The Citizen, 2003-11-05, Page 25THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2003. PAGE 25.
AMDSB staff to approve non-standard textbooks
By Stew Slater
Special to The Citizen
Responsibility for the approval of
non-standard textbooks has passed
to the staff of the Avon Maitland
District School Board, despite the
objections of a couple of trustees.
South Huron representative Randy
Wagler — who openly spoke against
the motion — and Stratford trustee
Ray Ford cast the two dissenting
votes at a regular meeting Tuesday,
Oct. 28, as the board approved a
staff recommendation to “authorize
administration to approve textbooks
for use in (the board’s) schools.”
Four others voted in favour, while
three trustees were absent.
In the past, Avon Maitland trustees
generally received a list — in recent
years, containing between 20-40
titles — in June each year, outlining
textbooks requested by teachers bvt
not appearing in a provincially-
standardized and approved
collection called “Circular 14.” The
board was then asked to approve the
additional texts.
About three years ago, concurrent
with the introduction of the
province’s four-year high school
curriculum, “Circular 14” was
replaced by the “Trillium List.”
“The advent of the new
curriculum has led to a very high
demand for new texts for use in high
schools,” states a staff report,
presented to trustees on Oct. 28 by
education superintendent Marjatta
Longston.
“Publishers have been unable to
keep up with this demand, and
schools are thus scrambling to
obtain books to use as texts for the
new courses.”
A complicating factor for the
future is the province’s commitment
to have each Trillium List text
reviewed after seven years, to ensure
Ontario’s learning resources don't
become outdated. Considering the
backlog already in place, boards
now hope to plan ahead to avoid
even more scrambling down the
road.
According to Longston, several of
the non-standard books now being
requested by Avon Maitland teachers
are expected to end up on the
Trillium List eventually, but are
caught up in the province’s own
approval process.
Describing the steps to approval as
a “bottleneck,” she suggested it
would take even longer for students
to have access to the texts if the
board continued to require trustee
approval.
Wagler refused to support
Longston’s recommendation. He
conceded trustees would retain the
authority to address complaints from
parents about books which have
already received approval from the
board.
But he suggested the board needs
“a check” in place during the
approval stage as well.
“If we think we're a bottleneck,
maybe the answer is to alter the
operating procedure to make it more
efficient, perhaps so we don't have
to deal with (all the non-standard
books) all at once in June," the
South Huron trustee said.
Perth East trustee Wendy
Anderson sided with Longston.
“Unless we are going to receive
copies of every single book on this
(non-standard) list, and unless we
have the time and the inclination to
look through all of this and try and
anticipate when somebody is going
to have a concern, I think we have to
be pragmatic and put our confidence
in staff to carry out this
responsibility,” she argued.
“The fact of the matter is that it’s
not possible for trustees to have the
expertise to approve or not approve
these books. We simply act on the
recommendation of staff anyway,”
Anderson said, referring to
the existing trustee-approval
process.
In an interview following the
meeting, Longston said she asked
about the approval process in other
boards, during a recent meeting with
administrators from across the
province. Out of 16 boards, she
related, “the majority” now allow
non-standard texts to be approved by
staff.
Giving up or gaining, topic of Melville sermon
Continued from page 2
15; Mark 12: 28 - 34.
Rev. Campbell’s sermon, Giving
up or Gaining? talked of Naomi’s
decision to leave Moab and return to
Bethlehem, the home of her birth
after the death of her husband and
sons. In returning to this country she
would regain her culture and enjoy
being amongst her own people.
Ruth, her daughter-in-law, decided
to leave her native country and
accompany Naomi in spite of the
fact that by doing this she would
give up her native country, her
culture, her religion, and would
become an outsider in a society that
might be unfriendly to her. Ruth’s
reason for doing this was purely her
love for Naomi.
To illustrate different terms and
degrees of love, Rev. Campbell used
the statements. “I love pasta; I love
dancing; I love Sean Connery.” But
she stated that all people need real
love for other humans in their lives,
devotion such as is shown between
Ruth and Naomi.
How is love to be found? Rev.
Campbell referred again to the
Gospel of Mark where people are
told that the most important
commandment is to love the Lord
God with all our heart, our soul, our
"mind and our strength, and then the
second commandment that we shall
love our neighbour as ourselves.
“Too often we hunker down with
our own little safe world of self-
centredness,” Rev. Campbell said,
“and we don’t reach out to share
with others. So we miss the whole
journey. The secret is that sharing
actually brings back more than
hoarding ever will do.”
Collection was gathered by Dave
McCutcheon, Doug McArter and
Brian Armstrong. Mary Douma was
organist, and Murray Pipe, Justin,
Marissa and Matthew greeted at the
door.
The Evening Video Study Series,
Bend it like Beckham, exploring
parent/child issues will be held on
Tuesday nights. Also on Tuesday
evenings, the junior choir practice
will be held, and new members are
always welcome.
Afternoon Bible study at Helen
Elliott’s home will be on the book of
Matthew. It will be held on
Thursday at 2 p.m.
Remember to bring a friend to
Melville’s Family Dance at Walton
Community Hall this Friday, Nov. 7
at 8:30 p.m. to enjoy live music, fun
and fellowship. Children are
welcome, and ladies please bring
sandwiches.Dangerous
Teach young children to tell
a grown-up when they find
matches and lighters.
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