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Four schools may close Study committee rushes to finish report By SANDY CAMPBELL Herald SUN At least two and as many as four Halloo Hills public schools will close by September That if recommendations made by the Hills Consolidation Commute are accepted by the Halton Board of Education said Ron Chap man chairman of the committee After a year of collecting and studying data the committee made up mostly of parents Is down to three By the end of this week or the end of next week the committee should have its float answer Mr Chapman said The committee has been meeting as many as three times a week lately to finish the year long project at a aster rate school board is to acton the recommendations they must have the consolidation committee results by the end of March at the latest Because of the advance deadline of the committee results may appear informBtlon on the Board of Education agenda as early as the middle of February and definitely by the end of February Mr Chapman said Between the time the committee recommendations appear at the board as Information and the time they are voted on at least two weeks later there will be public meetings to discuss the recommendations Trustee Dick Howitt believes two board meetings will take place before the school board votes on the recommendations If that Is correct then there wilt be a month for public meetings I think the board will give a lot of weight to the recommendations Trustee said The Halton Hills consolidation study is the largest ever attempted in Deciming enrolment is the chief reason for the consolidation study If schools close they will probab ly be closed Indefinitely Mr Chop- man said The study has considered growth of Hills until 1991 Town planning department representatives have contributed to the study Mr Chapman said There will not be enough develop ment to warrant keeping closed schools There is enough space in the schools left after the study to take care of the extra children Mr Chapman said Closed schools will be put up for sale Educational Institutions other than public will have first chance at buying closed schools Safety of 70 children at stake principal says I I ul Ik School principal Jack turned up at the town general lire meeting Monday night to for a school crossing guard at Mill nil Intersection Mr I said about children attending Park School cross concern for their safety as ihej are icrj young si of children In thi morning and afternoon on their way to in I school Hi of the sidewalks being with moat of n I school at lunchlime he laid belter they when Inj I on fur lunch Mr said It Willi Hallo I oiler Const Bill has a will him this week tutors put off any decision on the mailer till week noli it Ihe dilemma council In that recent traffic by said a guard v am l needed lhal Intersection II for councillors to re II at at Ibis corner on the east lilo Ihe ma I err an no sidewalks Usher said Thrloi pavs annually tor lis crossing guards Town Engineer too s id the Irafflc Hoy and school population Increases from this a furl lev annul I he considered police Bald iy go to Laundfomal SAME DAY SERVICE GEORGETOWN lome or Sri SI J It Sec 63 assessment Couple up against 95 tax increase A per cent Increase in assessment this ear Instead of going taxes is hard to swallow In one year wtth the province Section 63 reassess a young married couple told town program in one fell blow councillors Monday night you think that homeowners such as ourselves could afford a per John and Jill of Glen cent increase in one year Mrs Williams said the town should have McGhie demanded This Inequity was phased in the move to market value not our fault We ask you take a long Town isnt flooded with angry taxpayers Contrary to what one might expect the town isn being flooded with angry taxpayers who t happy about the assessment notice they received last week Town treasurer Ray King said his office has been getting a fair number of Inquiries about the new assessments based on i960 market value I can say we re getting a lot of bitter calls having complaints Mr King said We ve had people who understand their taxes are going up The newly received assessment are a result of town council decision before the new year to equalize assessments in Hills through provincial Section ment program An open house was held by the Ministry of in both Acton and Georgetown over a period of four last week and Mr King said about residents turned out to ask questions and review their assess notice with regional assess ment office staff I thought more people would be curious and turn up for the open house Mr King said That either means they understand perfectly well what the province says or they bother to read their tax notices Continued A3 Jobs for The first six months of operation by the North Youth Employ ment Service placed young people in Jobs A letter from the director of the service told the town mayor there been per cent success rate in employee keeping Jobs For local employers YES can provide full wage subsidies through the provincial government I new FUTURES for IB weeks For more Information call Tax help Having lax return problems The Hamilton District Office or Revenue Canada fa providing an information service In Halton From Feb M to March at Oakville Place you can drop by for More hugs no drugs Drug week Feb March 1 will be kicked off by a Lion Voluntary Toll AH traffic asked to funnel through the toll gate at the Penny Gas Bar or the CoOp Gas Bar westbound Drivers will receive a free grab bag of drug related information in return for a small donation towards Drug Awareness Week Step away from your tripods put your lens cap back on your cameras and listen up is coming to town Id March The annual juried exhibit is for photography buffs who Ire res dents of Halton Hills The last day you can enter is Feb 15 so get together your best snap shots and have them enlarged Specific entry rules must be observed so hurry to the library for Instructions Two objections All but two property owners on Mountalnview Road North between Guelphand King Streets have agreed to sell part of their lands for a road widening project by Region Variety paper If you want a rare once year Saturday edition of the Toronto Sun visit a store between and p m on Saturday That is the only place the edition will be available Included in the paper will be a page supplement on Variety Village a Scarborough facility for the handicapped hard look at phasing It In The moved into their Main Street home in 1982 and last year paid In taxes This year taxes arc ft We know our taxes were low but did not know our taxes would be going up 100 per cent she Her husband they wercn the Section program