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The Huron Expositor, 1998-03-11, Page 1s Your Community Newspaper Since 1860 - Seaforth,. Ontario Avon Maitland board office for Seaforth but March 11, 1998 .00 includes GST ComrniUee recommends -DHS be-vlosed- .BY GREGOR GREGOR CAMPBELL Expositor Staff -Seaforth may lose its 120 - year -old high school -but become- headquarters for the .recently amalgamated .public school hoards of -Huron and Perth ('counties. responsthlc for the education -of 21.233 students. After an-. emotionally -charged debate that took two hours in a packed hoard room. trustees decided by a vote of '5-4 last night (Tuesday) in Stratford ti, defer a decision- on contro- versial recommendations from it's site: review commit- tee until March 31. when fttr- :ther• educational funding details arc expected to he released 'by the province. The site review committee of the newly formed Avon Maitland District School .Board officially recommend - cd that Seaforth District 'High School.•estahlished in 1'878. he "closed'hccausc of declining enrollment._ and that. the combined hoards. new head office he estab- lished in the vacated building here in -Seaforth- • The recommendations ot the ad hoc committee for headquarters site review were presented to trustees at the regular meeting of the Avon Maitland board last night (Tuesday) in: Stratford, "We believe that the.. stu- dents of Seaforth District High,School will, he further short-changed as the transi-. tion to a four-year secondary - school program evolves. and as two more' 'cars ot cxtcn-. sive enrollment reduction 'devolves to St. Anne's • Catholic Secondary School.' the sitc.review committee , report reads. • The Avon .Maitland site review committee reconn mended last night that the amalgamated public school hoard "begin the process to close' _Seaforth District High School no -later than- Septembcr..l999 - the first step in the transition being to relocate the students. staff and principal: to -Central. Huron Secondary School at Clinton to become a 'school within a -school' for the school year 1998-1999; and to continue to dialogue with the Seaforth District High. School community about -this change:" An accommodation study in -1995-96 identified an over -capacity of about 430(1 at that time in Huron County. schools. HEATED COMMENTS Trustees appeared _dcepfy divided on both the closure of the Seaforth school and thc_ need for a new hoard office. Many Seaforth people attended last night's meeting -inclurJ.ing Seaforth Council which rescheduled ifs regu- lar meeting at "iown Hall. Huron MPP Helen Johns was also there. "Please don•.t leave Seaforth as the only town in Huron County,without a high school." Mayor Dave Scott pleaded. He later stormed out of the rticeting in a rage accusing hoard chair Abby Armstrong and director of education Paul Carroll. of not representing the views of the people of Seaforth. . • Scott said closing down thy school will have tar -reaching social and economic t:amifi- cations. _that tar over shadow anything else council is deal- ing with at present. He urged trustccs to:hold off on -thy decision to close the school until the details of revised educational funding in the province arc made clear. - • So did -Maureen Agar. school council chair -at SDHS, who's comments were. Agar threatened to organize ' "the higgest_rally. ever seen and hang Mr. Carroll in effi- • gy" if trustees didn't believe the people of Seaforth aren't behind their high school. Agar said originally she felt the merger of rural hoards in Huron and Perth" -would strengthen the combination.- ". "My' emotions have gone from -elation to distrust because of this hoards 'pos- sessive bulldozing methods." she said. SMALLEST SCHOOL Seaforth District High School is the smallest high • school in Huron County. Enrollment was roughly 340 students at the start of this school year -in September. - and "worst case" projections • suggest it might drop as lc w as 250 to 260 students in a couple of years. Current enrollment at. Central Huron in Clinton is 663 students. Enrollment at St. Anne's in Clinton is expected to he "Please don't leave Seaforth ... without high school" Mayor Dave Scott Seaforth. But thc site -review commit- tee recommended the move to Seaforth to trustees last night. "Our course- of action - would he... to commence preparations for the reloca- tion of administrative offices from current locations in .Clinton and Stratford, as nec- essary.. with a target -startup -date of September 1, 1998." • Last night the committee further recommended that the hoard sell its Water and Britannia Street properties in Stratford. and "to enter into negotiations with other inter- ested parties for the utiliza- tion of those portions" of Seaforth District _High School not required for administra- tive use by the Avon -Maitland -District School Board." REDUCE COSTS "There is broader support for the establishment, of a. - headquarters location in the - more than 700 students.hy the time all high school grades arc .accommodated- -there ccommodated• there in two years. Right now only Grades 9 through II go. there. with senior students - going to St. Michael Catholic Secondary School in • Stratford . Thc former headquarters of the Huron • public school hoard is in Clinton. and the .former . headquarters of Perth's pu,hlic board is in Stratlordt At an Avon Maitland board meeting last month. staff at the Perth board office expressed dissatisfaction with .the suggestion an amalgamat- • ed hoard office. be located .in centre of the district versus office team into smaller units its continuation in the current, headoffice .locations in -Stratford•or Clinton;" the _report states. -. "The elimination of IWQ administrative sites. and the. closure of one-. secondary school will reduce overall overhead costs.. Revenue from,thc sale of two build- - Ings will provide additional funds to extend the hoard's -ability to undertake new ven- • tures.... representatives. appointed to •the site review task. have wrestled with the ramifications of each alter- nate choice.'. their repori reads . "Thc transition to a new combined administrative -team presents 'an onerous challenge,. • .. "We believe that •the tast+-of creating the new entity for the Avon Maitland District School Board is not well served by dividing the -head in distributed locations across the district. We support the . recommendation to maintain' at least the business units. the executive and administrative - councils together -in onc.loca- tion." 61 SCHOOLS - .Thc Avon Maitland public hoard is responsihlc for a total of 61 elementary' and secondary schools in Huron and Perth Counties._ Day school enrollment in the combined counties as of Jan: 31 was 21.233 students - 13.437 of these in elementary and -another 7.796 secondary. - • There arc -3(1 schools in Huron.'According to the . most recent fi'gures--available at the .hoard. office in, Clinton yesterday. this:county =has 6.231. elenicntar)• school stu - dents :and another 3.633 enrolled inhigh.school.herc.. . Full discussion -.of "site review options was complet- ed at the regular board meet- ing of Feh. -24. • . 11LL"- :aeassa1 sutlaaet. DIEM ell -respected principal Gary Jewitt, retires Friday after dedicating nearly 35 years to public edu- cation. Jewitt was principal -and vice-principal to.several local schools. finishing his career as phn- •ipal at Huron Centennial School. See story on Page 3. . (Powell photo) Seaforth man's brother experiences `Butterbox' story BY JACKIE FITT(11\ Expositor Editor Ron.Rilcy wasn;t surprised when his mother called last year informing him he had a younger hrothcr. Growing up as an only child. being raised by his grandparents in Kinburn, Rim says he•had an "Inkling'. about • The call Iront:Winnipcg last year didn't completciy change his life. hut it did bring into perspective events from Nova Scotia in the mid - 1940s which were to become entangled in his life. • . The estranged hrothcr Leonard made contact with Ron in Harpurhey by e-mail alter Leonard located his birth mother in Winnipeg through Child .Find A meet- ing followed in January of this year in Naples. when the brothers met face-to-face for the first time. "Hc has the features." says Ron as he hooks over the pho- tographs recounting the meet- ing and comparing them to a picture of his mother. Although brothers, they share familiar facial similari- ties, but vastly different back- grounds. Ron was born in 1941 at the Scott Memorial Hospital in Seaforth (now the Seaforth Manor) and raised by his • grandparents in Kinburn, just outside Seaforth. Leonard was born three years later at the Ideal Maternity Home in Nova 4 • Scotia: •where children horn to unwed mothers gained notorarity and were duhhcd. "The Butterbox BahleS." - A story which Inspired Bette Cahill to write the hook ok The Buuerhu.r Babies in 1992 and which later CBC''tele- vised as a docudrama. Ron owns the Seaforth Freeze King and has for the -past 26 years. Leonard was adopted by a New York Jewish family and is now a Circuit Judgc in Dade County Miami Florida. Two vastly different hack- - grounds for two brothers, one . who treats life as fairly rou- tine with his wile Gloria, two children. Glenda and Brian and three. grandchildren, and the other who