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Board gets funding for 12 new EAs 3 · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, July 2, 2009 Continued from page 1 to create educational assistant efficiencies at the secondary school level. "Year on year, we grow by about 1,000 students as a board per year, so the additional 1,000 students means that a certain percentage of those students would require EA (educational assistant) support in some way," he said. "We have grown more in the elementary than in the secondary in the last three to five years, so that is one factor.... My sense was that at the secondary level there was some opportunity at creating some efficiencies, so where there's one EA for one student, there were opportunities through scheduling to have one EA take care of a couple of students." There was some good news for parents at Tuesday's meeting, as trustees approved a last-minute addition to the budget to hire 12 more full-time educational assistants for the fall. The money to hire the new staff was reallocated in the special education budget by reducing funding for special education transition teachers and new initiatives. The number of transition teachers will not be impacted as the shortfall will covered by money from the secondary school teaching staff budget, according to board staff. However, where the 12 new hires are working won't be determined until the fall. "In terms of allocation of the 12 EAs, that allocation will be done first thing in September or the last week in August, when we determine what all of the needs in the system are," said Moffatt. "Whether they are going primarily to secondary or elementary, at this point in time, we can't say." Educational assistants work with what the board determines are exceptional students. This is a broad category, with low vision/blind, gifted, autistic, physically disabled, deaf/hard of hearing, speech impaired and developmentally disabled students as just a few examples. There were 2,703 males and 1,302 females in the exceptional category at the elementary level, and 1,784 males and 917 females at the secondary level in the 2008-09 school year, according to the special education plan. Many parents are concerned about the impact shifting educational assistants from secondary to elementary schools is having on students. "At the moment there are pretty heavy cuts to the secondary panel and this is very concerning," said Wendy Gunn, a parent advocate from north Oakville, in a delegation to the board. "I know for sure that this is a concern at Abbey Park. This year we had seven EAs -- at the moment only two have been kept on. We have new students coming in September who will need help and certainly most who were supported are returning." In an interview with the Beaver, Joudrie said the latest allocation shows four educational assistants for Abbey Park High School in Oakville. Heather Holden, executive director of Learning Disabilities Association of Halton also expressed her disappointment with the movement of educational assistants in her delegation last week. " If students had support this year listed in their IEP (Individual Education Plan), how does the board rationalize a change based on the needs of individual students," Holden said. "Who is going to provide this support in the future?" Joudrie said parents will be informed of the type of support their secondary school-aged exceptional children will receive before the first day of classes in the fall. "The last allocation meeting was Tuesday afternoon, June 16, and that allocation has been shared with secondary principals and they will be communicating with the parents in their schools in respect to what that allocation is and what level of support they can anticipate receiving for September," he said. "The timing of that may be challenging with the close of the school year, but it certainly will be shared with them by the beginning of the new school year." Another point of contention is the closure of nine intermediate, self-contained learning disabilities and mixed exceptionality classes for fall 2009 primarily due to declining demand. According to Moffatt, the closures of the classes for students in Grades 6-8 means students will be transferred to another class in or near their home school, depending on the Inside Opinion............................................6 Travel.............................................15 Health............................................16 Kids................................................17 Sports.............................................18 Classified.......................................21 Partial Delivery: Metro Canada, Gary Lima/ReMax, Price Chopper, Food Basics, Superstore, Longo's, Nevada Bob's, Sobeys, Fortino's, Bouclair, Best Buy Canada For home delivery & customer service call (905) 845-9742 Mon., Tues. and Thurs. 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Wed. 8:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Fri. 8:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Sat 10 a.m.-3 p.m. NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS call (905) 845-9742 or subscribe online @ www.oakvillebeaver.com See inside today's paper for special subscription offer. 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