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The Citizen, 2006-03-09, Page 22PAGE 22. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 2006. Trustees hear synopsis about whether quality, reliability and adherence to rights or humane and ethical practices" as well as "ongoing monitoring and spot-checks." "We do not choose suppliers or clothing lines that are manufactured under conditions that we would not accept for our families or ourselves," the website,. located at www.halperns.c&states. One of the Catholic board's policies requires upholding "the dignity of the human person, human rights and responsibilities" in all business transactions, and Miller expressed confidence the Halpern's supply agreement complies with that policy. By Stew Slater Special to The Citizen The supplier of student uniforms for St. Anne's Catholic Secondary School in Clinton prides itself on its ethical standards, and the Huron- Perth Catholic District School Board seems confident the company follows through on those stan- dards. At a regular meeting of the board Monday, Feb. 27, education committee chair Mike Miller presented a synopsis of the board's check on Halpern's, the company which supplies the student uniforms. The check was carried out following questions or not human environmental abuses were committed through the manufacturing of the uniforms. St. Anne's is the only publicly- funded school in Huron and Perth Counties which requires student uniforms. According to Miller's report, Halpern's "is a participant of the Retail Council of Canada's Responsible Trade Working Group, the only uniform company selected for this honour." Much of his report quoted directly from the Halpern's website, including references to "product Trustees defend GDCI track By Stew Slater Special to The Citizen Trustees and senior staff of the Avon Maitland District School Board jumped to the defence of spending $175,000 on the rubberized running track at Goderich District Collegiate Institute (GDCI), after the expense was questioned by South Huron trustee Randy Wagler at a regular meeting Tuesday, Feb. 28. Repair of the 25 year-old track was among almost 120 separate projects at 57 different sites, mentioned in a Draft List of 2005-06 Facility Projects. They range in projected cost from the $13,500 expected to be spent on cafeteria floor upgrades at Central Huron Secondary School (CHSS) in Clinton to the $750,000 earmarked for Special Education renovations at Stratford Northwestern Secondary School. Sources for funding are expected to include the board's facility renewal budget, the provincial government's Good Places to Learn initiative, and a little bit of money . flowing through municipalities under something called Best Start, from the recently-cancelled federal government's national daycare program. No approvals were sought from trustees at the Feb. 28 meeting. That will come in the form of considering expenditure levels in the upcoming budget, • and in voting on tendering processes for each project as it's brought forward. By Keith Roulson Citizen publisher Huron County council Thursday approved a budget that will see spending increase but the tax rate go down though if you're a homeowner your taxes will likely go up anyway. The provincial government's announcement in late January that Huron would receive $3.3 million through the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund caused a rethinking of the budget at the last moment and allowed councillors to reduce the tax increase. The OMPF compensates municipalities with more than more than 20 per cent of their assessment in farmland or managed forest. Despite an increase in spending of 3.5 per cent, the actual tax rate will decline for 2006 because the amount of assessment in the county has increased. For the owner of a house that had a typical assessed.value of $100,000 in 2005, however, your house is now likely assessed at $116,000, meaning you'll likely pay $37 extra for the county portion of their tax Wagler, however, picked out the GDCI track project as one which deserved attention at this early stage of the process. The South Huron trustee suggested "$175,000 can buy a lot of equipment .too, for other schools or programs . I'm not sure I can justify it in my mind compared to other expenditures." Business superintendent Janet Baird-Jackson, who delivered the report, responded that board officials believe the GDCI track plays a role in maintaining and attracting students who might otherwise choose to attend St. Anne's Catholic Secondary School in Clinton. However, jumping to defence of the track with much greater enthusiasm were executive officer Tim Doherty, a former GDCI principal, and CentraUEast Huron representative Shelley Kaastra, who fought through a cold-weakened voice to make known her opposition to Wagler. "A large number of people outside the Goderich community do benefit from that track, elementary and secondary," argued Doherty, after explaining it's among few facilities in the area which can legally be used for annual track meets. Kaastra added that many community groups use the track for annual events, incldding the Cancer Society fundraising walk and the Special Olympics. Other proposed repairs at GDCI for the coming year.' include about $500,000 in roofing upgrades. Among the other schools receiving significant attention in the bill. A house assessed at $200,000 in 2006 would pay an extra $65. For farmland, the extra tax bite is a hardly-noticeable $1.21 on each $100,000 worth of assessment because the value of farmland has not increased as dramatically. The big winners are multi- residential apartment buildings, commercial buildings or industrial properties. On that same 2005 assessment of $100,000, an apartment building will see a reduction of $49 in county taxes, a commercial building, a $27 reduction and an industrial building, a $46 reduction. Ironically, the heavy shift of assessment toward residential properties could endanger the OMPF funding in the future, explained David Carey, county treasurer. Because the county receives between 12.5 and 15 per cent of its levy from farmland, it currently qualifies for a grant of 150 per cent of this levy from the province. "If the trend continues there will come a point where the county will fall out of the 12,5 to 15 per cent range to the 10-12.5 per cent range, resulting in a decease in funding from 150 per cent of taxes from the two property classes to 100 per cent." Facilities Projects draft list were: — Avon Public School (the former King Lear) in Stratford,, with $620,000 