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14 The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanvillc, Wednesday. March 25.1992 e Education 3 Youngsters Hoping for Spring Weather to Arrive Early Around the Board- by Bob Willsher School Board Trustee, Ward III Northumberland Newcastle Board of Education Fund-Raiser has Unique Headgear A wild, flopping sombrero helped bring a smile to Justin's face during the Dr. Emily Stowe Public School Jump Rope for Heart marathon. Approximately 70 children children participated in the annual stamina contest for-the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario. John Withcr- ridge, the school's librarian, said the students had been gearing up for the event since January through '.'finding their own personal fitness level." The event also is "a nice time for staff and students to get together to do something" for the good of otiters, said Vice-principal Pat Van Seggclen. fr# Pet of the Week Ringo is a shy little kitten who showed up at the Animal Shelter wearing a bell on his collar. The white cat has ring markings on his tail and dark accents on his ears and eyebrows. eyebrows. Ringo is litter-trained and will make a nice indoor pet. - / Animal Shelter 623-7651 Sponsored by:* For Cats and Kittens • Low ash • Low magnesium Available at TERRIBRAE PET FOODS 73 King St. W. Bowmanville 623-1752 In my last column I spoke of the responsibilities of the Operations & Finance Committee. Committee. This month I would like to cover the activities of the Personnel Committee. Like other standing committees committees of the Board the Personnel committee meets at least once a month. For this year I am the chairperson of the committee. John Reid, Superintendent of Instruction (Personnel) is the administration resource person to the committee. There are seven committee members. The committee provides ■recommendations to the Board concerning matters of negotiations negotiations between the Board and our unions and federations. They also provide recommendations, recommendations, to the Board concerning concerning matters such as employee evaluations, job descriptions, promotions, benefits, policies covering employee relations and well being. As one might expect, matters of negotiations consume the majority of the committee's agenda. The Board had been struggling struggling with the issue of an addition addition to the Courtice North Public Public School. The Ministry has approved funds for the school expansion but the initial allocation allocation was not sufficient to permit permit the Board to build a JK to grade 8 school, as it originally requested. The Courtice community community is generally opposed to building a JK to grade 6 school. It was this arrangement that Administration suggested as a result of the shortage of funds from the Province. The school expansion has been discussed at a number of committee meetings and at the Board. Each time the community community has asked the Board to consider only the JK to grade 8 option. Their desire is to permit permit their children to remain in their community rather than being bussed to M.J. Hobbs Senior Public School in Hampton. Hampton. A reasonable request and one that almost any parent or trustee within the Board would prefer. But the issue is not quite that simple. Without appropri- Scholarship for Local Student At Iowa School SIOUX CENTER", IOWA; March 15, 1992 - Sarah Reit- sma, of Bowmanville, Ontario, has been selected to receive a Dordt College Honors Scholarship Scholarship and a Dordt College Major/Program Major/Program Scholarship for Theatre Arts. She is the daughter daughter of Joe and Alida Reitsma and is a senior at Durham Christian Secondary School. The Honors Scholarship award was based on recognition recognition of the student's academic standing, ACT scores, and extracurricular extracurricular involvement. The Major/Program Scholarship was based on recognition of the student's academic standing and intent to enter a particular field of study. Both are renewable renewable for a four-year term of undergraduate undergraduate study at Dordt and need not be forfeited if the recipient recipient changes; his or her major major or program of study. Dordt College, a Christian liberal arts college located in Sioux Center, Iowa, enrolls more than 1,000 students in some 40 academic programs. It offers a variety of scholarships and grants to qualified applicants. applicants. ate funding from the Province the cost of building the JK to grade 8 school would be prohibitive. prohibitive. There is also the issue of some students form Courtice having the opportunity to walk to school while others would have to be bussed to M.J. Hobbs. For the Board it is almost almost a no-win situation. At the February 27 Board meeting the Superintendent of Business, Ron Sudds advised the Board there had been a error error by the Ministry in calculating calculating the grant for the school. The revised grant is still subject subject to further review and approval approval by the Ministry but may represent an opportunity for the Board to honour the request request of the Courtice parents for a JK. to grade 8 school without undue financial burden on the Board. At the meeting on Thursday, Thursday, March 26, 1 intend to introduce introduce a motion to have the Board roll back the current mileage rate paid to employees and tmstecs Rom 30 cents per kilometer to 27 cents per ki lometer. This change represents represents a potential savings to the Board of $45,00. Currently, the Board and its employees travel almost 1.5 million kilometers in a year on Board business. The annual budget for mileage is nearly $450,000. While some will say that $45,000 out of a $132 million budget is "peanuts" those "peanuts" "peanuts" can be better used elsewhere. elsewhere. $45,000 is the salaty of a teacher with seven years experience experience or the cost of repairing repairing music instruments throughout throughout the Board for a year. The proposed mileage rate will still adequately compensate those who use their personal vehicles for Board business. It is the little little savings that add up to big ones. There will be many other cuts the Board will have to make if it is to establish a budget budget that the taxpayers can afford. afford. At this stage the proposed budget is nearly $152 million. This is an increase of 14.5% over the 1991 budget. Clearly, this increase is not acceptable. The sidewalks in downtown Bowmanville rang with tiny voices crying "Hurry Up Spring" on Thursday, March 19. The voices belonged to the children who attend attend the Edna Thomson Daycare on Church Street. The 25 children and six adults were out on a Hurry Up Spring Parade. The children, when asked what they were looking forward to doing in the spring, gave a variety of answers including: "I want to ride my bike," and "I want to go swimming." Of course, they all want to get rid of the snow pants for another year. 15 Year Guarantee VINYL SIDING ■ White Horizontal Permanent Colour ■ 8" Wide Double 4 99 Duchesne 97 sq. ft. 2X4 SPRUCE ECONO STUD 469 ; *54900 « l5felHome NEWCASTLE LUMBER i__)hcildwaie HOME HARDWARE HOURS: Monday to Wednesday 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Thursday and Friday 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. I Saturday \ 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Lpcally owned and operated by Glen Morris buüding centre buillminu vcin i m= m B „j 361 Kin 9 street E - Newcastle 987-4713