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Huron Expositor, 1999-12-08, Page 144—THE HURON EXPOSITOR, Daatunnber 6, 1669 Er..11-40, Your Community Newspaper Since 1860 Terri -Lynn Hart - Publisher Pat Armes - Office Manager Scott Hilgendorff - Editor Dionne McGrah - Subsaipims/Chssiheds Susan Hundertmark - Reporter loBowes Publishers Limited Sdudan of S.. Maas Cap...., - A ("sitar Cer pa E-mail us at seaforth@bowesnet.com SUBSCRIPTION RATES. LO Al 32.50 a year, in advance, plus 2.28 G.S.T. SENIORS. - 30 00 o year, in advance, plus 2 10 G. S T. USA & Foreign. 28 44 a year in advance, plus S78 00 postage, G.S.T. exempt SUBSCRIPTION RATES - Published weekly by Signal -Star Publishing at 100 Main St., Seaforth. Publication moil registration No. 0696 held at Seaforth, Ontario. Advertising is accepted on condition that in the event of a typographical error, the advertising spoce occupied by the erroneous item, together with o reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for of the appllcoble rote. In the event of o typographical error, odvertising goods or services at o wrong price, goods or services may not be sold. Advertising is merely on offer to sell and may be withdrawn at any time The Huron Expositor is not responsible for the loss or damage of unsolicited manuscripts, photos or other materiels used for reproduction purposes. Changes of -address, orders for subscriptions and undeliverable copies are to be sent to The Huron Expositor Wednesday, December 8, 1999 Editorial mod Seslwess OfHses - 100 Main ftteet.,feafertle Telophowo (519) 527-0240 Pax (519) 527-2656 Maillns Address - P.O. Sex 69, futon*, OsNarie, NOK 1 WO • Member of the Canadian Community Newspoper e l^ Association, Ontario Community Newspapers Association Publication Mail Registration No. 07605 Premier invited to get involved in school issue (The following letter was sent to Premier Mike Harris) Dear Mr. Premier: Your education mandate is being misunderstood and used to create a ghost town. My name is Helen M.R. Vock and I am a former constituent of your riding in North Bay. I am Separate School Board supporter but also a member of a small rural community in South Western Ontario who is fighting to keep our public schools open. Yes, schools with an 's' at the end. The Avon Maitland School Board is trying to cut costs by closing schools whose population is in excess of 77% and one whose in excess of 977r, Both of these schools are in Seaforth, a growing community with two new subdivision agreements in the works, an industrial area that may be sold, and a school board that wants the entire high school for its offices instead Df for students. The worst part is that the board doesn't need to cut schools. It only wants to do so to be able to build a new one. Next year, this board also plans on closing up to eight more schools and when you see the demographics you will he shocked. Your honour, we really need your presence at one of two meetings being held Dec. 7 and Dec. 8. I would appreciate a visit from you to make the public school board understand your mandate. I am requesting that you personally attend because this school board has consistently done what it likes and even limits the time and amount of people who can speak at these meetings. Should one of your assistants attend, the media would not know who he/she is and your mandate of better education will continue to be misinterpreted. Under your mandate (which I found on the internet): 1) "The government has the authority to supervise all boards in financial difficulty." We have asked to'have a private un -biased accountant look at the school board's books but they refuse to give them to us or our counterparts. We believe this board is in financial difficulty to the tune of a $2 million deficit. We just cannot prove it because they will not show us the figures. The board spent more than 51 million (1,000,000) to centralize the board offices in. of all places, Seaforth, with an addition to the high school they now want to close. Some controversy is still relevant over the sale of the office in Stratford where the highest bid was not accepted and the building was sold the following week to the highest bidder by the new owners. The board has admitted the mistake but. oh well. they only lost 5150.000. The board hired a new director with a salary of allegedly. more than 5120.000 plus the cost of his transportation to and from home every day (he lives an hour away and that is his choice) 'plus the board allegedly pays for a flight home to Ottawa once a month. When they amalgamated not a single administrative position was cut. The board is also renowned for lavish catered Christmas parties during the work day and in the high school cafeteria where students are not allowed for that day. 2) Tells us of the "process that boards must follow to identify specific schools to be consolidated in the 1998-99 school year and that ensures appropriate consultation with parents and community." The school board will not even let us discuss this with them at a public meeting. They added two special meetings (dates ----above.t-•to-hear the public but are only allowing 10 delegates at each night and you have only five (5) minutes to speak. Our mayor. Dave Scott. has been in meetings with key industrial companies to get them