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th ei fp .c a Th e IF P -H al to n H ill s | T hu rs da y, M ay 30 ,2 01 9 | 4 Spring is back, and so is our 14th Annual Super Spring Special*Final Week ! Ends Ju ne 7th - Oil & Filter (Includes up to 6 litres regular oil.) - Complete top to bottom check over - Installation of summer tires (already on rims) included. - $5.00 Tim's Card - Windshield Washer Fluid eXTraS $8995 Call for an Appointment *Most Vehicles. Prices are +HST 45 Mountainview Rd. N., Georgetown 905.877.7958 hassellsauto@bellnet.ca • hassellautomotive.comSALES & SERVICE $69956995 Only Synthetic oil (up to 6 litres) Gold 2018 Halton Hills Silver 2018 Halton Hills The Halton District School Board's budget has yet to be made public, but there is already confirmation of more layoffs and a "significant program" cut pro- posed. Recent layoff notices to child and youth counsellors, social workers and speech language pa- thologists represented a 5.5 per cent reduction in front line ser- vice to the most vulnerable stu- dents, said Tom Golightly, presi- dent of the Professional Student Services Personnel (PSSP) Dis- trict 20 Halton of the Ontario Sec- ondary School Teachers' Federa- tion (OSSTF). "At a time when student needs and pupil enrolment are increas- ing, this reduction in service lev- els will mean that children lose support and wait longer for psy- choeducational and speech and language assessments," said Go- lightly. "Fewer students will have ac- cess to social worker and child and youth counsellor support in their schools, leaving our needi- est students without help. The long-term financial and social cost will outweigh any short- term financial savings." The "short-sighted" cuts will affect students struggling with learning disabilities, autism, mental health illness, behaviou- ral challenges, poverty, poor at- tendance and other complex needs, said Golightly. The fallout of the recent po- tentially redundant notices is- sued to 154 elementary and 154 secondary school teachers will greatly impact the board's opera- tions and student learning expe- riences, Director of Education Stuart Miller has already warned. Among those whose jobs were eliminated were Bronte Creek Project instructors; the environ- mental leadership course is now on the chopping block. Students who have chosen the four-credit outdoor program, which has been in existence for almost 30 years, will have to re-select courses. "We talk about this just about every year at budget time be- cause it's a very expensive pro- gram," said David Boag, Associ- ate Director of Education. "There's no disagreement around the quality of the pro- gram; we think it's a good pro- gram for kids. We've debated it a lot this year." With a budget estimated at more than half a million, it was hard to justify the numbers, said Boag. (Costs included transpor- tation, lease of the Sidrabene property on Appleby Line, two fulltime teachers plus two teach- ing assistants). "For the last several years we've only gotten on average 15 kids per class. In addition to the one teacher in the class, there's also a teaching assistant so we have two adults with on average 15 kids (per class), whereas in our schools, we're going to have one adult on average and in many cases, numbers (of students) into the mid-30s, so there's a signifi- cant discrepancy there," said Boag. "Our recommendation is that this program no longer run, but ultimately it's the board of trust- ees that will make the decision," said Boag. For much of its 30-year histo- ry, the Bronte Creek Project had between 60-80 students per year with a waitlist. About 13 years ago, due to dwindling numbers, the program was divided into two, one for Grades 11/12 and a new Grade 10 course. "It would be huge loss to stu- dents to cancel it, especially at a time when teaching kids about nature and our planet is so im- portant," said parent Denise Da- vy, who urged the board to look at creative ways to save programs, by charging a fee and/or arrang- ing for parents to carpool. "Once the budget comes out, you'll see lots of other things in the budget where reductions have occurred for other what we would consider really quality and important resources, people and programs," said Boag. Another program caught be- tween smaller class sizes and budget restrictions is the Ex- tended French program which has also been recommended for elimination. Students entering the pro- gram in Grade 7 next year, how- ever, will be allowed to complete NEWS 'SHORT-SIGHTED': MORE LAYOFFS, PROGRAM CUTS AS HALTON DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD FINALIZES ITS BUDGET KATHY YANCHUS kyanchus@metroland.com See BOARD, page 28