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

st weekender saturday august 30j tst97 p 3 start of school hinges on weekend talks mike adler staff reporter for york regions 29000 public high school students its either a full day of school wednesday or just a chair in the cafeteria what theyll see at school that day timetables for a new year or their teachers walking a picket line is being decided this weekend as striking teachers and the school board meet if the talks with provincial mediator kevin burkett have gone badly they are already over and the 13dayold strike has reached a destructive phase but if the friday negoti ations have continued into sat urday theres reason for hope both sides say the board is promising to start the school year wednesday if a settlement is reached if that happens tuesday will be a pa day and new students will be registered but if theres no deal stu dents can count on only princi pals and viceprincipals to be in the schools if students choose to stay home while a strike is on wed encourage them to re- lynn johnston view their work from last year or engage in reading or inde pendent study said brian jamieson a board spokesper son if they go to school jamieson said theyll be directed to an area for supervision likely an auditorium or cafeteria theres obviously going to be no learning going on in schools while a strike is on the principal of a markham high school added this week parents should plan now where their sons or daughters education will be if the strike continues suggested lynn johnston local president of the ontario sec ondary school teachers feder ation the board says a slight in crease in the ratio of pupils to teachers is necessary because of provincial cutbacks the teachers say the boards latest offer will remove 190 teachers from the boards 22 high schools between this year and last year they know its educationally unsound johnston charged this is about disrespect for education if the strike is on teachers will meet tuesday morning in centennial arena in markham and ride buses to a noonhour rally in front of the york board of education main offices in aurora pickets would appear around schools the next day johnston said students will suffer if class size is increased say principals from page 1 9 70 teens into two classes instead of three harper said the board considers 20 to 35 stu dents an acceptable range in most classes by oct 31 when official enrolment is taken there are not a lot of classes under 20 and there are not a lot of classes over 35 but there are some he said the union says the boards contract proposal will mean 190 fewer teachers over two years including last year and means eight or nine fewer teachers in each school the fear is is this the beginning of a snowball effect that is really going to hurt kids asked yet another principal several also said smaller schools are more deeply affected by staffing cuts because larger ones have more flexibility harper however said the board compensates smaller schools by giving them a slight topup from a small reserve of teachers the board might also use a teacher from this reserve to keep a small oac class from being cancelled he said class size is up slightly harper conceded its slightly more difficult to run a class of 15 than it has been in the past but its certainly not more difficult to run a class of 20 ninth line safety concerns addressed jordan hgreen staff reporter stouffville parents won a major victory last week lane and speed reductions have been put in place for st mark catholic school and glad park public school chil dren crossing the ninth line to go to school the lane markings have been changed from what appeared to be two lanes on either side of ninth line from main street north to just past millard street to one lane in each direction with a centre turn lane school crossing signs with flashing lights have also been put up creating a speed re duction from 50 kilometres per hour to 40 kph when the lights are flashing the flashing lights which will be flashing every school day from 745 am to 5 pm indicate a school speed zone which is enforce able by police last june concerned par ents worked to get 500 people to sign a petition requesting the speed reductions and traf fic lights for the ninth line and millard street intersec tion we did some traffic assess ments the last day of school june 26 said dave aspin- wall york regions director of transportation operations the region found that traf fic on the busy stretch of ninth line had increased from 6600 vehicles on an average day in 1992 to 7400 vehicles on an average day in 1997 despite the changes costing the region between 12000 and 15000 par ents still dont feel safe send ing their kids off to school im still very concerned about the kids crossing the ninth but we realize they arent going to put the traffic lights in just because we ask them said lesley oconnor one of the parents organizing the battle in june both the public and separate boards cut the num ber of buses to save a com bined 245000 with octobers planned opening of the new glad park school on the deadend stretch of road of the same name an estimated 100 stu dents will be walking to school weve got so many changes this year and i dont think people realize that said oconnor were not used to so many kids crossing there there isnt enough pedestri an traffic in the area to justi fy traffic lights at millard and ninth according to a regional report however the region is still investigating the situation and may change its position according to aspinwall still some feel the region has already made the final decision regional chair eldred king doesnt see a need for a light there said oconnor he thinks the kids will be safe with just a crossing guard people will be rush ing to work and wont slow down for them the parents also believe the intersection of glad park and elm road is a disaster wait ing to happen according to some parents increased cars and in- but theyll have trouble get- creased pedestrians its un- ting emergency vehicles in fortunate if a child is hurt there said oconnor walking the line ronald benard and glen burden measure markings for the new crosswalk on ninth line this week photo by steve somerville were first in distribution weve delivered 31 057923 flyers doortodoor so far this year for further information on how we can deliver your flyers call ruth at 6402100 the stouffville watch for these flyers on saturday august 30 1997 moores the suit people biway dominion walmart back to school the bay what to wear 1 loblaws yonge bernard loblawssupercentre a p canadian tire rich hill sears appliance sale iga stouffville setoclod areas only