" $ 5 6 " - * 5 4 r / & 8 4 UN MORT ET UN BLESSÉ DANS UN INCIDENT À HAWKESBURY
STEPHEN JEFFERY stephen.jeffery@eap.on.ca
Un homme est mort et une autre personne a été blessée après le ren- versement d’un camion équipé d’une plateforme élévatrice de travail, lundi matin dans le stationnement de l’avenue Spence. La Police provinciale de l’Ontario (OPP) de Hawkesbury, le Service paramédic de Pres- cott-Russell et le Service des incendies de Hawkesbury ont répondu à l’incident survenu dans le stationnement de l’avenue Spence vers 8h. Le décès de Charles Sproule, 71 ans, du canton de Champlain, a été constaté sur les lieux. Une autre personne, âgée de 34 ans, a été transportée par le service ambulancier Ornge à l’hôpital pour des blessures ne mettant pas sa vie en danger. Le ministère du Travail, de la Formation et du Développe- ment des compétences de l’Ontario enquête sur l’incident. &/#3&'r#3*&'4 LOGEMENT ABORDABLE Konstantine Malakos, le candidat néodémocrate fédéral de Glengarry- Prescott-Russell, tiendra une assemblée publique en ligne sur la question du logement abordable dans la région. L’évènement bilingue aura lieu le 2 juin, à 18 h. Les personnes qui souhaitent y participer peuvent s›inscrire à l›adresse www.konstantinemalakos.ca/events-1/ assemblee-publique-sur-les-logements- abordables. – Gregg Chamberlain UCDSB PROJECTS PLAN The Upper Canada District School Board (UCDSB) is working on its capital works projects plan for the 2021-2022 fiscal year. UCDSB are preparing business plans for seven major projects to submit for approval to the education ministry. The preliminary estimate for the entire capital works plan is about $54 million, which includes about $10 million worth of improvements across the school board focused on COVID-19 prevention. – Gregg Chamberlain CHEMIN PATTEE Le conseil du canton de Hawkesbury- Est a examiné une demande visant à réduire la limite de vitesse sur le chemin Pattee de 60 kilomètres à l’heure à 50 kilomètres à l’heure. Le conseil a plutôt décidé de demander à la Police provinciale de l’Ontario de surveiller et de faire respecter davantage la limite de vitesse actuelle. – Gregg Chamberlain POLICE BOARD East Hawkesbury Township council voted to support the new proposed regional police board setup for Prescott County. The board will include five muni- cipal representatives, three community representatives, and two provincial appointees. The board will represent policing interests for East Hawkesbury, Hawkesbury, Champlain Township, Alfred-Plantagenet, and The Nation Municipality. – Gregg Chamberlain
Police blocked access to the Spence Avenue parking lot on Monday morning after a fatal workplace incident. — photo Stephen Jeffery
PROVINCIAL ONLINE LEARNING PLAN WORRIES UCDSB
GREGG CHAMBERLAIN gregg.chamberlain@eap.on.ca
The provincial government wants to make online learning a permanent option for Ontario students and that worries the chair of the Upper Canada school district. “My real concern is for our small secon- dary schools,” said John McAllister, chairman of the Upper Canada District School Board (UCDSB) during a May 30 phone interview. i8FBSFUBMLJOHBCPVUUIFWJBCJMJUZPGTNBMM secondary schools.” "SFDFOUBOOPVODFNFOUGSPN&EVDBUJPO Minister Stephen Lecce declared that all Ontario school boards must offer virtual learning as an option for students at the start of the 2021-2022 school year. Distance learning has been the primary means of education for almost all students, both ele- mentary and secondary since March 2020 when the provincial state of emergency for health took effect because of the pandemic. Attempts to reopen classrooms during the current school year have been sporadic because of renewals of provincial lockdown orders. School board worries Last month the UCDSB sent a brief to the ministry outlining its concerns about plans to make distance learning a permanent option for the provincial education program. McAl- lister noted that distance learning programs have worked well to ensure students conti- nue their education during the pandemic. i8FSFOPUBHBJOTUSFNPUFMFBSOJOH uIF said. “But a pandemic response is not a permanent option.” McAllister’s concern is that the ministry is trying to apply a one-size-fits-all idea to all school boards in the province without considering the student number differences between large urban schools and small rural schools. “I am standing up for small schools,” he said. “This may work well in Toronto, Hamilton, and other places. But it doesn’t XPSLJO&BTUFSO0OUBSJPXIFSFFWFSZTUVEFOU (registeredthe ) counts.”
The provincial government wants to make online learning a permanent education option for Ontario students in the 2021-2022 school year. The Upper Canada District School Board worries about how that could affect the future of small rural schools. —file photo
McAllister observed that class size and staffing for small rural schools are often different compared to large urban schools. He gave as an example a Grade 12 physics class that might have 15 students at a rural school. If five students decided to do their physics studies through virtual learning then the school could end up dropping Grade 12 physics from its curriculum because there are not enough students to justify the expense of assigning a classroom and a teacher for the course. He also noted that the ministry’s demand could also affect the budget revenue situa- tion for many small rural school boards. The ministry could offer full-time online learning GPSIJHITDIPPMTUVEFOUTJOFJUIFS&OHMJTIPS French through TVO/TFO. The worry is that school boards would end up losing some of the provincial Grants GPS4UVEFOU/FFET GVOEJOH (4/ UIFZHFU as part of their annual operation budgets. Students that enrolled in full-time virtual learning through the ministry would no longer be considered as part of the total student enrolment for the school board region where they lived so there would be MFTT(4/NPOFZGSPNUIFNJOJTUSZGPSUIBU school board. During its own budget plan the
school board would either have to find other SFWFOVFTPVSDFT UPNBLFVQ GPS UIF(4/ funding lost or consider cutting back on other expenses or eliminating some programs. Lobby action The UCDSB has asked the provincial government to form a royal commission on the future of education before making any “significant changes” to Ontario’s education setup. That includes making online learning a permanent option for students. McAllister noted that almost two dozen other school boards have expressed concern about the ministry’s demand. The Ontario 1VCMJD4DIPPM"TTPDJBUJPOBOEUIF&MFNFO - tary Teachers Federation of Ontario have also urged the provincial government to reconsider its plans. Meanwhile McAllister has begun lobbying for support of the UCDSB’s position from local governments and other groups. He has made presentations to the United Counties of Stormont-Dundas-Glengarry council and the regional councils for Grenville and Lanark counties. He is waiting for a response from the United Counties of Prescott-Russell (UCPR) to his request to make a presentation to UCPR council.
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