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st tribune december 22 1993 p3 gifts from santa photoceua bronkhorst ashley gaudet receives her gift from santa claus a toy dinosaur during the christmas party held saturday at the claremont community centre the party was hosted by pickering firefighters education secondary teachers vote in favor of strike action julie caspersen staff reporter after rejecting their employers final contract offer york eegion high school teachers voted in favor of a strike the york region board of education tendered a last offer to its 1700 secondary teachers who turned it down in a vote tuesday the offer was rejected by 78 per cent of the vot ers belonging to the local unit of the ontario sec ondary school teachers federation according to federation president lynn johnston a vote to strike was passed by 70 per cent of the voters but johnston said he hopes to avert any strike action lets get back to the negotiating table he said were urging people to be calm about this public high school teachers have not gone on strike since 1974 when 667 teachers resigned in protest the union has asked the province for a mediator to step in and hope to get back to bar gaining by mid- january rumors that teachers will walk off the job in early january are not true johnston said if the union decides to strike or work to rule it must first hold a meeting of all members then a meet ing of the negotiating team before giving the board five days notice in a worstcase scenario the soonest would be midjanuary and im not looking at the worstcase scenario he said and the only action that would prompt the union to walk out would be if the board stripped the contract and tried to impose salary rollbacks or stripped the teachers benefit package the board is allowed to redesign a contract offer 60 days after a fact finders report is handed in this report was filed nov 1 johnston accuses the board of abusing its obli gation to the social contract act by cutting beyond what is necessary under the legislation the act calls for the removal of 84 teaching positions to save money for the province but johnston said the board violated the social con tract by holding back 77 teachers last september were saying enoughs enough be serious and respect the agreement board chair bill crothers said the board and the federation will continue to work out a deal and avert a strike the board is very hopeful that the negotiations will proceed reasonably he said crothers said he is not aware of what the teacher concerns are although the fact finders report said the teachers disagreed with the boards recommendation to raise the pupilteach er ratio by one this increased ptr would require 115 less teachers for a savings of 75 million classes will resume as planned on jan 3 and students will not jose credits due to any strike action on the part of teachers pholosjoerd witteveen newest pathfinders the stouffville pathfinders recently inducted five fre melissa benish lara jackson gillian jones new members they are from left natasha giuf- and elaine drickens in foreground repairing roads to cost 15million tracy kibble staff reporter the town needs to spend 15 million to repair and upgrade six roadways next year according to staffs updated priority list pre sented to officials last week public works director paul whitehouse presented officials with an updated capital road construction priority list outlining which projects should take front row in a long line of needed repairs although the town needs 15 million in repairs there is only 350000 sitting in the municipal coffers to complete the work that means officials have some decisions to make decisions which usually are cause for much debate and wrangling the report lists the following priority repairs recommended be undertaken during 1994 62000 to remove and replace a deteriorated box culvert on a 2 km stretch of bethesda road east of the ninth line 288000 to widen and add curbs along a 8 km stretch for a connecting link from main street to meet width restrictions 258500 to spot repair sewers curbs and pavement for a 2 km stretch from the tenth line to the ninth line on main street 308000 for an engineering design and environmental assessment for a 1 km stretch on main street from the ninth line to the westerly limit to meet width restrictions 177500 for a base drainage and granular lift phase 1 for a 2 km stretch cm warden avenue from aurora road to st johns sideroad because of structural deficiency 25000 sewer replacement on somerville street from obrien to the creek east of market street to replace a broken storm sewer officials however were not prepared to approve the updated list until further consultation with whitehouse new meeting schedule tested stouffville town council will test its new meeting schedule on a six- month trial basis before deciding whether or not the new system works despite ward 6 councillor ken prentices attempts to have the schedule remain as it is majority council voted last week to meet every second and fourth tuesday night at 7 pm where discussions will be voted on and finalized in the same night prentices theory that the new system robs officials of a oneweek grace period to re think issues was shot down by ward 2 councillor stephen beller- by bellerby said the new system will allow officials the opportunity for two weeks to rethink votes instead of the one week waiting period available now bellerby added that the new schedule will also make officials prioritize issues more carefully preventing items of little impor tance from showing up on agendas week after week and mayor fran sainsbury said the new schedule is necessary with the towns efforts to right- size its staff and provides a cost- savings to taxpayers in paper staff time and mailing expenses people cant expect business as usual if they want to keep taxes down the mayor said bellerby added the new system does not shut down public input because agendas will now be avail able on friday afternoons instead of monday mornings i just hope the new schedule does not come at the cost of the effectiveness of this municipal council ward 1 coun cillor ivanka bradley said services cut next week from pagel day including ambulatory care day surgery diagnostic imaging diagnostic cardio respiratory outpatient laboratory outpatient mental health rehabilitation services social work and surgical assessment clinic the emergency ward will operate on a 24hour basis as usual and oncall surgical teams will respond to urgent or lifethreaten ing cases inpatient wards will be staffed at a weekend level as well service will also be cut next week for three days on dec 27 28 and 31 the hospital will run on a weekend level because of the christmas day boxing day and new years day statutory holi days which fall on weekends kids earn extra money become a carrier today attention flyer advertisers we can deliver your flyers for as little as 4 a piece so far this year i we have delivered 30347588 flyers doorumloor in markham 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