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Wednesdsay March 29, 2000 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER A5 Red Cross to charge elderly for rides to appointments B y K im A r n o t t S P E C IA L T O T H E B E A V E R There's no more free ride for elderly and disabled people heading to medical appointments. Beginning April 1st, the Oakville branch of the Red Cross will be charg ing a fee to clients who need trans portation for hospital and doctor visits. The service, which has long been provided free of charge, caters primari ly to frail, elderly and disabled clients who need door-to-door service, accord ing to Susan Lynch, the East Halton manager of field operations for the Red Cross. The new charges will range from $5 for a return trip within Oakville, to $20 for return trips to Hamilton and Toronto. The proposed change has angered at least one Oakville resident who uses the service on a regular basis. Heather Barnard, who needs trans portation to monthly hospital visits in Hamilton, is upset with what she sees as yet another user fee within the health care system. "A lot of seniors and the disabled just don't have the resources," she says. "When you are on a really lim ited income and you have to space every dollar to make it from paycheque to paycheque, you have to go without something else." Lynch, who sent out a letter to all clients registered with the Oakville transportation service, was reluctant to discuss the change to the program. Describing it as "an internal matter," she said, "I really sort of think this is between us and our clients." However, Lynch added, the Red Cross would never turn away someone who couldn't afford to pay. "We're certainly not going to be turning people away for financial rea sons," she said. "We never had and we never will." In the letter sent out to clients, Lynch wrote, "The Ministry of Health, who partly funds the service, have instructed us to initiate a suggested fee for service as of April 1, 2000." In an interview with The Beaver, however, she admitted that the MOH directive was issued a number of years ago, but never implemented in Oakville. She did not know why fees were never introduced locally, but suggested the new fee schedule might help people better appreciate the service. "Som etim es people don't value something that's free," she said. The service is currently funded by the Ministry of Health, the United Way and client donations. Volunteer drivers, who are reim bursed for mileage, provided 16,000 rides in Oakville last year. Along with mileage costs, the Red Cross also must cover staff costs to organize the program, said Lynch. A ppleby O ak ville, O ntario At Appleby College, students are as likely to be creating websites as they are to be excelling on the athletic fields. The days are action-packed for the school's 560 young men and women who thrive in the university preparatory programme choosing from a broad range of traditional and innovative courses. New curriculum proving challenging (C o n tin u e d fro m p a g e A 1 ) branch. "It's a dynamic process; we're continuously looking at ways to deliver programs in a different way." Teachers have less time to adapt now because the Province allows only four professional development days annually instead of nine, he added. He said elementary students may also find curriculum content a lot more diffi cult than in the past. "One of the problems is having stu dents, teachers and parents completely understand the new methods of evalua tion," Pece noted. `There's a new report card and new way the curriculum is being evaluated." Academic high school students will be learning five years worth of informa tion in four years, he said. "And, in many cases, they have the same textbooks for academic and applied courses. For applied students, this makes it even more difficult." Pece said there's more computerbased technology in numerous areas, but many schools lack the hardware and software to run it. A Halton District School Board superintendent said schools can deter mine if certain topics are more difficult and require more time. "We'll be working with principal and teacher groups and looking at what they found at the end of the first semester," said Kit Rankin. `Then, we'll look at what changes can be made. We expect the first time there will always be chal lenges to face." Rankin feels curriculum is an issue for all grades that have undergone the changes. "If there's difficulty, it may not neces sarily be the Grade 9 curriculum, she noted. "It's built on the Grades 1-8 cur riculum and Grade 9 students have not been through the full revised Ontario curriculum." Rankin said some study topics were moved from higher grades to grades two years lower. "The most extreme example is science topics being moved from Grade 12 to Grade 9," she said. Changing the curriculum "is not like flipping a light switch," said the superin tendent. "It takes time to fully develop. We have to decide how to focus time on things and what we need to know." Rankin said she was concerned the new curriculum and its academic/applied streams were unsuitable for basic level students. Halton and other boards have lobbied successfully to offer essential level courses in math, science and English in Grade 9 and possibly the following grade. "Essential level courses in Grade 9 help prepare students for the workplace courses in Grades 11 and 12," said Rankin. The superintendent said she wishes the board could offer teachers more sup port, but notes it has provided six half days of curriculum training, which exceeds most boards. "Many of our staff have devoted their own time to this," said Rankin. `There's a shared responsibility for learning and our staff has done an outstanding job." She said provincial grants were pro vided for elementary math and language arts textbooks. Rankin said provincial funding has been provided' for Grade 9 learning materials and the same level will be provided next year when the new curriculum reaches Grade 10. "We've had some support from the Ministry with the drastic changes in the curriculum," said Rankin. "It makes it very difficult if we don't have proper materials." Grade 7 Entrance Exam Saturday April 1, 2000 - 8:30 a.m. A limited number of spaces are available for September, 2000 for students currently in Grade 6. Pre-registration is required. 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