18 - The Canadian Champion, Friday December 18, 1998 Parents fed up with Catholic school stalemate • from VENT on page 1 Following the Chistias break, students will have only one month remaining in the semester to make up the missed time in order to gain full cred- its. Teachers have refused to dis- cuss a plan for making up the time until a collective agree- ment is in place, said Mr. Sherlock. "We thought there was a pretty strong case for the ERC to make a ruling of jeopardy," Mr. Sherlock told Catholic trustees at a board meeting Tuesday night. "But at this moment, they feel there is still time to make up the time. "We feel the top priority is to make sure none of our students lose credits because of the sanctions." Angry parents and students flooded the school board meet- ing, expressing frustration at the lack of progress in negotia- tions. MIL.TON "Over the past l1 months, aler 2) negotiation sessions what bas been agreed on'?" asked Paul McDougall, chair of the school council at Bishop Reding Secondary School. "Our impression is that there has been little, if any, agree- ment on anything," he noted. "The enormous effort and waste of money to achieve as little as has been achieved should be a source of shame for both sides." Mr. McDougall, who spoke on behalf of the school councils at ail five Halton Catholic high schools, also asked teachers and students to abandon a casu- a dress protest. Following a decision by teachers to wear casual clothes to class, many students aban- doned their school uniforms as well. "The moral authority of a teacher enforcing a uniform code is put at risk when they are wearing less than profes- sional attire, and the break- down <in discpline at he schools is becoming increas- ingly apparent," said Mr. McDougall. With many parents forced to remain in the hallway outside the board room, due to a short- age of seats, tempers quickly flared during Mr. McDougall's presentation. Angry shouts from the hall- way demanded the board can- cel the meeting and move it to a location that could accommo- date everyone. Other people demanded to know when the situation would be resolved. During a break, parents and students were vocal in express- ing their frustration with both the board and the teachers. Bill Pettey, who has a son attending Burlington's Notre Dame high school, said he places blame equally on the board and the Halton secondary unit of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association Grade "A" News at MDHS By Jacqueline Bass and Marissa Cheskey Christmas is only seven days away and we are glad to say that there is no school for two weeks. Unfortunately, this means that you will not be hearing from us again until the New Year. We would like to congratulate all of the stu- dents and staff at Milton District High School for their wonderful contributions to the Christmas collection boxes. It is very nice to see the whole school work- ing as a team to do something good for the community during the holiday sea- son. The final touches were put on the boxes on Wednesday, December 16th. We're sure that they will be appreciated on Christmas Day. The past week has been very festive at M.D. Thursday was Santa hat day, which is a day for everyone to show their Christmas spirit and have a little fun by wearing a Santa hat to school. On Wednesday, M.D. had the annual Christmas door decorating contest. Congratulations to Mr. Orton's class who won! Also on Wednesday, the Jolly Fat man himself made an appearance at the school to have the students of M.D. sit on his lap. For only $1.50 per person, students could have their pictures taken on Wednesday and pick them up on Thursday. HO, HO, HO! Attention all Senior Friends! You need to get Police Checks in to Mr. Vella A.S.A.P. If you hand in your Police Check with the receipt, your $15.00 will be reimbursed, so hurry. Some good news from the school store: Soon the school store will not only be selling candy and other sweet stuff but also hacky sacs, beanie hats, neck- laces and other funky stuff. Wow! Well, it's time for us to say goodbye for the next couple of weeks. Enjoy the holidays. Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! (OECTA) for the breakdown in neCautiaions Another Notre Dame parent, Grant Mace, described himself as "more than a little pissed off," adding that trustees "need to take their heads out of the sand and realize they have to negotiate." But both Mr. Mace and Mr. Pettey agreed they were unwill- ing to shoulder higher taxes in order to pay for a settlement with the 350 teachers. "The board has enough money to manage the system appropriately," said Mr. Mace, who bas actually attempted to have a portion of his education tax refunded because of the sit- uation. Students were equally vocal about the strike, with several saying they wouldn't be retum- ing to school uniforms any time soon. "We'd like to have sports, too," shrugged OAC student Ryan Hayward, "but this is the way it's going to go to the end.( There are not going to he any uniforms tomorrow. Another OAC student expressed her anger directly to trustee Miriam Van de Vrande. "I would have thought you would have more important things to talk about than whether we are wearing uni- forms," said Tia Duke pointed- ly. Outside the meeting, where dozens of teachers carried plac- ards and marched up and down the sidewalk, union head Joe Pece placed blame directly on the board. "Right now the teachers are waiting for them to call," he said. Mr. Pece added that teachers want a negotiated settlement, but believe the board is stalling on negotiations until the result of an arbitration settlement in Hamilton-Wentworth is released in January. As for returning to dressier classroom attire, Mr. Pece said he would take the suggestion to the OECTA sanctions omnut tee, but wasn't optimistic teach- ers would be donning ties any time soon. "Quite frankly, an alternative would be worse than this visi- ble sign of our resolve," he said. The main stumbling block in negotiations between the teach- ers and the board continues to be the requirement under Bill 160 that high school teachers increase their instructional time by 22 minutes per day. The Catholic school board bas interpreted this requirement by telling teachers they must teach seven of eight classes over two semesters, rather than the six of eight they have been teaching since 1989. In addition to dressing casu- ally, teachers have been refus- ing to provide supervision required for extracurricular sport and club activities. Come to SAW'S PLACE for your Christmas Goodies SATU!RAY DECEMBER'i9" SAM'S SOSCDISCOUNT POTATO CHIPS STORE aI.LAB•LE HERE 17WLSNDIVEMITO 693910 CALLINGCARDS VARLAB E -VR O ATSOESA i ledo terdrvig ouse * y teyreju t Dk Yun D ivrs Ma be it's because Young Drivers has thirty years of instructors over the past 10 years. ihf And has achieved Registration to the coveted ISO experience teacing com n s . And over half a million graduates, coast to coast. ISO 9001 Quality Assurance Management And more than a million dollars invested in dri- Standard. ver training research, plus another million invest- No matter what they say, no one else is anything ed in annual recertification programs for our like Young Drivers! 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