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The Citizen, 2007-02-22, Page 1The CitizenVolume 23 No. 8 Thursday, Feb. 22, 2007 $1.25 ($1.18 + 7c GST)Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Inside this week Pg. 3 Pg. 6 Pg. 10 Pg. 14 Pg. 16 Good Food Box comes to Blyth Reserach benefits heart patients Blyth Atoms in OMHA series Local to teach in South Africa Couple attends holistic conference The Walton Women’s Institute’s intends to sell Walton Community Hall to the municipality of Huron East. In a letter received by Huron East council dated Jan. 18, 2007, the Walton WI expressed its wishes that the municipality take ownership of the hall they have owned for 31 years. Council carried a motion to begin negotiations on this issue, something that Huron East treasurer Brad Knight says will have to wait until after budget deliberations. “It’s just a case of sitting down and working out the details,” Knight said. “Once we get through the budget process that will start to happen.” Knight said that he is unsure as to what the protocol would be post- sale for the Walton WI, whether they would have to pay to use it or not. Knight, however, did say that there should be no direct impact on taxpayers if the municipality takes ownership of the hall. “I think these halls operate pretty independently as far as their on- going activities. The only time the municipality tends to get involved is if there’s a project of some sort they can’t raise the funds for,” Knight said. As far as day-to-day operation, Knight said that likely not much will change. Snowarama 2007 The North Huron Snowarama in support of Easter Seals held Saturday on area trails, is being deemed by organizers as a huge success. With trails in tip-top shape, ninety registered for the run, which brought in a grand total of $11,575, including $330 from the Victoria Public School penny drive. This is a substantial increase from last year’s event which raised $7,206 for local people benefitted by the Easter Seals Society. Organizer Adrian Salverda of Londesborough couldn’t be happier with the results. “This was an excellent result. We really want to thank the community for the support.” The top pledge getter was Nick Salverda with $575, while Betty Ortlieb brought in $525. Henry Slotegraaf won the kitty sled and Martin Taylor was the 50/50 draw winner. The Londesborough Lions served 163 breakfasts to snowmobilers and community members. (Vicky Bremner photo) Despite a lobbying effort by Canadian Parents for French, money from a new federal/provincial agreement will not go towards the development of additional elementary-level French immersion programming in the Avon Maitland District School Board. But a portion will be used to expand French immersion to the secondary level in Stratford. At a regular meeting Tuesday, Feb. 13, trustees were told how spending has been earmarked for the board’s portion of money made available by last year’s signing of the Canada-Ontario Agreement on Minority Language Education and Second Official Language Instruction. “Superintendent of education Pat Stanley indicated there would not be expansion of the French immersion program into a Huron County School, as there is no indication of any increase in the interest level expressed last year in surveys conducted by the board,” stated a report from the board’s communications department about the meeting. At the board’s previous regular meeting, CPF president Monika Ferenczy had urged trustees to revisit a survey conducted in 2005, indicating a limited level of interest in elementary-level French immersion in St. Marys, Exeter and Clinton. At the time, the board set a threshold number of 21 students for commencing a program; St. Marys almost met those criteria, while numbers were a bit lower in Exeter and Clinton and even lower in other communities outside Stratford. But at the Feb. 13 meeting, Stanley said those survey results would not be revisited, and that all Canada-Ontario Agreement money will be used to either expand existing French as a second language programs or expand Stratford’s current elementary-level French immersion program into Stratford Central Secondary School (SCSS). Currently, the board only offers French immersion at Bedford Public School, as well as in the Grade 7 and 8 portion of SCSS. “We made the commitment to the parents that we would take (the Bedford French immersion program) into the secondary level,” explained education director Geoff Williams, following the Feb. 13 meeting. According to Williams, the very first class of students to start the Bedford program is now preparing to graduate from Grade 8, making 2007 the year for secondary expansion. Students will receive a French immersion high school diploma if they complete 10 of their courses in French. For Grades 9 and 10, that will likely mean taking three credits in French. But it’s not necessarily a simple prospect. “The difficulty we have is that we do need to sustain the numbers,” Williams said, adding the very first Bedford class is the smallest – with just 12 now remaining in Grade 8 – and the class sizes are expected to increase for future Grade 8 graduates. The students who have persisted through Grade 8 in French immersion tend to have aspirations for post-secondary education. And if meeting post-secondary admission standards becomes a priority, there’s a risk they’ll opt out of French immersion courses in an effort to boost their final course grades. “Whether or not the commitment to the program continues into Grade 12 for the students is another question,” Williams noted. Aside from secondary-level French immersion, other funds from the Canada-Ontario Agreement will be used on updated resources and teacher professional development for the board’s existing French as a second language programming. That’s offered from Grade 4-12, and is also eligible under the funding initiative. French immersion to expand in Stratford By Stew Slater Special to The Citizen “Scary” is how pastor Dave Wood described his brush with Palestinian protesters during his trip to Jerusalem, but insists the rest of the trip was fantastic. Wood, of Blyth and pastor at Huron Chapel Evangelical Missionary Church, was on an eight- day trip through Jerusalem as part of a clergy study tour. On the first day of the trip, the group’s bus was attacked by young Palestinian protesters who threw rocks. No one was injured in the attack. “It was very disconcerting,” Wood said. “It was a bit scary. It happened so fast that we didn’t have that much time to think about it.” Wood’s bus was on its way to the Mount of Olives when the incident took place, which shook him and the other passengers up considerably. Wood, however, said that everyone had his own take on it, and he chose to shake it off when he got over the initial shock. “It was scary. We were all shaken up, because you don’t really expect that. But think about it. How many people can say they were stoned in Jerusalem?” he said. “You see it on the news, but you don’t expect to be a part of the news. It was very real, but it’s not as bad as people make it out to be. We just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Once the dust had settled on the initial incident, those in charge of the tour took all the precautions they could to ensure that the rest of the trip was safe. Wood insists that it was a situation that couldn’t be avoided and it was something that was out of everyone’s control. “We went through that and the bus Incident ‘scary’, says pastor By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Continued on page 14 Walton Hall to go to Huron E. By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Continued on page 7