and as new homeowners known to ask Our complaint is not the amount we repaying just the way the increase was slapped on mr said Vie think it should be phased in over a period of years rather than in one fell swoop his wife said The reason it wasn phased in was because of the residents on the other side of the problem who have been paying too much taxes in the past Marilyn said According to the Ministry of Mun 448 municipal I lies have pi cm en ted Section In the past years and only Brantford had any farm of phasing In the town treasurer said Mr acknowledged It easier to give money back to those who were overpaying taxes than to take more from those who wercn paying enough The provincial government was on the receiving end of a bashing by councillors during the discussion I think t s horrendous for the province to say ignorance Is no excuse Sheldon said The government gets away scot free with this Coun Betty Fisher complained If they wont to phase in let them absorb cost and lake the flak for It Mrs McGhie said the day after she received her assessment notice she went to the Ministry open house where the basis of the assessment was explained She was told not to waste her time and take a day off work to appeal the assessment on the family home The final day for filing an appeal is March That totally wrong Coun Joe Hewitt objected You should appeal it if you feel you ve been wrongly assessed Norm said he was sympathetic to what the young couple were saying but pointed out people in other parts of town have been paying a lot more for many years He t accept the province bashing his fellow councillors and said the town council had also been guilty of stalling on implementation of Section It had been introduced In 1981 and not approved until the fall of 1985 although staff recommended going with market value assessment which would be more equitable People have been grossly over paying taxes How could you go to them and say keep paying those taxes Coun Elliott demanded Close to half a million dollars in taxes won t be coming from Acton Ward 1 A ladies man Would you marry this man flamboyant killer in the hit before opening night Jan Marry In bam is this gentleman 111 Members of Globe John HI loll Theatre With Joe If name and he comes by it honestly Joe Production were trying on their McNeil likely play the pari or the as their rehearsals wind prospect for this swinging single Councillor Fisher pops her lid in drink debate It was tough enough when the cigarettes were taken away but when there was an attempt to ban from drinking coffee or pop during their meetings Monday night Betty Fisher blew her stack First I can smoke now I can t have a coffee or a pop Coun Fisher said I feel like I a child This council won t be judged on this but on I am Sheldon tried to Introduce a smoking Into future council and general committee meetings I would like to see that we do take a mo king break and maybe could get everybody here on all the issues she said The vote Is important and all of a sudden you look around the table and there people gone The Mayor picked up the boll next and said It look good in the council when councillors get up to get coffee during the meetings He said ho found it objectionable and noted there are spills Cans of pop on the council tables also don look good he said and wanted councillors to stick to water while they were making decisions and debating In a vote the Mayor s motion to ban drinking anything other than water lost Councillors unanimously banned smoking in December and signs are now up on the council chamber walls Although It was generally agreed at the time to grant breaks during the meetings council ore haven t been doing so It shard to tell a delegation Just minute we be right back we re going to take a cigarette break Mayor Miller said I don think we should walk out on the public what it does She called Mayor Russ Millers motion ridiculous and said she was incensed She t the only one Feelings were hot around the table alter nearly three hours without a The whole thing started when Arts policy group disbanded Extended funding affects salary talks By SANDY Herald SUff Extended funding Is prolonging a contract agreement between separate school teachers and the Halton Roman Catholic Separate School Board Teachers want wages closer to those of school teachers said Jim Sherlock chairman of the salary negotiation committee Because of extended funding the expectations of teachers and trustees were quite high Mr Sherlock said Trustees are negotiating the contract for the separate school board Because the contract was not decided upon before August the expiry dale of the last contract a fact finder was appointed to write a reportonnegotlations The fact finder Professor Brian Sharpies of Queen a University submitted his report Jan 14 Teachers and trustees have days after receiving the report to negotiate using the report as a case ihe report Sharpies explains issues trustees and teachers agree on and those they do not Recommendations may also be included If trustees and teachers have not reached an agreement within 15 days of receiving the report they are allowed to have another five days that Is the maximum After that the report becomes public Because trustee Sherlock had not met with the salary negotiation committee by press time he could not comment on the committee reaction to the tact finder s report It is difficult to speculate before the committee reviews it We are looking for a means and ways to achieve a harmonious settlement trustee Sherlock said Separate school teachers by large have not been paid as much as public school teachers That has always been one of their goals and more so lately with extended funding Trustee Sherlock said If an agreement has not been reached by Jan 5 negotiations will continue The Education Relations Committee EMC a government agency working with the Ministry of Education will help resolve any disputes If this fails a mediator will be appointed Last year an agreement was not reached until the end of April A mediator was hired and that agree ment was not fully ratified until June Trustee Sherlock said The board has a history of prolonged but peaceful negotiations he added Insurance rate soars insurance rates could go up as many as five times for the Roman Catholic Separate School Board Tom Brady the superintendent of business said The Board contract with Johns on Willis Is not up until April 1 The settlement will depend upon the Insurance market at that time Mr Brady said The schools of the Roman Catholic board paid for million liability last year and an additional for umbrella cover age up to 10 million dollars ing- select Sports Page B7 Good vibrations at Acton High