carried bits and pieces of his past in a yellow file holder. PRODUCING BABIES The Ideal Maternity Home produced more than 1,000 babies. Some were deemed unadoptablc and allowed to die. mainly through starva- tion. Babies who were saleable were kept alive. Thc others, after their deaths were placed in ordinary butterbox crates and buried, hence the name "Butterbox" babies. Su'rvivors of the (deal Maternity Home travel to the tiny Chester community in Nova Scotia to hold memori- al services. They have dedi- cated a monument in Bast Chester next to thc spot where the maternity home stood before it burned to the ground in thc 1960s. The home had been closed down in 1948 after being exposed in a newspaper story. With hahy sales being opened up in the United States Many of the adoptees would be unaware they were adopted. Many times twins were separated and Sold indi- vidually. - Ron says he's glad his brother was one of the lucky ones. He was adopted at the age of two. He had a perfo- rated ear drum due to an infection, hc also had a •vari- ety of skin problems and. although he was two he was unable to walk. home -she was told her baby had died • The story of the ideal Maternity Home can be seen as tine of good intentions gone awry. Or. in Ron's view, "one of greed." Founded in 1928 by Lila and William Young. it origi- nally was a safe haven for young women then stigma- tized by unwed motherhood. Lila Young a trained mid- wife, and a devout Christian wanted to care for the girls by helping them during their pregnancy and delivery. then arranging for a quiet adop- tion. Brothers Ron Rlley, right, sad Limned (ilkk meet for the tint time His new adopted parents were older, but were very devoted to him. Leonard Glick's parents never told him he was adopted. Cora Lec Glidden had no idea her son waa alive. After a diffi- cult birth at the maternity The price for the stay at the Ideal Maternity Home as written in the privacy and discretion guarantee states payment on arrival was a condition, between $1(8) and $200 for room and board. delivery and the .adoption of .the bahy..11 was an additional $12 forlayetteand a• hahvsit- ting service of $2 perwcek. WORKING OFF DEBT There was also (he opportu- nity to work off -the debt if unable to pay the hill. Burial fees of $20 were also added to the cost. The $20 included $5 toward the shroud and $15 for the Youngs who would .he pre- sent at the burial where the babies ,werc placed in so called- white pine coffins. Being described as ."lovely. butterboxes" (from the gro- cery store) mitered and very. very smooth according to Lila Young and always •lined with sarin. Byrne time the girls left the home their bills often exceed= cd $300.(Avcrage wage at this time was: sales clerks S8 per week. domestics $4 per week). In thc mid -1940's, accord- ing to Cahill's book, pregnant girls were paying an average of 5400 for services al the home. generating revenue of about $60,000. But thc real money was in the baby sales. anywhere from $-1,000 to $10,000 each. Any good intentions.shc might have had in thc begin- ning dissipated as she became caught up in thc buzz of action, Cahill writes. SOCIAL VALUES Thc social Values of the day. thc condemnation of women who became pregnane out of wedlock, thc lax regu- lations and religious tone of the home all helped Lila get away with 'so much for so first hand ling.'. Although both brothers had extremely differing: hack: grounds. Glick says he had the hest parents in the world. - Butnot even child horn al the Ideal Maternity' Home had the good lortune he did. Those who were passed over for -adoption hccausc of ill- ness or hirth-defects• were allowed to die from -neglect and malnutrition. It's estimated about 40(1 of these: tiny bodies were buried in the plain pine butterboxes from the local dairy. The operators of thc nurs- ing home were only charged with the maternity home - operation. The only convic- tions were minor ones and no one ever served- prison time in the deaths. - Lila and her husband then - penniless - following losing a court action to sue a newspa- per for slander made a hasty, departure from Nova Scotia. After her husband's death of cancer. Lila returned to Nova Scolia where, in 1969. at the age of 70. she died of leukemia and was buried in the Seventh Day Adventist Cemetery in Fox Point, close to the many babies. in the Butterbox Coffins who didn't have a chance to experience life. "i'm glad hc was one of the lucky ones who got out alive," says Ron. Thc brothers and their families will reunite again this spring when Leonard visits Seaforth. "It's going to take time.' but we'll take it as it comes." says Run.