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economist suntribune in our community saturday sept 14 2002 york teachers count cost of paying for classroom supplies by mitchell brown staff writer for the past couple of years students celebrating their birth days in annalie jarvis classroom have looked forward to a sur prise from the birthday basket a classroom tradition full of treats ms jarvis paid for out of her own pocket she doesnt begrudge doing so nor does the holland landing teacher seem upset about some of the other personal expenses she incurred sprucing up her classroom after a while though things add up this could be a very long list she says thinking about the items she and other teachers have bought for their students books rank very high on the list freetime activities like edu cational games are often paid for by teachers classroom pets fish guinea pigs hamsters craft supplies often food supplies are paid for by teachers she also knows teachers who have bought clothes for needy students but says thats a very big personal choice for teachers to make teachers as a rule will go out and get what they need to make their classrooms work said wendy van straten a long time teacher and president of the elementary teachers federation in york region im not in a classroom right now and half of my garage is full of boxes of materials i bought for the classroom neither teacher placed a dol lar figure on the amount theyve spent over the years but a recent survey of 1900 teachers by the canadian teachers federation found the average teacher spends about 593 annually on classroom materials teachers as a rule will go out and get what they need to make their classrooms work teachers in british columbia spend the most about 1000 while teachers in prince edward island average about 282 a year ontario teachers at 545 apiece placed fourth in the country ninetyfive per cent of teach ers surveyed said they spent some of their own money on materials and activities while 79 per cent said they spent money on books federation president doug willard said he was not surprised by the results the year before last i was a classroom teacher and i was doing that too he said i was buying graph paper and reference books for my kids because that wasnt in the budget i would guess theres hardly any elementary schoolteacher who doesnt have a stock of pencils they havent paid for themselves the main culprit say teachers is ongoing cuts in public educa tion the same cuts forcing par ents and students to raise funds for their schools are also forcing them to do more with less the province however insists enough cash is allocated but boards divert money from class rooms to cover other expenses mr willards organization is trying to help its 240000 mem bers by lobbying ottawa to grant tax credits to teachers who buy classroom supplies but so far it hasnt been successful to press the issue teachers in bc have resorted to slapping stickers on classroom items that read paid for by a teacher but as of yet theres no similar cam paign in ontario that may be just a matter of timethis is a major irritant that theyre standing in a classroom and they know what they need to teach the lesson properly and its not drere mr willard said theres a sense of resigna tion theres no other way to get it so i have to supply it staff photosjoerd witteveen gotcha markham rstdufme 531 hospital a code green hospital evacuation test on tuesday october 1 2002 markham stouffville hospital will conduct an exercise code green a test of our hospital wide evacuation plan the exercise will run from 800 am 1200 pm all areas of the hospital will evacuate 23 volunteers pretending to be patients regular daytoday patient care will not be impacted and will run as usual the hospital has made arrangements for additional staff to be onsite to assist with the exercise in an effort to minimize any disruption to patient care the purpose of the exercise is to test the hospitals evacuation routes and procedures test the flow of communication and coordination between the hospital and key external agencies fire police and ems ambulance personnel identify any gaps and areas for improvement for the evacuation plan and communication structure york region fire police and ems ambulance personnel will be participating in the exercise some areas of the staff and visitors parking lots will be reserved for this exercise we apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience and cooperation please recycle this newspaper york regional police sgt frank auld operates the marksman laser as const rob gabay stops a motorist in front of markville secondary school on carlton road at mccowan road in markham on monday afternoon police kicked off the save- alife program at this spot in front of 5 district police headquarters carlton passes two schools and the speed limit is 40 km from warden avenue to mccowan road the fourday blitz resulted in 866 charges laid in 34 york region school zones c n 3 mm ft union securities ltd investing ideas that come to you first in a series of information presentations by senior executives of listed companies for the investing public shareholders and investment clubs your hosts vernon mccreary and jane solarcaldarola thursday sept 26 615715 sharp hilton hotel hwy7 at warden ave goldcorp is listed in toronto and in new york and is one of the worlds richest goldmines future presentations will include nokianyse aflacnyse cemexnyse and others limited seating free admittance vernon mccreary established and hosts torontos most successful stockbroker information club since 1981 rsvp vmccrearyunionsecuritiescom tel 9055131880 or 4167755140