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The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday April 10, 2002 - A3 Students enjoy unique approach to learning By Howard Mozel OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Public school board may cut programs to balance budget Looming deficits and the pos sible need for program or service cuts is making for a difficult series of upcoming budget discussions, say trustees with the Halton District School Board. For the next two-and-a-half months, trustees and board admin istrators will be meeting amongst themselves and with the public in an effort to come up with a work able financial plan for the 2002-03 school year. A $2.2-million deficit is expected for the current fiscal year while at least that amount again -- depending on the payout for retirement gratuities -- is antici pated for next year. Strategies to meet budgetary needs will be discussed at a num ber of special and regular board meetings planned for April, May and June. All budget meetings will begin at 7 p.m.; regular or committee board meetings begin at 8 p.m. The public is welcome to attend the budget meetings, but is reminded the sessions are for trustee discussion only; no delega tions or presentations will occur. The following is the tentative schedule of meetings: · April 15 - Review of multi year revenue projections; teacher staffing funding requirement; and funding requirements for other existing staff. · April 29 - Review of needsbased budget by program area for 2002-03; review o f proposed school budgets; proposed changes re: transportation policy exemp tions. · May 6 - Proposed budget changes re: filling vacancies. Bronte Creek, community part nership programs, board member ships. · May 22 - (regular board meeting) Review o f General Legislative Grants from province for 2002-03. · May 29 - Review of proposed budget revisions required to bal ance board's 2002-03 budget · June 5 - (board committee meeting) Presentation of 2002-03 final budget to trustees. June 19 - (regular board meet ing) Trustee approval of 2002-03 budget. June 30 - Submission of final board budget to Ministry of Education. John M acPhail's Grade 8 History class at St. Dominic School not only studies the past, the students rewrite it. MacPhail isn't cultivating a bunch of revisionists, of course, but is promoting hands-on learn ing by allowing his pupils to explore history through the process of turning it inside out. One of MacPhail's ideas was to re-enact the Canadian Confederation debates over a series of Fridays in the order they actually took place with students playing key characters who. with the benefit of hindsight, drafted a new Constitution. MacPhail's class then sent their work off to Canada's pre miers and the PEI group -- 14year olds Julian Fabiani. Kevin Jones and Devin Lopes -- received a glowing letter back from P.E.l. Premier Pat Binns. You see, the trio created its own ambitious Maritime Act of 1864 and actually decided against join ing Confederation -- preferring instead to solidify relations with its East Coast neighbours. "1 am very encouraged by the innovative method that your teacher is introducing to your studies, and trust that you, along with your classmates, thoroughly enjoyed this endeavour," wrote Binns in part. "I am impressed with the notes you have taken and the steps you have outlined which led you to reach your conclusions and resolutions. My hope is that you have completed this project with a better understanding of the processes and workings of gov ernment." Fabiani and Jones (Lopes was unavailable for this story's inter view) agreed they now have a bet ter appreciation for politics, but both said they'd prefer to be architects. They were also unani mous about Binns' response, which was not a form letter. "He was so cool," said Fabiani, who added that Binns also sent them some pins, posters and brochures. The premier was plainly impressed by the diligence that went into the students' Act which links PEI, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick into the "Newova Islands." a colony, which during the staged debates, resisted what was essentially bribe money literally tossed at them by the larger provinces to join Confederation. Among the points contained in the Act was a call for a stronger central government and four provincial governments, one for each member of the Newova Islands; the central government can make changes only with majority support from the four provinces; each provincial pre mier serves in the central govern ment which the students say would help avoid conflict and the "blame game." The new Act also covers a variety of issues ranging from cul ture and minority rights to trade, industry and education standards. Fabiani also said his group called for a railway linking the maritime provinces. The first language would be English with French taught in school as Newova's sec ond tongue. "We didn't want to make one culture rule the whole union," said Jones. "We wanted to have a balance." Fabiani and Jones, who in the debates played MPPs John . ' . * --* "A i»cru ' . . * £ ' Vja n J ' ' % *»TSS '·$ ·' ' . / < -jt v -? % Julie Fairrie · Special to the Oakville Beaver Kevin Jones, 14, and Ju lian Fabiani, 14, students at St. Dominic school, w rote a new C anadian constitution and were m ore than happy to receive a letter back from P.E.I Prem ier Pat Binns. Also involved in the project was Devin Lopes. Hamilton Gray and Edward Wieland respectively (Lopes was a made-up character. Henry Loops) have nothing but good things to say about the process which their teacher used to make them think. `T o actually experience histo ry makes you learn better," said Fabiani. "We learned how Canada came to be today." Said MacPhail: "I'm really proud of these guys. They're excellent people." Anyone interested in MacPhail's approaches to learn ing is encouraged to visit his Web site, mycoolclass.com. OAKVILLE'S Seatbelt campaign runs until April 27 Starting this Saturday. Halton Regional Police will be joining other Ontario law enforcement serv ices in the annual Provincial Seatbelt Campaign which runs through April 27. Officers will be out in force to ensure seatbelt compliance remains high throughout the region. The focus of this year's ini tiative is Child Restraints -- the safety o f young sters in car seats with an emphasis on the enforce ment of child pas senger safety laws. Officers have been trained to examine child restraints to make sure they are safe and properly installed. "Our enforce ment initiative combined with education will ensure high com pliance rates and reduce the dan gers related to lack of use of seatbelts and lack of proper child restraints which may result in seri ous injury during motor vehicle col lisions." says Sgt. Trevor Hay of the Regional Traffic Bureau. Failure to buckle up can result in a $105 fine. 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