The Citizen, 2001-05-02, Page 20A Review of activities at
SEAFORTH COMMUNITY HOSPITAL
"RUNNING FOR EXCELLENCE" Congratulations to our local
participants, Dr. Carolin Shepherd, Lynn Devereaux and Faye
Murray who successfully completed the Boston Marathon; well
done ladies! Thanks to our caring community for your very
generous support to date ,of this initiative. It is important to note
that development of a Centre of Excellence for seniors health
issues will be an enhancement to our current services, not a
replacement.
LAB HOURS at the Hospital effective April 23/01: Mon., Tues.,
Thurs., Fri. 7 a.m.-4 p.m.; Wed. 7 a.m.-3 p.m.; Sat. 7 a.m.-11 a.m.
After hours, coverage will continue as usual.
"MORNING OUT" IS MOVING effective immediately, to
become an integral part of "Our Place Family Drop In Centre"
a project of the Rural Response for Healthy Children located at
25 Goderich Street West, Seaforth. This Parent Support Group for
parents and their newborns in the Seaforth Community Hospital
catchment area will continue to offer a variety of topics specific to
infants ie. nutrition, breastfeeding, immunization, etc. Group
Facilitator, Linda Van Wyk, RN welcomes you each Friday
morning 10:00-11:30 a.m. Childcare at no fee is available. For
further information please contact Linda Van Wyk (482-5004) or
Sally Vandodrnik at "Our Place" 527-0914. Looking forward to
welcoming you and your little one(s). Upcoming June 1: "Car
Seat Safety" presented in co-operation with Public Health.
NATIONAL NURSES WEEK "Champions of Health" is the
theme for Nurses. Week designated May. 7-13th. In celebration of
our dedicated, caring team of Nurses, a Staff Pot Luck Luncheon
will be held in their honour Wed. May 9th in Conf. Rm. 2.
DEDICATION OF OPERATING ROOM to take place Wed.
May 16 in Hospital Conference Rm. 2 in honour of Dr. Ken
Rodney's 25th Anniversary. Open House reception to follow at
Seaforth Medical Clinic. Please watch for future promotion in this
newspaper.
AUXILIARY NEWS Annual Penny Sale is upcoming May 28-
June 8/01 at former Pete's Paper Clip store @ 19 Main Street,
Seaforth. Draw date: Saturday, June 9th.
INTERNATIONAL PRIVATE SCHOOL
Invitation to Open House
and Performance
Explore this private school on Saturday, May 5, 2001 at 6:00 p.m. Students and their
families are welcome to meet teachers and tour the school. Students will also present a
performance of music, dance and drama at 7:00 p.m. NANCY CAMPBELL
COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE
NCCI offers young people an effective, safe, encouraging and competitively priced education
opportunity. NCCI is an accredited Canadian international private school (Grades 7 through
to High School Graduation), dedicated to inspiring academic excellence within a clear moral
framework. We help self-esteem grow in an environment where self-discipline, sound
judgement, and personal transformation are cultivated.
45 Waterloo Street South
Stratford, Ontario, Canada N5A 4A8
Facsimile: (519) 273-1973
Website: http://www.nancycampbell.net
E-mail: jpammer@nancycampbell.net
ease feel free to contact us for more information, or to obtain a personal
interview, please telephone 519-273-6435 or toll free at 1-888-714-3666.
Inspiring academic excellence within a clear moral framework
i
4k,
PAGE 20. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MAY 2, 2001.
School bds. say govt. should heed recommendations
By Stew Slater
Special to The Citizen
Officials at both district school
boards in Huron and Perth Counties
believe the provincial government
should heed the recommendations of
an advisory group on extra-curricu-
lar activities, which was appointed
by the government and recently
released its report.
"The conciliatory tone which your
advisory group struck is, in our opin-
ion, the only way to regain the sup-
port and involvement of the teachers,
whose goodwill and expertise are-
both needed if we .are to reinstate
these activities for students in the
public secondary schools of
Ontario," states the draft version of a
letter, addressed to minister of edu-
cation Janet Ecker and presented ata
regular meeting of the Avon
Maitland District School Board,
Tuesday, April 23.
Director of Education Lorne
Rachlis described the Avon Maitland
letter as "quite blunt in saying that,
unless the government takes action,
students will once again be deprived
of extra-curricular activities next
ear.
