2 Friday, April 21, 2017brooklintowncrier.com Less than Half the Picture By Richard Bercuson A Dizzying Issue I'm getting dizzy. In a few hundred words, you'll be, too. One day - no one knows exactly when - school boards got into the transportation business. Busing students has therefore been a decades-long entanglement of criss-crossed issues that affect most families, unless they live within a few blocks of their children's schools. Even then, if children cross a busy street, there needs to be crossing guards because of impatient drivers. The 30 seconds it takes to wait for kids to cross the road (why? To get to the other side, of course) will somehow ruin the commute, which is why the town hires guards at $17.42 per hour to help drivers learn to count. By the way, Whitby's crossing guard rate is among the highest in the province. Waterloo pays only $12.63/hr. The national average is $13.71. So when the Durham District School Board (DDSB) released its report last month on changing school bell times in September, it drew the expected array of opinions about drop-off times, traffic, daycare issues, and the like. All legit; most warranted; also expected. Every parent would love to have the simplest, most efficient means of getting kids to school. Having that for the lowest possible cost would be wonderful, too. Right now, it costs the province over $800 million annually for school busing, which our taxes pay for. It's a beast of an issue with no beauty of a solution. This won't make certain parents happy, but the board will save over $1.2 million by adjusting bell times. That money doesn't go to donuts for board meetings; it will be siphoned directly back into the system. As well, according to the March 20 DDSB staff report, just 38 of 171 schools will require bell time changes. Of those, only 11 will require changes of greater than 10 minutes. If you're one of the parents affected, you're unhappy. If not, you heave a sigh of relief but wonder if it may yet come to you. Still, I wonder about some things. For instance, what would happen if Durham transit had a proper bus system that ran along key streets and thus able to transport students to school? Then again, who wants buses on their streets? And which streets? If this existed, and there were less school buses required, would our tax allotment to boards, roughly $681 for a $500,000 home, be reduced? That would be to cover the cost of a student bus pass which is currently an exorbitant $93.50 per month or about $935 annually for ten months of school. Would the figure drop because of greater usage? Meanwhile, Brooklin's growth calls for one more public board high school while the Catholic board, which has land at Thickson and Winchester, instead prefers a spot further north. The DDSB has also identified the need for 10 Brooklin elementary schools. More homes - more kids - more schools - more busing - more complaints about busing. Dizzy yet? "Proud to be a Brooklinite" Founded in 2000 and published 24 times per year. Editor, Richard Bercuson 613-769-8629 • editorofbtc@gmail.com The Brooklin Town Crier is locally owned and operated and is a publication of Appletree Graphic Design Inc. We accept advertising in good faith but do not endorse advertisers nor advertisements. All editorial submissions are subject to editing. For advertising information, contact: Marissa Campbell at 416.839.0248 Email: yeswomanbrooklin@gmail.com Next Issue: Friday, May 5, 2017 Deadline: Friday, April 28, 2017 Not intended to solicit buyers/sellers under contract. The Next Generation of Real Estate Patrick Bryant Broker of Record 905.439.2033 www.YourBrooklin.com Oh, The Horror! New Online Mag Is Up and Screaming! Buried Horror Magazine, under the suspicious eye of its editor Brad McIlwain, is now open to submissions of your most terrifying and original stories of horror, speculative fiction, and poetry! The magazine is open to works of fiction (1,000-2,500 words), poetry (any form), and flash fiction (1,000 words and less). Please send your submissions and a brief bio to buriedhorrormag@gmail.com using "Buried Horror Submission" in the subject line. All rights are retained by the author upon publication. The first issue of Buried Horror Magazine will be published on May 10, 2017, on the full moon, naturally. Share this with friends and family who might be inter- ested in submitting as well. You can dig in, at: buriedhorrorma- gazine.blogspot.ca Save the Date! Doors Open Whitby Saturday, May 6 Doors are open throughout Whitby including several Brooklin sites. For more information visit www.whitby.ca