in roofing and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) upgrades; — Brookside Public School at RR7, Lucknow, with five smaller projects covering electrical work, the gym floor and HVAC upgrades; — Huron Centennial Public School at RR1, Brucefield, with $450,000 in ventilation and windows; — CHSS, with nine separate projects, including $500,000 in masonry repairs, $350,000 in lighting upgrades and $400,000 worth of gymnasium work; — F.E. Madill Secondary School in Wingham, with seven separate projects including $300,000 for making the building wheelchair accessible and $500,000 on science labs. — Of particular interest for other reasons are Turnberry Central Public School at RR4, Wingham and Milverton Public School. According to the draft facilities list, the board will apply for special consideration under the' province's "prohibitive to repair" (PTR) guidelines, in an attempt to prove it would take more money to fix the school than it would be build a new one. In the case of Turnberry, it's the entire school. In . the case of Milverton, it's just an unused_ front portion. "We want to make a case to the (Education) Ministry that we should be able to replace it," explained Baird-Jackson. In approving the budget, councillors did not use the whole of the $3.3 million in provincial funding to lower taxes. Councillors agreed to put/ $200,000 of the money toward an- economic development reserve fund, $100,000 toward a geographic information system reserve fund and $91,194 toward the library book reserve fund. Councillors used $440,000 to reduce taxes and set aside $2.46 million in a general reserve fund for contingencies. This could, for instance, allow reinstatement some of the highways department projects which had been postponed for future years in an effort to cut the original tax increase. If money in the reserve is not spent it can be used to lower the county levy next year. Council decided to stick to a tax increase that covers the inflationary cost increases in county expenditures, Carey later explained. Past councils had used money from reserve funds to reduce tax increases which left the reserves low preventing needed work on bridges that were 40- 60 years old or repaving of roads as needed, he said. Only recently has council been able to rebuild these reserves. By Stew Slater Special to The Citizen On the very evening the Thames Valley District School Board announced a draft plan to close 21 schools, based partly upon information provided by the C.N. Watson Group, the Avon Maitland District School Board received its own report from the Mississauga- based consultants, highlighting 15- year projections for declining student enrolment. Late last year, C.N. Wasson Group used _ its analysis of future demographics in the former Oxford, Elgin and Middlesex County school bogrds to recommend the closure of 61 schools over the next four years. The board's provincially-required Capital Planning report, released on Feb. 28, suggested following through on 21 of those recommendations, including the closure of A.J. Baker Public School south of St. Marys and McGillivray Central Public School in northwest Middlesex County. Unlike the Thames Valley board, however, the Avon Maitland board stopped short of requesting recommendations from the consultants. Instead, the Avon Maitland report, entitled Demographic Trends and Associated Enrolment Projections and presented to trustees on the same night as the Thames Valley announcement, provided only analysis about how many students will be enrolled between now and 2020. "In past accommodation reviews, (the Avon Maitland board) got criticized for not coming to the public with . independent numbers about future enrolment," explained business superintendent Janet Baird- Jackson, following the meeting. She added the board will 'aow take the C.N. Watson information to community-based school councils _ beginning this spring, in preparation for its next full-scale accommodation review. C.N. Watson Group senior consultant Jack Ammendolia's report tracked the numbers of children from various .different age groups during past census periods, and attempted to project that 15 years into the future. Important factors included birth rates, migration into and out of the district, and something called "apportionment" — which refers to the percentage of the area's school- aged children who attend school in either the public, Catholic or non publicly-funded education systems. "Population growth by natural increase (births versus deaths) is pretty well done as we know it," the C.N. Watson Group representative said. A new factor being considered, he said, is the ratio of students in Grades 6, 7 and 8 versus those in junior kindergarten, senior kindergarten and Grade I. "If you know that the numbers in your primary grades are less than your senior grades, then you know that enrolment is going down," Ammendolia explained. Speaking to reporters following his presentation, Ammendolia admitted that projected enrolments in the Avon Maitland board are generally similar to those in other rural-based school boards, where school closures have been proposed recently. But he cautioned that such decisions "depend on what the board has as its planning priorities . . . The (demographic) numbers are not the sole determining factor in deciding whether or not a school is going to close." Perth East representative Tina Traschel, the only Avon Maitland trustee whose territory doesn't include a town large enough for a secondary school, wondered whether some of the factors considered by the, C.N. Watson Group are relevant iii rural areas. In particular, she mentioned new residential developments, which are often not a priority in agriculture- based municipalities. Ammendolia agreed it 'can be difficult . to accurately track enrolment in an area where data must be collected on a municipality- wide basis as opposed to, in some cases, a city block-by-city block basis. He noted that, when one or two students leave a rural area, it can have a much greater effect than when one or two students leave a city neighbourhood. "It definitely is a greater challenge in the rural areas," he said, before explaining C.N. Watson has considerable experience working in rural Ontario, and is confident the company's methods are effective in such cases. Digging in Jack Pipe enjoys a piece of pie after finishing pancakes at St. John's Anglican Church in Brussels for the shrove Tuesday supper. (Heather Crawford photo) AMDSB gets consultants' report of projects for declining numbers County approves budget