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What's Inside Three generations of the Leslie family cel- ebrated Mother's Day at the Trinity United Church ham buffet din- ner. More on Page 5. a St. Joseph's School} held a Slave Day this week. More on Page 11. Robert Little school's play Canada Goose} played to appreciative] audiences last week. More on Page 4. Society's spring plant sale was another success. More photos inside. From lawyer to wood- worker this rural Acton resident is enjoying his new business. See Page 6. = Jueen St. E.Atton PAUL Halto: PARTS MANAGER 10° OFF TONE UP parts 357 Queen Street *)§53-0200 | ACHILLES : in Acton SIMMONS, n Hills (Acton) ©°5) 453-8965 By FRANCES NIBLOCK The New Tanner Local church officials feel violated and police are baffled following break-ins at four Acton churches and one in Hornby overnight on Sunday. Blasphe- mous thieves pried open doors and stole televisions, VCRs, CD players and $390 cash, some of it pen- nies collected to help build new churches. "Tf it was just Acton I'd say that it was local kids looking for cash," explained Halton Detective Bob when asked about the break and enter spree in an interview on Tuesday. "The church entry in Hornby suggests that some- body from out of town was targeting churches in this area on Sunday night to go after their collections," An- drews speculated. . Between 10 p.m. Sunday and 9 a.m. Monday someone pried open doors at Trinity United, Knox Presbyterian and St. Alban's, the Evangel ntecostal Tabernacle an crest United Church on Trafalgar Road at 5 Side Road. Offices were ransacked as the thieves looked for valu- ables and cash. Reverend Bob Matton said he can forgive the thieves who broke into Trin- ity United Church and his office, taking a television and VCR, but he has a question for whoever is responsible. "Why? I have a sense of JUST LIKE THIS: Acton's Caitlin Dalgleish, 5, gets some help from her ballet instructor Susanne Keith of the Acton School of Dance as she poses for the school's photographer on Saturday at St. Alban's Church. The dancers will stage their being violated and that the sacredness here has almost been somehow violated," cton Horticultural! annual recital at Acton High on June 6. -- Frances Niblock photo High school teachers latest to be laid off The worst fear of many Acton teachers - that provin- cial education spending cuts would hurt children --is a re- ality in at least one Acton school. "Teachers are seeing pro- gram being whittled away," McKenzie-Smith Bennett Principal Nancy Johnson said on Monday. "They see all of these cutbacks starting to affect kids and that's what we afraid of all along," Johnston said, reacting to yet more layoffs and program cuts by the Halton District School Board which is strug- gling with a $4 million pro- vincial funding loss. In a third round of layoffs the Board announced on Fri- day that 135 secondary teachers -- just over 118 full- time equivalent positions - would get pink slips this week. Last week two thirds of the Board's 420 instruc- tional assistants, including nine positions in Acton, re- ceived layoff notices. While no teachers at MSB will be laid off Johnston said the mood is mixed because the new funding formula has effectively forced the Board to cancel design technology and family studies - shop and home ec. - programs for Grade 7 and 8 students in September. "We also won't have a guidance councillor here next year and we don't know what the implication of the library cuts will be," Johnston said, adding that teacher preparation time is decreasing to 140 minutes a week from 160 and alloca- tions for English as a second Reverend Matton said on language and special educa- tion will also decrease. While Johnston is happy with the teacher-pupil ratio of 1 to 25 Johnston said that the loss of the guidance coun- sellor at MSB would be "re- ally significant because these students really need emo- tional support at this age level." : At Acton High, Principal Joyce Bradley said that spe- cific teachers who will be laid of won't be identified until the end of the month but that they expect cuts in non-class- Tuesday, noting 20 years ago churches weren't victims to disrespect and crime. "Twenty years ago we didn't lock the front door of the church doors and some- thing like this is a sad testa- ment to our society," la- mented the Reverend Mark Tiller at St. Alban's Angli- can Church. "Tt looked much worse than it was here at St. Alban's because five or six doors had been jimmied open and the whole place was ran- sacked," Rev. Tiller said in an interview on Tuesday. "We were lucky because lular phone, sound system and actually moved my gui- tar to get into a cupboard. They were thorough," Rev. Tiller said. At Knox Presbyterian Church a CD player valued at $190 was taken and a doorframe slightly damaged when thieves jimmied it open. A VCR and $390 was _ taken from strong box at the Evangel Pentecostal Taber- nacle after thieves pried opened the back door. The police investigation continues. room spending including guidance, special education, library administration and headships. "We're being forced to fo- cus strictly on what happens in the classroom and I don't think that there's anything wrong with that. It's just that schools in Canada, North America and Ontario have focussed on the student as a whole and not just what hap- pens in that 60 or 75 min- utes that they are in front of a teacher," Bradley said. LEASE FO (5299. 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