Huron Expositor, 2002-10-09, Page 5October 31, 2001
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In brief
Post office
flag flying
at half-mast
to
recognize
U.S. postal
workers
The Seaforth post office's
Canadian flag is flying at
half-mast this week in
respect for the three U.S.
postal workers who have
died from anthrax
poisoning.
Seaforth postmaster Jane
Smale says the local office
received word Monday
from its area manager to
lower the flag to half-mast,
a move that will be made
across Canada.
"It'll probably fly at half-
mast until after the funeral
to support our fellow postal
workers," she says.
And, while there have
still been no legitimate
cases of anthrax in Canada,
Smale says postal workers
remain "quite cautious."
Anthrax
scare at
Clinton
Raceway
Slots
Management at the
Clinton Racetrack Slots
"erred on the side of
caution" when a substance
was found in rolled coins
at the facility last week.
Tests have since
revealed, explained
associate site manager Dan
Gall, that the substance
was not anthrax.
Gall said that last
Wednesday, Oct. 24, at
about 7:30 p.m., one of the
main bankers at the
facility opened a roll of
two dollar coins, and
noticed there was a
substance in the roll.
When the employee
voiced concerns about
coming across the
substance, "we felt we had
to do due diligence" in
light of the Sept. 11 attack
on the US and subsequent
cases of anthrax
poisoning, said Gall.
The police were
contacted, and members of
the Central Huron Fire
Area also responded to
remove the substance from
the scene.
Fire Chief Tex Van
Riesen noted the role of
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Dishing up the witches' brew
Susan Hundertmarkphoto
Parent volunteer Trish MacGregor, above, fills a glass for Jorden Dale with witches' brew punch,
complete with jello hands and floating eyeballs, in the Kindergarten class at Seaforth Public
School on Monday afternoon. Below, parent Tonia McClure helps Brent Ward into his batman
costume,for the afternoon party.
Mayor Steffler
stands up
for high school
at school board
By Susan Hundertmark
Expositor Staff
Taking a page out her predecessor, former Seaforth Mayor
Dave Scott's book, Huron East Mayor Lin Steffler stood up
and asked to be heard at the Oct. 23 meeting of the Avon
Maitland District School Board.
"I've not had an opportunity to speak to you tonight
because I just got the (board) package (containing the
director's action report) yesterday," she told trustees before
stepping up to the microphone to speak.
The public is normally only allowed to speak at school
board meetings after requesting a place on the list of
delegations up until 4:30 p.m. the day before the meeting.
Huron East's council meeting was cancelled last week to
allow councillors to attend the school board meeting where a
director's action report was being presented, asking the board
to approve studying Seaforth District High School, among 17
other elementary schools in Huron and Perth Counties, for
possible closure.
Two years ago, Scott, involved in the last battle to keep
SDHS open, stood up at a school board meeting and asked to
speak but was denied the opportunity at the time. At that Dec.
1, 1999 meeting, the local police were called when Scott
refused to sit down without being heard.
See MAYOR, Page 2
Agar gearing up for fight
to keep SDHS from closing
By Susan Hundertmark
Expositor Staff
Seaforth is gearing up for its third fight to keep
Seaforth District High School from closing.
"We're not going down without a fight. This
school is worth saving and this community is
worth saving," said Maureen Agar, SDHS
council president last week after an Oct. 23
school board meeting when a director's action
report named SDHS to be studied for possible
closure once more.
Agar said she's "flabbergasted" that the Avon
Maitland board didn't consider sending Grades 7
and 8 to SDHS to boost enrolment, as was
suggested recently by the West Central
community accommodation study committee.
While she is working on a number of ideas to
keep Seaforth's high school open, Agar said it's
too early to share what they are.
"It's hard to know if you should hold another
public meeting because how many times can we
go to the public? We pursued the Grades 7 and 8
option because that was what the public wanted,"
she said.