For some trustees and student
trustees, however, it wasn't blunt
enough, as they eventually voted to
strengthen the tone of the letter
before sending it to Ecker and pub-
lishing it on the board's website.
Meg Westley suggested changing the
words "please attend to . . ." to "we
urge you to .. ." and fellOw Stratford
trustee Rod Brown said the letter
should be "less conciliatory."
Non-voting student trustee Carla
McTaggert agreed. "I feel this should
be really strongly stated for the sake
of future students," said the Listowel
A dollop of cream
A taste of whipped cream was
the perfect topping for Jessica
Sparling's dessert and finish to
her meal at Blyth Memorial Hall
April 24. The Blyth Public
School council hosted the sup-
per to raise funds for computers
for the school.
District Secondary School student.
"I don't think this should continue
until next year. That would be a
crime."
Extracurricular activities have
been severely limited this school
year in Ontario, with many teachers
claiming the government's increased
instructional-time requirements
mean they no longer have enough
time to do anything other than pre-
pare for. and instruct classes and
mark assignments.
The advisory group was appointed
early this year, and was originally
criticized by many because _it was
perceived to include people with
close links to Premier Mike Harris's
ruling Conservatives.
But parents' groups, school board
officials and others have praised the
group's recent report. Government
response has been less enthusiastic,
with the only official media release
coming as an add-on to a different
announcement about next year's
educational budget.
Among the report's 16 recommen-
dations are calls for more govern-
ment funding for lunchroom supervi-
sors in elementary schools, to help
free up teachers' time for extracur-
ricular involvement, as well as for
such things as transportation, activi-
ty coordinators and the payment of
supply teachers who fill in while reg-
ular teachers supervise such activi-
ties.
Women Today of Huron has
announced that they are now located
at 45 West St. in Goderich.
This is a larger, wheelchair acces-
sible location that will allow them to
expand the resource centre, hire part-
time staff, provide placement oppor-
tunities for students, increase volun-
teer opportunities and add to existing
services.
Women Today of Huron is a not-
for-profit, registered charity that has
been providing support, information,
education and training services to
women in Huron County for more
than 20 years. Women Today cur-
rently offers pre-employment train-
ing for women in transition from
The advisory group's entire report
was included as information for
trustees of the Huron-Perth Catholic
District School Board, which met the
previous night. Huron-Perth
Catholic Director of Education
Gaetan Blanchette called it "a well-
done report. Many of the things that
are said in here are exactly the things
that people have been saying all
along — school boards, teachers,
parents, students."
Blanchette pointed particularly to
a recommendation urging collabora-
tion "on the development of strate-
gies that promote respect for the
teaching profession." He blamed the
government for viewing the
extracurricular issue as another bat-
tle in its public relations war with
teachers, using it to turn the public
against the profession's demands for
adequate wages and working condi-
tions and ignoring the fact students
are being caught in the crossfire.
Not everyone absolves the teach-
ers to such a degree, however.
Westley and fellow Avon Maitland
trustee Charles Smith wanted to
-make sure copies of the board's letter
would be sent to all stakeholders in
the issue — not just government
officials but also teachers'• unions.
Smith pointed to a couple of the
advisory group's recommendations
specifically affecting teachers. These
include a call for average secondary
school classroom size to be returned
abusive relationships and/or from
working at home to the paid work-
force, violence prevention education
to the community, and also has
undertaken research on issues of
interest and concern to rural women.
They operate a comprehensive
resource centre that contains educa-
tional materials and information
about services for women in Huron
County and elsewhere. For more
information about Women Today of
Huron, the current programs and vol-
unteer opportunities, contact Pam
Hanington, executive director at
519-524-6767, toll-free at 1-888-
547-3478 or by email at womto-
day @hurontel.on.ca
to its previous level of 22 students,
thereby potentially decreasing the
total number of classes in each
school.
There's also a call for unions not to
threaten "withdrawal of services
from co-instructional activities as a
bargaining tactic," and a request "not
to place pressure on fellow (union).
members who choose to participate
in co-instructional activities."
At both boards, the directors of
education had strong words for the
government.
"I think the time has come that we
start demanding extracurricular
activities," Rachlis said.
"Maybe if we can get this govern-
ment to sit down and start looking at
these recommendations, there
will be a resolution," Blanchette
added.
Women Today moves