to move to our large See PREMIER, Page 2 How to access us Letters to the Editor and other submissions can be made to us by noon on Mondays at seafocth @ bowesnet.com All letters and submissions most be signed " and accompanied by a day -time telephone number. All submissions are subject to editing for both length and content. Dont forget to check out our'homepage at: www.bowesnet.conilexpositor/ Opinion Letters Federation of Agriculture lobbying for area schools To the Editor: My generation was the last to have the opportunity to begin our education in the one room schoolhouse in McKillop. Some of my best learning took place there. In 1971, the persons in power found it necessary to consolidate and to make a change, thus in 1972 I started Grade 3 in Seaforth. Today, slightly under 30 years later, we are making more changes. Some say "get on with it because it will happen anyway." Others have a slightly different feeling toward closing 25 per cent of our schools in the Avon Maitland district. As a parent, I find this to be unacceptable, saying this: "not all the blame should be put on our board." The government has a grant called "Geographic and School Authorities Grant" which is to be used in the diverse geographical size of our province in coping with its differences. The grant is broken up into three sections: A) SMALL SCHOOL GRANT: is designed to provide money for school boards that must operate small schools because of pupil sparsity or distances. B) SCHOOL AUTHORITIES GRANT: to provide money to the 37 School Authorities in Ontario (these are separate from school boards in that they only operate a small number of schools in very remote areas in Ontario (far north). C) REMOTE and RURAL: provides dollars to school boards that face higher costs because of distances from a major urban area or because their pupil numbers are low. The Avon Maitland Board (AMDSB) receives dollars under the "Small School Grant," recognizing that in some rural areas of this board there can be a great deal of distance between schools. "School Authorities Grant" - as the AMDSB is a School Board and not a School Authority we receive no funding under this grant. "Remote and Rural" - The government looks at the AMDSB and sees London as an urban centre, although our district is rural we are not eligible for that grant. "Pupil Accommodation Grant" - this grant goes toward heating, lighting, cleaning and maintenance, school renewals (repairs and renovations) and new pupil places. The AMDSB receives money under this grant for school operations and school renewals. Because of the excess capacity in the system (which are almost 4,000 more pupil spaces than pupils) the AMDSB will continue to receive funding to repair and renovate our current facilities. If our board decides to close schools and were to sell property, the funds received must then be used for the repairs to remaining facilities. These funds are not to be used for anything else. This gives you some idea of the funding formula that ourlocal board is working under. The OFA (Ontario Federation of Agriculture) got involved in this contentious issue late last fall when, an OFA office in Toronto received more calls on the "Closing of schools" issue than any other issue. Recognizing that this is a province -wide issue that deeply affects its members, OFA put some lobbying efforts toward our government and along with parent groups, the new government saw a need for extra dollars in many areas. An example of this was the 20% top up for schools showing under capacity, another was more funds for busing. Sharon Rounds, OFA executive and Agnes Denham, Perth Federation secretary both made presentations in Stratford at a rally aimed toward the government. Since then, six local federation members have been monitoring the situation. The time has come again to step up lobbying efforts, Talking with OFA Executive members they are putting together a hand book with questions parents can ask their boards, along with a video. As well, some research has been done on the relationship between the distance our children are being bused and the decreasing learning ability of the student once they arrive at school. Also, the question arises: is there actual saving in closing rural schools? If so, these boards do ' not realize who is paying; it's the children, remembering that small schools do not necessarily mean less quality education. In OFA's research, three school boards were asked to help provide information and none were very cooperative. I believe locally it is high time all concerned parents and involved organizations get on the ball and demand more involvement and answers into where our children go to school. For example, will closing Walton and Seaforth Public Schools and splitting Seaforth High up between Clinton and Mitchell really be beneficial for our children? There is an element here only a few of us have considered. In the above example, our children will compete for positions on the team of all sports and may not be able to play at all. Another factor that hasn't been looked at by the board is the longer the bus ride in our harsh winter months adding to the risk for everybody. It would -be acceptable to me as a parent that if a wing of a school wasn't needed right now, to shut it down and only some heat would need