Agar said that one hopeful development is a
meeting she's been invited to this week by Avon
Vote. delayed one week
on potential school closures
By Stew Slater
Spedal to The Expositor
A vote to progress further
towards potential school
closures was postponed by
one week, due to time
limitations and the lack of
full trustee support for
extending a regular Avon
Maitland District School
Board meeting past 11 p.m.
Huron County trustees
Charles Smith and Butch
Desjardins opposed a motion
to continue past the three-
hour mark of the Tuesday,
Oct. 23 meeting's open
session.
At that point, only five of
nine trustees had asked
questions of education
superintendent Bill Gerth,
whose lengthy staff report,
had taken up about 1 1/2
hours.
Under the board's
constitution, unanimous
trustee support is required for
an extension past 11 p.m.
Gerth presented through
occasional heckling from the
audience, largely consisting
of representatives from some
of the 46 schools mentioned
in his report. In a series of
recommendations asking for
further study into potential
changes, ranging from
boundary alterations to the
relocation of Grades 7 and 8
students into secondary
school settings, closure is
suggested as an option for 10
elementary schools as well as
Seaforth District High
School (SDHS).
The audience was
generally much more
supportive of two
presentations - one
announced and one un-
announced - during the
public delegation portion of
the meeting.
Colin Pritchard,
representative for the Parent
Action Committee at
Holmesville Public School,
told trustees he appreciated
their efforts to lobby for
alterations to the Ontario
government's educational
funding formula, which has
been at least partly blamed
for the need for school
closures.
But he urged them to
consider both the costs of
running the school, between
Goderich and Clinton, and
the evidence of academic
improvement shown by
recent results from
provincially -standardized
tests.
In last year's tests from the
Education Quality and
Accountability Office
(EQAO), Pritchard said,
Holmesville "scored better
than the (Avon Maitland)
board average in 100 per cent
of categories, and better than
the provincial average in
about 50 per cent of
categories." Father to four
children aged seven or less,
he suggested he considered
supporting the Huron -Perth
Catholic District School
See WEEK-LONG, Pogo 2
Maitland senior staff to talk about the Stepping
Stones program, which would see SDHS offer
agricultural courses to students from outside the
Avon Maitland district.
"At least they're willing to acknowledge that
we sent in an idea and that it's a good one," she
said. "I'm still getting calls from people in
agriculture. I think it's an excellent way to bring
in new students."
But, Agar is willing to acknowledge that the
fight gets harder every time.
"Our programs at our high school are
suffering. After awhile it becomes a self-
fulfilling prophesy - the longer we're on these
lists, the more students go to St. Anne's," she
said.
Agar said it's ironic that board administration
decided not to study St. Marys DCVI for
possible closure because of the potential loss of
students to the Thames Valley District School
Board when Seaforth is losing students every
year to the Huron -Perth Catholic school system.
"It would be interesting to know how many
students they're afraid of losing in St. Marys
because we might lose 80 to 100 students to St.
Anne's if we close Seaforth high school," she
said.
Murray family plans
remembrance mass
for missing Mistie
The parents of Mistie Murray, the Goderich girl who
went missing six years ago, are planning a mass of
remembrance in Stratford on Saturday, Nov. 10 at 11
a.m..
"It's time to put Mistie and our suffering back in God's
hands," said Anne Murray, Mistie's mother, to The
London Free Press.
Mistie has been missing since May 31, 1995.
There have been possible sightings of the missing
Goderich teenager reported since that time but none have
proved conclusive.
In fact, one promising lead ended nowhere.
There were recent reports of a young woman in
Vancouver who looked very much like Mistie, and had
`MM' initials, but after seeing a photograph of that
woman, who looked like Mistie but had larger eyes and a
wider nose, the Murrays decided to hold a mass in
Mistie's memory at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church
at 96 Huron St. in Stratford.
"We want to offer her back to God," said Anne Murray.
"It's time to.put her back in his hands."
Murray said the mass will be open to anyone in the
public who wants to join in celebrating Mistie's life.
The Murray family's decision to hold the mass comes
after a long battle with police over the handling of
See MASS, Page E