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"A Family Tradition for 131 Years" \. PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, September 30, 1997 - 17 Y RUSE TE : 4 A 3 4 = This is a reproduction of the Christmas card commissioned by the York-Peel Chiropractic Society. Painted by artist Muriel Wood, the card represents Port Perry's Queen St. in the late 1800's. It will be sent out to clients and colleagues by chi- ropractors across North America, who revere Port as the birthplace of chiropractic founder D.D. Palmer. Teachers resentful of government moves From page 1 front of Port Perry High School, Cartwright High School and many other schools across Durham say that Minister of Education John Snobelen "invented a crisis" in order to justify the massive revisions. The minister argues that student achievement can be directly linked to the amount of instruction time they receive. He rea- sons that more time in the classroom will result in better test results. The EIC (Education Improvement Commission) concluded that although Ontario elementary teach- ers spend roughly the same number of hours in the classroom as teachers in other provinces, high school teachers here do not. "High school teachers should spend more with time with their students," Mr. Snobelen said in a speech at Queen's Park. Larayne Cottam, a part- time physical education teacher at R.S. McLaughlin High School in Oshawa takes exception to the min- ister's statement. Interviewed while coaching the visiting team in a bas- ketball game against Cartwright High School, she said she's putting in extra time as it is. "I teach two out of every four-day cycle... and yet here I am at 4:30 in the . afternoon on my day off, coaching an after hours activity," she said. "I spend more time with them than I do with my family some weeks. Don't get me wrong; I don't begrudge the time, I teach because I want to. It would be nice if the government recognized the extra that some teachers put in to the profession, that's all." Dave Robinson, spokesman for OSSTF members at Port Perry High School, said the gov- ernment is launching an assault on teachers, and it's aimed solely at saving money. "This act isn't about improving anything, it's about saving money and cutting costs at the cost of teachers' ability to do the job," he said. . A parent of two high school age children, who asked not to be named, saw it differently: "They ought to have a longer school year, or cut down on those PA (professional develop- ment) days. It seems like 'every time you turn around, the kids are off for a day." The argument could heat up as OSSTF mem- bers are promising what- ever action is necessary to stop this legislation. Currently in Durham Region, high school stu- dents have 207 days of classes available to them. Of these, 19 are statutory holidays. A further nine days are designated "Professional Development" days, leav- ing 185 total teaching days. In his speech to the House on Sept. 22, intro- Police accept contract offer From page 1 and benefits contract and several rounds of talks with the Durham Regional Police Services Board, Police Association presi- committee gave their stamp of approval to the offer made by the services board last week. hearing set for Friday, Sept.19, with provincial labor contract arbitrators to allow the membership to vote on the last offer. The contract will see the Durham similar size, like Peel Region, by the end of its three and a half year term. Officers interviewed by the Star over the last few and his association's reaction to it. "A dent Brian Curtis and his bargaining Association negotiators felt strongly enough about the offer to postpone a force gain wage parity with forces of days said the issue of wage parity was a key issue for them. Mr. Curtis is happy with the package, voter turnout around 50 per cent is good for an association like ours when you take in to account the shifts and schedules our guys have to deal with. Our members seem happy with the package, and when they're happy, I'm happy," he said. Scugog Mayor Howard Hall, who sits on the Police Services Board, said the new contract will see a First Class Constable's base salary rise to $56,000 by 1999. "This new agreement will cost Durham Region around $10.4 million," said the mayor on the weekend. "It will cost about $5 million alone just for the 1996- 97 retro-active section. I'm not sure how we (the Region) will handle that; you know this wasn't budgeted for." ducing the Education' Quality Improvement Act, Mr. Snobelen said, "We rec- ognize that student achievement goes up when students spend more time with their teachers." Port Perry depicted on Christmas card By Jeff Mitchell Port Perry Star This year when chiro- practors across North America send out Christmas-time greet- ings to clients and col- leagues, they'll be send- ing along a piece of Port Perry, too. More accurately, they'll be sending cards with an artist's concep- tion of the town -- birthplace of D.D. Palmer, founder of chi- ropractic -- in the late 1800's. The theme for the card was conceived of by the York-Peel Chiropractic Society, which for 30 years has commissioned and sold cards to chiro- practors in Canada and the U.S., said Dr. James Laws, a Toronto chiro- practor. They've typically been humorous in nature -- Santa with a sore back after hauling sacks of gifts around, or Christmas trees with crooked spines, "but this year we've made a major change," said Dr. Laws. "We thought we should do something based on Port Perry." The society commis- ~. sioned Muriel Wood, an instructor at the Ontario College of Art, to come up with the card, using Port Perry's Queen St. and setting it in the 1890's. The result is a colorful winter scene of people bustling along the main street of town, entering warm-looking shops and riding home with Christmas trees in sleighs. Some artistic licence has been taken, of course; for instance, a sign advertises D.D. Palmer's chiropractic office, although he never practiced here. But the painting remains faith-. ful to the feel and struc- ture of Queen St.'s build- ings. Dr. Laws said the soci- ety 1s enormously pleased with the card, and is planning to dis- tribute it to chiroprac- tors now. "These are going to be sent by chiropractors all over North America, we expect," he said. He's also hoping to find distributors for the cards among the mer- chants here in Port Perry.