry McCabe has been instructed to con- tact the councils, committees, and police commissions of the towns of Seaforth, Clin- ton, and Exeter in order toarrange a meeting concerning a Huron County police communications agreement. An in -camera meeting, involving a number of pollee chiefs from towns in the system and representatives of the Ontario Police Commission, was held Tuesday, March 8 in the Goderich Town Hall council chambers. The purpose of Tuesday's meeting was to review he county's budget for the com- munication's system, but because there were matters which those present con- " sidered of a private nature it was decided that the meeting should go in -camera. "We are planning to have the next meeting on April 11, in Clinton," said Mc - i Cabe. "At that time we hope to see a revis- ed police communications agreement sign- ed. Where a town has a police committee, Seaforth used SEAFORTH — Voice Response is Bell Canada's answer to the increasing volume of calls handled by Directory Assistance _ . and Intercept operators. , This new system was first in the 519 area code in March of 1988, with expansion to most other parts of Ontario by mid -year. Voice Response enlists the aid of com- puters and special voice recording techni- ques to handle parts of Directory Assistance and Intercept cans (Directory Assistance refers to operators giving out telephone numbers to callers who dial 411 and 555 1212. Intercept refers to operators advising callers that certain telephone numbers they've dialed have been changed or disconnected.) For Directory Assistance, customers still dial 411 and tell the operator the name and address of the person whose telephone number they want. The operator will still have access to the same kinds of numbers, will do the same detailed search and will select the listing number to be given to the customer. Then, instead of voice quoting the number, the operator will depress a Voice Response key and the system will report the i appropriate information to the customer. 1 The downstream billing system will deter- mine whether the customer should be charg- ed for the call. Since the Voice Response system is handling the report phase of the call and sending billing information to the accounting system, the operator will be able to move on to the next call sooner. At this point, the required phone number appears on the operator's screen, but WI stead of reading it, the operator will type a command to have the Voice Response system say it. The information will be repeated so the caller has two opportunities to hear it and jot it down for future THE HURON EXPOSITOR, MARCH 16,1988 — 5 Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada LIFE 8 MORTGAGE INSURANCE PLANS DEFERRED ANNUITIES, INCOME TAX DEDUCTIBLE FLEXIBLE NO LOAD R.R.S.P. NON-SMOKERS RATES AVAILABLE Rep. ARNOLD STINN1$SEN I I7 Goderith St. East, Seaforth Tel. 527.0410 Water Well DRILLING W. D. Hopper and Sons 4 MODERN ROTARY RIGS Nell Durl Jim 527-1737 527-0828 527-0775 Seaforth Sewing Centre WILL BE UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT APRIL 2 CONSERVATION AWARD - The Huron County Board of Education was recently presented with an award from the Ausable Hayfield Conservation Authority for their cooperation with conservation authorities. Here Tony McQuail, who received the award on behalf of the board, presents it to Chairman John Jewitt. Corbett photo. see anything stopped, but someone has to keep track." The board agreed to look into the matter. The Executive Committee indicated the board had tended to take a position in the re- cent past that it would proceed with items it considered important regardless of the time of year and whether the funds had been specifically included in the estimates. The committee also noted this policy has been followed for the past five years and has not led the board to be over the estimates in any year. A motion was carried that "the board con- tinue to utilize a balance of priority setting and estimates development which recognizes the rapidly changing educational environment." SCHOOL DAMAGE REPORT The annual school damage report was reviewed by the board and the damage totals for the 1987 calendar year totalled $19,207.46, which is a slight reduction com- pared to the 1986 total. This figure is also within the range of five year average totals for the system. ACCOMODATION REVIEW The board was informed of the long range planning alternatives relating to space re- quirements at Grey Central Public School, Colborne Central Public School, and Brookside Public School, as relating to the possibility of replacing portable classrooms. meeting held —AND- 114.••••• AND®IM WILL MOVE ITS LOCATION ACROSS THE STREET APRIL 2 TO SEAFORTH SEWING CENTRE WATCH NEXT WEEK FOR MORE DETAILS The development of alternate uses for space at secondary schools was also discussed, and it was agreed these matters should have further discussion by the board and steps should be taken to amend the five year capital forecast for submission to the Ministry of Education in October 1988. PREPARATION TIME In June of 1987 the HCBE and its elemen- tary school teachers signed a letter of understanding which outlined a study to be conducted by the Staffing Committee. The purpose of the study was to examine the issue of preparation time, and it was to look at the current practices in allocation of preparation time within all schools under the HCBE's jurisdiction; and to study allocation of preparation time in other counties. The results of the report have shown the overall distribution of preparation time within the county seems to be very equitable. In only one instance was a teacher given less than the minimum of 100 minutes of preparation time in a week,,.This was the result of additional staff )wing added to the school in September which resulted in an ad ditional assignment for the teacher, and a reduction in the preparation time to approx- imately 80 minutes per week. The average preparation time was found to be 151 minutes per week for all teachers. CLOSINGSA.L E Seaforth 6 Main St., 527-0055 2 %FiFILMBATTERIES FF FLASH UP TO f Io Remaining e® In -Stock OFF Merchandise No Custom Orders MARCH -16 TO MARCH 31 we want to have that town's council also to attend this meeting." Recently rumours have been circulating that Exeter is considering withdrawing from the county police communications system. "I've heard those rumblings," said Mc- Cabe, "but as far as I know nothing con- crete has been decided on that account." In a telephone interview, Exeter Police Commissioner Dorothy Chapman said that the rumours about Exeter's intention to leave the system are just that - rumours. "'There has been a lot of talk going on for a long time along those lines, but it's just rumour and speculation." Chapman said that she would not wish to comment further on the issue until after the April 11 meeting. "That meeting is where we will deal with this matter, and hopefully we'll be able to get it all worked out," she said. Chapman could not say whether the April 11 meeting would be in -camera or open to the public. in experiment MITCHELL - DUBLIN - SEAFORTH ANNUAL LIONS TV AUCTION Saturday, March 26th reference. This allows the operator to move to the next call sooner. On Intercept, Voice Response will handle all aspects of some calls; in other situations, the operator will key in the intercepted phone number and the Voice Response system will report the appropriate informa- tion to the customer. "Our operation will continue to handle the more challenging areas of the job — listen- ing to and interpreting a caller's request, then searching for the correct telephone number," says Carol Stephenson, regional director - Operator Services for Ontario. "There will be times when operators will want to override the system to handle an en- tire call, for instance, if a caller is elderly or disabled. They'll have the option to use their judgment and do what is best to provide ser- vice to the customer." The use of part-time employees to handle increased call volumes in the past year means there will be no layoffs when Voice Response is introduced. The experience of telephone companies in the United States and other parts of Canada indicates customers will perceive service to be at the same high level they have come to expect The sound of the system's 'voice' is natural, with normal intonation, thanks to special recording techniques at Bell Nor- thern Research. In Ontario, 1200 operators handle half -a - million Directory Assistance and Intercept calls each day and the calls are increasing at a rate of 6 to 12 per cent each year. "Voice Response is a way of handling this phenomenal growth while ensuring that customer service is maintained at its cur- rent high level," says Stephenson. WATCH THE LIVE AUCTION ON CABLE 12, BEGINNING AT 11 A.M TILL APPROX. 5 P.M. PHON LIN ::S OPEN AT 9.00 A M FOR ADVANCE BIDS!! 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OTHER AUCTION ITEMS ARE ON DISPLAY AT VARIOUS BUSINESS LOCATIONS IN MITCHELL AND SEAFORTH 4