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10 - The Oakville Beaver, Friday February 20, 2009 www.oakvillebeaver.com Helping out Board trying to find middle ground Continued from page 8 FINAL WEEKEND LIESA KORTMANN / OAKVILLE BEAVER FOR THE LOVE OF READING: Oakwood Public School was recently 355 Iroquois Shore Rd. Oakville, ON L6H 1M3 Tel: 905-845-2461 presented with a $1,000 donation from the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation. On hand for the cheque presentation were (front row, l-r) Leland Bailey, Neketa Ibrahimi, Meagan Lawless, Shalini Pallewatta, Mohamad Haovari, Simon Commacchio, Valentina Laketa, Darren Hebert, (back row, l-r) Oakwood principal Brian Van Wyngaarden and Joyce Lien, general manager, Chapters Oakville. For the Health of Our Community We would like to take this opportunity to thank the owners and employees of Frieya Wellness Centre. Over the past two week-ends Frieya Wellness Centre held a fundraiser for our community hospital - Dollar per Minute Massages. Frieya Wellness Centre would like to extend a thank you to the following people/groups as they helped make this event a success. Anna Robinson, Julie Arora, Organic Garage, Oakville Beaver, Oakville Today, SNAP Oakville, RBC Speers Branch, Kerr Village BIA, Town of Oakville, Stoney's, YMCA, Encore Cinemas, Shoppers Drug Mart and Ardenian Flowers. Funds raised through this event will help purchase essential medical equipment for OTMH. www.oakvillehospitalfoundation.com Thank you for the health of our community! "Since nothing transpired last night, there's nothing at this point that we can remark on," she said. Dalgarno said there were elements of the report that she was pleased with, such as the acknowledgement that both dual-track and single-track schools can be effective and the basis of a successful program is the quality of the teachers, but she said she was not satisfied with the draft recommendations. One problem she cited is that the first recommendation does not create a long-term solution. Joudrie has previously referred to option B as a compromise, as English parents have asked for more dual-track schools, while French immersion parents have asked for more single-track French immersion schools. Dalgarno said taking the middle ground is not the right solution for Ward 4. "I think that it keeps us a divided community," she said. "I think that the board has to take a position, one way or the other. They are further aggravating this argument by taking the hybrid. I understand that you cannot change things overnight, but at least give us some plan for the future, so we can see where we are headed to long-term. This gives us no long-term vision." Dalgarno, along with other Pilgrim Wood School parents, have asked that there be a cap on the number of French immersion students if the school is converted from an English-track to a dual-track centre. She said she was disappointed a cap was not included in the second recommendation. "Recommendation two is quite vague," Dalgarno said. "It is good they are going to look at the imbalance, but what are they going to do about it? And that's not clear. There were 10 delegations from Pilgrim Wood School (on Jan. 28) asking for a control of percentage of optional programs in our schools and that has been completely ignored." If you have a news tip or story idea, call the Oakville Beaver at 905-845-3824.