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

j Presenting the 'kid-' A SCENE FROM Whitby teacher Ed Dixon's Christmas play Kid in the Cradie, which featured performers from the St John the Evangelist Yobuth Group and was presented Dec. 16 and 17 at the Giffard Centre. Phioto by Mark Reesor, Whltby Fr. Press Sehol eadng levels risc, writing down à'- Mark Reesor Reading levels among Durham Region's Grade 9 public board students are up but writing sills have declined slightiy, according to. a recent provincial test. About 127,000 Ontario students, including more than 4,000 Sinclair tops in wriing - see page i attending Durhamrn schools, participated in the 1994-95 test. Reading and writing wats judged on a scale of one te six, with levels one and two below standard, levels three te five in the "expected range of performance," and level six higher than expected. About 97 per cent of Durham Grade 9 students performed. at or above the - expected level ln reading, up from 91 per cent in 1993-94; 93 per cent, down from 96 per cent in 1993-94, achieved the standard or better ini writing. .That compares to 94 per cent of Ontaio students who reached the expected standard or better in reading, up from 90 par cent the previous year, and 93 per oeiht, down one point from the previous year, who were up to scratch in writing SUIS. Durham also participated in a independent review of Grade 12 writing skIls last April, along with the Halton, Lakehead and North York boards. SEE PAGE i Iproved operations at mental * health agency À year ago, CCS ini 'extreme state of dysfunction' By MikoKowaiski Twelve months after having its operations branded a shambles, a local mental health agency appears tu be ergjoing better days. Gloser co-operation .and ijpro e cmuications beteen e loyes and managemente ,.Coborne Community I vcs(CGS) ha. apparently developed as; the resuit of changes instituted, by the agency's board of directors. Employees now have greater input inte decisionis affecting the. operation of the eight-year-old, non-profit agency's three Whitby group homes and ite Dunhazn-wide counselling service. This new relationship is a faLr cry from'tii. uncertainty of a year ago when -a provincially-appointed consultlng team described CCS as an agency in an "extreme stateof dlysfunction" and in need of eitiier a major overhaul or a complete shutdown. Although they did flot agree with aIl of the report's findings, the age ncy's board- of directors were committed te keepingCS running and began putting in motion many of the consultants' recommendations. "Looking at it now, I think things mlght have been don. differently," conceded board president Christine Elliott of the former Whitby Ail Saints Residence Corporation. I think everyone was worIng for the. clients' welfare, but -had different ways of doing it. "The basic operation is still the saine, but there:s a lot more consensus decision-making going on now than there was in the past and we're still working on improving it." Released last December, the 49-page report was prepared for the Ontario Ministry.of Health by IKPMG Management Consulting and the. Clarke In.-titute Consulting Group. Brooklin native leads school to championship .Pagel3 Town further reduces limit for garbage pick-up Page5 Parnt iI bealowed to exinhe By Mike Kowalki "Tere's no issue that w. won't provide the. .An M parent'urepeated *attempts to examine information h. asked for," said Lang. thefiancalrecords of the Whitby Minor Hockey " *Hell see a report we Issized," said Lang who Ascainhave achieved resuits. explain.d that the. document wiUl break dý,wn the. Assocation president Peter Lang told The. Free, finances for the. associations thro levels rather Press last week that Wayne Walchuk will b. given than lumping ail three together as does .the. a report detailing howand where the WMH-A financial statement prepared for the. MII&s spends its money. annual meeting'. If" theflprt does not answer all the questions he (In an interview conducted asat summer, has been asking the peut two years, association Walchuk said he had long suspected'that parents officiais will meet with Walciiuk and go- over the J;EAE1 actuel recrds, Langprndsd. - , -AGE 1 No ýissue -next week -seepage3