The Citizen, 2003-05-07, Page 10PAGE 10. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 2003.
School boards happy
with education
funding promise
By Stew Slater
Special to The Citizen
School board officials in Huron
and Perth Counties are generally
happy with several recent
announcements of educational
funding from Ontario’s ruling
Conservatives.
In some cases, however, they’re
still waiting for details, and in
others, they’re wondering why the
government is dragging its feet on
implementing changes.
Over the past couple of months
leading up to and in the wake of the
government’s made-for-TV budget
broadcast in March, various funding
announcements were made. These
either confirmed commitments from
previous announcements or added
new funds. This culminated with a
visit by Premier Ernie Eves to Blyth
Public School, to promote the
government’s $50-million Rural
Learning Strategy.
That strategy, in particular,
represents the case in which the
Huron-Perth Catholic District
implement the task force’s
recommendations around long-term
funding. A recent Education
Ministry announcement promoted
the so-called multi-year base
funding (MYBF) targets which
might allow school boards to get
away from their repeated reversion
to one-year labour agreements but
careful examination of the
government’s commitments show
that, “at this time, the Ministry of
Education is continuing the practice
of releasing detailed student-focused
funding projections for the next
school year only.”
According to Avon-Maitland
District School Board
superintendent of business, Janet
Baird-Jackson, multi-year funding
must become a reality before boards
can conduct effective financial
planning.
There is some cause for
celebration, however. Contained
within an overall increase of $1.1
billion in educational funding,
compared to last year, are significant
new commitments to students at risk
School Board and the Avon
Maitland District School Board are
still awaiting details.
“We’ll have to watch this one,”
commented Huron-Perth director of
education, Larry Langan, at a
regular meeting Monday, April 28.
“This is one which might have some
significant effects on our future
actions.”
No details of the strategy have
been finalized, but Eves told the
Blyth audience the government aims
to consult with educators about
those details. But information
provided recently by the education
ministry hints at “annual, ongoing
funding starting in 2003-04” to
“address the Education Equality
Task Force (the much-publicized
Rozanski Commission)
recommendation . . . that the
government increase funding to
recognize the costs of keeping
schools open in single-school
communities.”
Much less optimism is being
placed on the government’s desire to
of dropping out, to special education
students, to schools with declining
enrolment and, to a lesser extent, to
transportation.
“I think the funding (for students
at risk) is very timely,” commented
Huron-Perth management
superintendent Gerry Thuss.
Cleaning up
With the sun shining and fresh breezes blowing, members of the Brussels Optimists Club,
their families and a few volunteers took to the ditches Saturday morning to gather up refuse
left from the winter season. Optimists Greg Wilson, second from left and Kevin Deitner
supervise Morgan, left, and Tyler Deitner as they help collect garbage just south of the village.
(Janice Becker photo)
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