Vol. 15, No. 18 Wednesday, May 1, 1985 36 Pages W.R.A.P. kick-off The Town of Whitby's pilot recycling project en- titled W.R.A.P. (for Whitby Recycling Action Program) was kicked off last Friday when local of- ficials and a few area residents turned out for the of- ficial sign erection at the corner of Annes and Dunlop Sts. last Friday. Taking part in the brief ceremony was: Wayne Colley, of the town's public works department; East Ward Coun. Joe Drumm; Randy Kureb, also of the works department (on the truck); Reg. Coun. Gerry Emm; Mayor Bob Attersley (standing on ladder); Patrick Merry (sitting In front of Attersley); and, Bob Merry who is holding his other son, Robert. The Merrys live at the house on the corner of Annes and Dunlop St. and will be active participants in W.R.A.P. Whitby Free Press staff reporter Marc Vincent was at a public meeting held by the public works depar- tment last Wednesday at Henry Street High School at which W.R.A.P. was explained to the residents of the West Lynde area who will be participating in the pilot project. His report is on page 36. Free Press Staff Photo School taxes jump up $40 cenws)o. osarfc By MARC VINCENT Free Press Staff After much wrangling and backroom politicing, the Durham Board of Education has approved an increase in the mill rate of 8.25 per cent. The increase tran- slates to about a $40 in- crease in educational taxes for the average homeowner. The budget, which had to be approved before May 9, a deadline set by the provincial government, represents about a 16 per cent increase in the elementary budget and about.a four per cent in- crease in secondary school budget. The reason for the higher increase in the elementary budget was the transfer of. education programs for the trainable retarded to the elementary school system. The elementary budget also includes an increase in salaries for elementary school teachers of about seven per cent. The backroom politicing included, tur- ning down the original elementary budget, an in-camera session that saw trustees negotiating to reconsider the budget, turning down the budget again and concluding with more negotiating in a backroom of the Board of Education building. After an hour in camera and a 20-minute recess, the board trustees finally emerged with a budget that was acceptable to the majority. The final decision had shaved off $472,000 in retirement gratuties for teachers and reduced the mill rate increase from 8.95 to 8.25 per cent. Many of the trustees could not accept the 16 per cent increase in the elementary budget yet were not prepared to sacrifice programs for the students in Durham region. Whitby Trustee Ian Brown said after the exhaustive and sometimes painful budget procedures that the increase was reasonable in light of the pressures the board was under. "The increase in the mill rate began around 18 per cent and we got it down to half that amount after very strenous efforts," he said. Brown's primary con- cern was not to sacrifice programs for the students and retirement gratuities affected neither the number of staff or the programs of- fered by the board. The gratuities are bonuses offered to board teachers upon their retirement which can be up to 50 per cent of the yearly salary. It was decided that the over $400,000 for elementary gratuities would come from the retirement reserve rather than this year's budget. The-trustees who op- posed the cut, preferred to remove money from programs that had not been implemented rather than already existing programs. ' The final budget figures after the four per cent increase in transfer payments from the provincial gover- nment were $93,326,831 for elementary schools of which $39,585,751 is to be paid by the property taxpayer. In the $73,072,185 secondary school budget of which $36,342,434 will be raised from Durham homeowners. Ruth Lafarga, chair- man of the board, reiterated that classroom programs had not been cut. She also said that aside from the reduction from government funds several issues made this year's budget procedures especially difficult. "For six weeks the budget talks were vir- tually at standstill as we waited for the gover- nment to detail the amount of funds we would receive," she said. The delay was at- tributed to the retirement of former Premier William Davis, the leadership race and the election. However, during the proceedings, Oshawa separate school trustee, Linda Dionne said that trustees cannot blame the government for problems in budget talks and funding. "We have autonomy which includes all the knocks and it is our responsibility to con- tinue the programs we are committed to," she said. The property tax in- creases imposed by the Durham Board of Education are in ad- dition to those imposed by the Town of Whitby and the Region of Durham.