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^ o fc u A a x ) £ y o k OAtCVILLE-CErirTRE Now Featuring SUNDAY BRUNCH e 11 :30 am - 2 pm CALL FOR RESERVATIONS W e e k e n d E d itio n w w w . o a k v i ll e b e a v e r . c o m Dr. Jonathon Kazdan Dr. Steven Solomon SMILE! DENTI STS Oakville Place Mall (905)842-6030 (905) 842-5000 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER NORTH A M E R I C A 'S M O S T AWARDED C O M M U N ITY NEWSPAPER 40 P ages 75 Cents Vol. 3 9 No. 21 SUND/Y, FEBRUARY 17, 2002 kp a b e n ts& N e w A Metroland Publication ( p lu s g s t ) United Way passes $3-M target By Wilma Blokhuis O AKVILLE B E A V E R ST A FF The United Way of Oakville has gone over the top - again. The campaign raised a record $3 , 120,696, surpassing its $3-million goal set last fall. This achievement repre sents more than a 10 per cent increase over the 2000 achievement of $2.89 mil lion - which exceeded that year's $2.7 million goal. The achievement was announced - the total was projected onto a large screen - at a gala dinner held Wednesday at Carmen's at Oakville Conference & Banquet Centre. "I can't remember us not going over goal," said execu tive director Alison Pickard. "We couldn't have done it without our volunteers and the generosity of the com munity. Our volunteers have done a tremendous job." The United Way of Oakville (UWO) has more than 1,000 volunteers. Campaign chair Guy McLean, headmaster at Appleby College, admitted to having "some trepidation about announcing a $3 mil lion goal" and described the (See `Campaign' page 3) Father and son charged with passing bogus $10 bills An Oakville father and son are facing counterfeiting charges after two men passed fake currency at sev eral gas bars. According to Halton Regional Police, a male entered the Esso gas station at 1422 Upper Middle Rd. around 10 a.m. Thursday and purchased gasoline. The suspect paid with a counter feit Canadian $10 bill and the transaction was captured on video. Investigators discovered that the same male and another man attended two other gas stations in Milton and passed counterfeit Canadian $10 bills to pay for their purchases. The suspects were identi(See `Court' page 2) Ten-year-old Rebecca Hearne and her eight-year-old sister Amanda delivered a Valentine's Day protest card to Oakville MPP Gary Carr's office Thursday as part of People For Education's province-wide Visit Your MPP Day. Sparse turnout for education protest By Howard Mozel O AKVILLE B E A V E R S T A F F People for Education dropped off a Valentine for Oakville MPP Gary Can on Thursday, but it sure wasn't a love letter. Four concerned parents and three children from Gladys Speers Public School gathered out front of Carr's Bronte constituency office to press the provincial government to fix serious flaws in the way public education is funded. The event was part of People for Education's Ontario-wide Visit Your MPP Day, but when the local group arrived at 4 p.m., Carr's office had already been closed for 30 minutes. To make their point anyway, the two School board going public with funding beefs A series of public information sessions on a host of issues considered crucial by the Halton District School Board will be held on consecutive nights later this month. School board administrators and trustees will update parents and other inter ested ratepayers on budget pressures locally and province-wide, the Grade 12/0AC double graduation class dilemma for colleges and universities in 2003, special education, and at-risk high school credit programs, such as music, art etc. "The funding formula doesn't work, and we have the statisitcs to support this statement," said Ethel Gardiner, chair of the public school board. (See `Public' page 10) daughters of Gladys Speers Home and School Association member Lianne Hearne slipped a large pink heart into Carr's mailbox. Drawn inside were smaller hearts that framed written concerns about the need for the province to change its funding formula to ensure that small schools are not closed, to correct short falls in Special Education funding and to protect the public system over pri vate schools. "Parents at my school are fed up," said Hearne. They are especially upset with the funding formula which essentially sets the stage for school closings (largely in the south) before new ones are greenlighted in high growth' areas of the north. Excess student capacity is one key factor in determining which facili ties will be boarded up but, according (See `Concerns' page 10) Editorials.................................6 Travel......................................31 Update......................................7 Sports....................................32 Oakville Remembered...........11 Classifieds.............................. 36 inside Special Supplements Partial Delivery: TheBay, I'harma Plus, Sears Furniture andAppliance, ClairolHerbalEssence Shampoo Canadan Publications Man Produc) Agraomanl * 435-201 & o u c/u ao o d INTERIORS Direct Importers of Elegant Rustic Furniture Over 200 new Pieces to Choose From (all in stock) C O / A N E E *e ^ 9a n tru s* ' ck ,m 't u r e* a n tiq u ere p lic aw o o d e nfu r n it u r e· h a n dp a in t e d /O I" *c a rv e d· b ra s sin la y· w r o u g h tir o n· s id e b o a rd s· a rm o irec e n treta b le s Everything in Store · so las* w in eracb·ch essta b le s·bm ps · c u s h io nc o v e rs· th ro w s North Service Rood Store Hours: M o n d a y to Friday I 1-6 · Saturday 1 1-6 · Sunday 1 1-3 QEW 4 8 1 N o rth Service R o ad W est, U nit A -3 5 , O a k v ille 9 0 5 - 8 2 5 - 5 9 6 8 · 9 0 5 -5 1 0 -0 0 8 0