to be left on. This would make it available to re -open that section of the school if needed in the future. Why would the distance to London disable us in.getting money under the "Rural and Remote Grant?" It also bothers me that no board staff has been let go after Huron and Perth School Board amalgamated. Come on people, let's start saving on administrative costs I think it is very important to get informed and help our district now and not to wait for your particular school to be listed for closure. Some students are talking of returning to the high school after leaving when the board threatened closure last year. No school should be considered for closure until the board streamlines itself and exhausts itself with alternatives. Charles Regele. Community saves its hospital, can do the same for schools To the Editor: In a recent address to members of the Ontario Hospital Association, the chair of the Health Services Restructuring Commission, Duncan Sinclair, spoke about the excellent examplethat the Huron -Perth Partnership has set in restructuring a network of hospitals. Hospital closures at first seemed the only viable solution. This was, however,adamantly rejected by the communities and now these eight hospitals continue to serve Huron -Perth and are financially accountable. The communities of Huron -Perth reject the assumption that because we may be fewer we cannot be greater. If the Avon Maitland Board would hold open counsel with the people that it supposedly serves, many excellent ideas are waiting to be heard and many people willing to help. School closures are not acceptable to the communities of Perth and Huron counties any more than hospitals closures were several years ago. In the Education Improvement Commission Progress Review of Avon Maitland District School Board, it is continually recommended that communication strategies and trust issues involving the community be improved. Delegations have before and will again be presenting arguments and suggestions to the Board this month and next. What we need to know is that the Avon Maitland Board and the Ministry of Education are listening. . Huron -Perth schools are not for sale. Linda Bailey Would be nice to know trustees will listen To the Editor: As a concerned grandfather with grandchildren living in Seaforth I cannot understand why the Avon Maitland District School Board wants to close all the schools in the Seaforth area. Last year there was a plan made and approved to have an agricultural course being taught in our high school to promote an increase in the student population at the school. This program seems to have been transferred to the Mitchell High School. Possibly the board could give Seaforth some answers as to why this took place. All the talk of closing the Seaforth High School has made it possible that students will not want to go there. This, js helping the board's wishes to close the high school. Is it the board's intent to undo all the work the Business Retention and Expansion Committee has worked so hard on accomplishing? it would be nice to know that the people that are elected to represent us on the board will allow the people they represent to speak at their meeting without going through all 'the problems of the last meeting. Jim Floyd Library club inviting people to donate books to Christmas Bureau and Phoenix House To the Editor: The members of the Seaforth Book Club want to invite you to participate in a celebration of children Dec. 11 at 1 p.m. at the Seaforth Library. --- After the evening Book Club read "Angela's Ashes" by Frank M'Court a decision was made to give back in a way, we thought, would helppur children this Christmas. In this true story, the author takes us to Limerick, Ireland and enlightens us with the desperate struggle endured by his family during times of tremendous poverty. Frank M'Court's exposure to books as a child played such a significant role in his success as an adultthat we hope to make some children's Christmas a little brighter by giving them a book. Please donate any used or new books so we can provide a -better Ctuistmas for our -children. We will be donating the books to Phoenix (Second Stage Housing) and the Christmas Bureau. You can drop the Books at the library or come join us from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday andwe will read a story to you and your children. Gwen Devereaux Trudy Broome Jeff Terpstra Red ribbon campaign begun To the Editor: December marks the beginning of MADD Canada's National Red Ribbon Project. MADD Huron/Bruce Chapter has placed red ribbon boxes in local retail outlets, restaurants and places of business. MADD Canada has placed boxes in branches of the Bank of Montreal, L.C.B.O. and Beer Stores, Shoppers Drug Mart and in many convenience stores. Our chapter has attached pictures of loved ones who have been killed by impaired drivers. These faces will, hopefully, let people know how precious and fragile life really is and how quickly a family can be torn apart by someone who chooses to drink and drive. By flying a red ribbon on vehicles one can show their support and commitment to sober driving. Please, "Tie One On For Safety" and have a safe and happy Christmas and New Year with your friends and loved ones. Lynne Magee President MADD Canada Huron/Bruce Chapter A 1