The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

York education board okays sex guidelines Five-yearâ€"old Lena Peterson, 3 Kindérgarten student at 16th Avenue. School helps Mickey Mouse 'celebrate his 50th birthday as they both Floundering through its final meeting of the term. the York Board of Trustees approved a set of guidelines for a new sex education â€"â€" family life program after more than an hour-and-a-half of fruitless debate. The majority of trustees (four are retiring, three were defeated in the election) had no qualms with the content of the recom- mendations made by the sub-committee. which conceived of the guidelines after nine months of study. The major thrust (that word was used at least a dozen times in the discussiont by outgoing Richmond Hill Trustee Eric Baker and Markham Trustee Don Cousens. was to have the recotn mendations circulated to the public as a proposed board policy and allow input from any interested group to shape the final content of the programs The board has a standard policy( No. 59) which follows a rigorous set of steps to ensure parents and community groups have a fair say on issues of significant in- terest. But. the board balked at this idea {or two major reasons: as a policy, the committee would not be able to select curriculum aids and resource people to start designing the program until all quar» ters have been given their right to speak on the subject and. throwing the question open to parents would probably produce so many ideas and suggestions it would be impossible to draw up a practical program and implement them all. a So a suggestion from the subcommittee was Effect ive November lst 884-1107 Calculated on your Minimum Monthly Balance. VICTORIA AND GRD' TRUST SINCE [8-H followed â€".~ that the recommendation be made into a position paper- and then distributed to the public after the actual program is in place. John Stephens, who left the chair to take part in the discussion. confused the matter with a motion asking for a position paper which could be circulated for public input. CAN‘T DISAGREE “ . . .The problem (with' the recomâ€" mendations) is they are a bunch of statements with which nobody can disagree. The real problem arises when we have to implement them and how it should be done." said Mr; Stephens. done." said Mr; Stephens. “All parents have different ideas on how sex should be taught. The objection I have is the public seems to be ex- cluded from what we intend to tell them except after the subject has been taught ‘â€" and then we expect reaction from the public," he said. ‘ur branch managen ‘ge Street Earlier in the evening. Reverend Robert Quick‘ of the Free Methodist Church in Richmond Hill, made a short presen- tation on the views of a group he is chairman of â€" Right to Life. He also advocated a public forum be made available but was unable to answer how so many opinions could be in- corporated into the program. “The first recom- mendation (the gist of what is to be taught) was written in a way it could include our own suggestions. However. we feel the schools have been given a blank cheque and that the proposals are so visit Santa at Hillcrest Mall. (Liberal Photo by Bruce Hogg) There were several motions to table the study and let the new board handle the design of the program. They were all defeated. The only other time the report was in peril of not being ap- proved was when Aurora Trustee Norm Weller tried to defer part of it broad for the teaching of the proposed course.“ he said. “The purpose of my motion is so the board can get a good idea of what the final budget will look like before approving an expenditure of $10,000. Let‘s face it, last year we really ripped the public off. i said Mr. Weller. Weller‘s motion was soundly defeated. until the next budget in February. . MCCONAGHY The theme of a public meeting held last Thursday was ‘Why just look at McConaghy if schools must be closed in Richmond Hill“ a question which the Rich- mond Hill Study Com- mittee will have to an- swer sometime after tomorrow. Bruce Langstaff adâ€" dressed an audience of about 35 at the old public school. outlining and re stating the major points of a brief he coâ€"authored and presented to the study committee in October. One of his opening comments was a rebuke to The Liberal. which had published a story saying the, McConaghy Association admitted some of the figures it had used were not fully up to date. The Beilerley Acres parents group made a similar reference in its own brief. “ . . . Had we not asked for those figures and not asked the board for all the relevant information. those buggers wouldn‘t have had anything â€" wrong or right.“ said Mr. Langstaff. ‘ Mr. Langstaff ex- plained to parents and trustees present, the situation for Richmond Hill p'ublic schools has changed since the problem was first defined As an example, Ross Doan is scheduled to utilize 210 per cent of its capacity this year. ac- cording to the McConaghy brief. “Right 'now. they haven't reached that stage, but there are good reasons." said Mr. Langstaffl “There are large numbers of housing units in Phase II of Baif that haven't been com- pleted as quickly as anticipated. Lower pupil yields have been coming out of the homes already finished. than the board originally projected. I'm sure it‘s not because of the high quality education offered by the York Region Separate School Board, eitherl" Mr. Langstaff disputes the number of excess spacesdn Beverley Acres. The board at first claimed Must it be only school to close? there were 889 empty pupil places but read- justed the number to 470 to take into account special education students and the room being used by its two Area Offices. The key, claimed Mr. Langstaff, is not to ask why McConaghy but why just McConaghy, when considering .closing schools. He feels closing the school on its own won't do anything to alleviate the enrollment problem in Richmond Hill. The brief states there will be 1.420 empty pupil places by 1981 in Rich- mond Hill. based on 90 per cent of theoretical capacity. Figures released by the board at the end of September show there are now nearly 2,000 empty places. “Given the problem is not as vague as it once was. most of the portables are gone from the southern part of the Region. the savings resulting from operation and maintenance costs through closing one or more schools is minimal and the proceeds from the sale of school sites cannot be kept for use in Rich- mond Hill. I don’t think any school in Richmond Hill will be closed." said Mr. Langstaff. Following a resounding round of applause. he asked the audience for a show of hands on three basic questions: 1) if part of the school were rented, how many would favor McConaghy being made into a K-S school (unanimously in favor): 2) would you prefer split grades for your children as opposed to closing the school (about 50 per cent in favor); 3) if the school is closed, would you abide by boundaries set by the board for alternate schools. or pick your own (only. four or five said they'd go along with the board's decision on boundaries) HIiWEi‘E CENTRE 884-1812 Phone 389-1812 Rice’s Flowers RICHMOND HEIGHTS For All Occasions Wired Anywhere Districts ALL MAJOR CREDIT CARDS HONORED Surrounding We Deliver to Toronto ' DOLLAR DAYS at ALLENCOURT PLAZA - BAYVIEW it MARKHAM AVAILABLE ONLY AT ALLENCOURT Bayview & Markham Rd., Richmond Hill WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO LIMIT QUANTITIES râ€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"i FROM our: [IV-S TUBE BAKER fl CRUSTY on 7 3312'? 12é79¢ IN TOMATO SAUCE OR WITH PORK ROBIN HOOD CELEBRATION AYLMER RASPBERRY 0R HEINZ BEANS CAKE MIXES STRAWBERRY JAM IGA CHOICE BAKED FRESH DAILY CREAM CORN SPECIALS EFFECTIVE TIL SATURDAY DEC. 2/78 THE LIBERAL. Wednesday. November 29. I978 â€" .11-3 1402 ‘TIN 1402 TIN 250 GRAM PACKS REG. 8 FOR 69° 24 OZ JAR m)