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5 | The IFP -H alton H ills | T hursday,D ecem ber 10,2020 theifp.ca FULL-SERVICE RETIREMENT HOME 905-877-1800 222 Mountainview Road North, Georgetown www.mountainviewresidence.com You've worked hard to enjoy retirement, now it's our pleasure to make this the best time of your life in a family, friendly atmosphere. Mountainview Residence Of Georgetown In-house physiotherapy team, Aqua-Fit and gentle chair yoga. On-site activities include multiple movie nights weekly, various card games (for the novice and the experienced), ice cream days, pet therapy. Along with personal care and services to support independence. Our residents share full service meals in our updated dining room. This holiday season needs to be different. The safest way to celebrate indoors is only with the peoplewho live in your home. Peoplewho live alone can get together only with one other home. Gatheringswith friends and extended family can carry an increased risk of getting and spreading COVID-19. Consider celebrating outdoors or virtually with others that are not part of your household. Know the gathering limits in your area before you choose to entertain with family and friends indoors. Indoor gatherings are not permitted in regions in Grey - Lockdown. For all gatheringswith anyone you do not live with: •maintain 2metres physical distance •wear a face covering • avoid potlucks or shared utensils • ensure everyonewashes hands regularly, including before and aftermeals Self-isolate if you are sick, even if your symptoms aremild and ask guests to stay home if they feel unwell. Follow provincial and local public health advice to keep you and your loved ones safe this holiday. Stopping the spread, starts with you. Visit ontario.ca/celebratesafely to learnmore. Paid for by the Government of Ontario of two with one child cur- rently in the French im- mersion program, said she had heard there were at least 40 children who are siblings of those cur- rently in the program in- terested in being part of it in the coming school year. "This projection does not account for all the new families wishing to begin their own journey in FI, wishing to give their own children an opportunity to learn our country's other official language within a Catholic school setting. This is not elite program- ming; the demand for FI will not go away. The Hal- ton Catholic school board is behind every other board in making this work. Why the constant delays?" said Kelley in a presentation to the board. The struggle to accom- modate French immer- sion demand is not unique to the local board. De- mand has been steadily growing across the prov- ince over the last few years. A lack of qualified teachers is regularly cited as a challenge to growth. In Halton, school ca- pacity presents an addi- tional difficulty. Milton schools, in particular, are largely well beyond 100 per cent utilization and al- ready have reached the limit for portables to add new classrooms. Trustee Helena Kara- bela said that just because there are challenges in particular parts of the board, it doesn't mean they should not expand the program. "If there are places we can expand, we should do that and not be sort of slowed down by another area. The population en- rolment in Milton is a good thing. Other boards are struggling from declining enrolment and here we have this lovely challenge. But that doesn't mean in other areas where there are schools with empty spaces we couldn't open another site," said Karabe- la. If that approach is tak- en it would mean an un- equal availability of French immersion from one community to the next. Milton Trustee Patrick Murphy pointed out that any expansion in Milton will have to deal with a complete absence of avail- able classrooms that is ex- pected to persist for years to come. "There is no space. There will be no space for the next 10 years. Maybe we'll get lucky every time we add an elementary school where we will have a two- or three-year win- dow where we can add a few more classes, but that is going to be the governor that allows expansion for the board. And the reality is, it's not going to be able to expand if we're basing it on equitable expansion in all regions. That's just the reality," said Murphy. NEWS Continued from page 4