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The Citizen, 2002-05-08, Page 6WINGHAM & DISTRICT HOSPITAL HIGHLIGHTS LIVING WITH STROKE: The Heart & Stroke Foundation Patient Recovery Program will be offered at the Wingham & District Hospital commencing May 9th, on Thursdays from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. This 6-9 week program is aimed at stroke survivors and their caregivers. Contact Jody McDonald Adams at 357-3210, ext. 269 for further details. WINGIIAM & AREA PALLIATIVE CARE SERVICES ANNUAL MEETING: The Wingham & Area Palliative Care Services Annual Meeting will be held on Thursday, May 16, 2002 at St. Andrews Presoyterian Church, Josephine St., Wingham. Dinner at 6:30 p.m., Guest Speaker: Rev. Doctor Ted Creen at 7:30 p.m., Annual Meeting at 8:30 p.m. Cost $12.00 per person. Membership tee: $5.00. Please reserve your tickets by calling 357-2720. FIBROMYALGIA EDUCATION WORKSHOPS: This four session series will be held at Wingham & District Hospital from May 21st - June 11th, Tuesday afternoons from 1:03 - 3:30 p.m. This workshop is to help individuals with fibromyalgia learn skills for coping and living with Fbromyalgia. A physician's referral is required. Contact Jody McDonald Adams at 357-3210, ext. 269. CHOLESTEROL EDUCATION DAY: This program will be offered on May 28th from 1:30-3:00 p.m. in the hospital gymnasium. A doctor's referral is required. For more information or to register call Cherie at 357-3210, ext. 275. BACK EDUCATION: A one day back education program will be held on May 29th from 9:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. in the Terrace Room. A doctor's referral will be required. For more information call 357-3210, ext. 293 or 273. DIABETES EDUCATION DAY: The next dass will be held on May 30th from 8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. in the hospital gymnasium. A doctor's referral is required. For more information or to register call Cherie at 357-3210, ext. 275 or Linda at ext 362. GROCERY STORE TOUR AT VALU MART: A grocery store tour at valu-mart will be held on May 31st from 9:30. 10:30 a.m. Contact Cherie at 357-3210, ext. 275 to sign up. ACCOMMODATION REQUIRED: Looking for short-term accommodation for co-op students (4-8 weeks), as well as longer term of 4 months. If anyone interested in the community, please call the Physio Dept 357-3210, ext 273. Phone: 357-3210 Fax: 357-2931 E-Mail: winghosp@wcl.on.ca Nurses are at your side and on your side, offering knowledge, compassion and courage. A nurse is your lifeline — working in partnership with you, providing skilled care that makes the difference betwe.en life and death, comfort and pain, hope and despair. Nurses. Putting patients first in communities across Ontario. RNAO FWg Sand Nunes Amool•bo, a Onlarlo L'Aancialion Jr IMF ., Won.. aulorlolo ds rOntarlo RPNAKA- REGISTERED PPACTICAL NURSES ASSOCIATION OF ONTARIO PAGE 6. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 2002. Few turn out to school bd's. budget meeting By Stew Slater Special to The Citizen Of the handful of people to attend a special Avon Maitland District School Board public budget consultation meeting on Monday, April 29, one offered hope that three subsequent meetings would attract greater numbers, and apologized on ' behalf of the North 'Perth community for not showing greater interest. Speaking during the meeting, the audience member cited short notice about the first in a series of four events as a possible reason for the poor attendance. Public budget consultations will also be held at Central Huron Secondary School in Clinton, Northwestern Secondary School in Stratford and South Huron District High School in Exeter. Following the meeting, a different audience member offered a dissenting opinion to the media, saying he asked three friends to come but all suggested the board members had already made up their minds and didn't seriously want input. Poor turn-out aside, the three staff members and one trustee in attendance seemed willing to listen. Following some introductory explanations of the board's financial challenges, the meeting assumed a very informal tone in which audience members did such things as trumpet the merits_of the existing Tech 21 program, ask about the legal bills incurred through the board's attempts to close Seaforth District High School, and suggest possible political pressure tactics. "What happens if we say, 'We have this amount of money and this is what we can provide with that. We can't provide transportation. It will become the parents' responsibility to transport their kids to school'?" asked Vicki Keil, a school council member from Wallace Public School. Keil suggested that, if such a threat was made several months before the beginning of school, the provincial government might take the time to look at the issue of transportation funding. Avon Maitland Director of Education Lorne Rachlis, after explaining boards aren't required by law to transport students, said such a tactic "has been suggested elsewhere but nobody has followed through on it." Reasons, he said, include the fact another board could potentially run buses into an area not served by its own area board. Plus, not all parents would be able to transpOrt their kids. Keil also wondered about the board's photocopier lease agreement which, at Wallace, means the school pays almost as much per year for a used photocopier as it would cost to buy a new one. "Nobody can afford to (buy new photocopiers) for 40 schools but what I'm saying is get out of these agreements," she said. Business Superintendent Janet Baird-Jackson called the agreement "a blanket lease" that was signed when the board was forced to move quickly to put equipment into some schools which were in dire need. After Keil also complained about textbook publishers drastically increasing the cost of a teachers' manual from one year to the next, education superintendent Bill Gerth responded that, "the lease agreements and the textbook situation are part of the economic system in which we operate." Gerth agreed the board, as a consumer, should be able to demand certain things from the publishers. But he added the board is also required by the government to provide specific things, and the publishers are aware that's the case. "We can complain to the ministry and say, 'Look, I think you're being gouged here.' But we have to buy (the textbooks) because, if we don't, we don't have any textbooks to put in front of the students," he said. Another topic of discussion was Tech 21, a unique program which sees students attend specialized career-oriented learning sites several times during their Grade 7 and 8 years. The board has made it known the program could face either elimination or significant changes by next year. One audience member, an auto shop teacher at Listowel District Secondary School, said he was "nervous" — not only about the potential loss of Tech 21, but even about potential changes — and added that "technological education is not a nice thing to have. It's essential." Rachlis countered that many of the concepts taught in Tech 21 could be taught by the home school teacher either at the home school or at the Tech 21 site, thereby eliminating the need for some specialized teachers. He argued this might actually be a better way of delivering the program, since the increased training required by home school teachers would allow them to provide meaningful preparation and follow-up to the technical sessions. Gerth, meanwhile, challenged the teacher by suggesting the board needs to concentrate more technical education funding at the secondary level. In high schools, he said, instruction is much more in-depth and, therefore, career decisions are much more likely to be made by students. The teacher agreed, but noted Tech 21 can still provide a strong push for students to seek out technical courses once they reach high school. He also expressed frustration that a planned expansion to technical facilities at his school will be funded to a great extent through a fundraising campaign. "That's not public education," he said. Such funding arrangements are exactly what the ruling Conservativ,:s want, he argued, since they release the government from the responsibility of providing Ontario's students with the programming demanded and expected by society. Nurses. Real Heart. Real Smart.