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1 0 stouffville suntribune saturday feb 10 2007 go cn marriage ending tenders going out for train crews by david blumenfeld staff writer with recent performance reviews under acceptable levels go transit plans to put out to tender its contract for rail crews to improve service a move that will likely severe 40year ties with cn rail in a december memo from go transit ceo gary mcneil board members were told a competitive bid process would provide the commuter rail service with a higher quality of service at less cost cn provides rail crews for six of seven go lines while cp rail provides crews on the milton line go transit has the right to put its contract for rail crews out for bidding cn rail spokesperson mark hallman said its their prerogative to have what ever process they want to seek com petitive tenders mr hallman said its a business decision theyve made in terms of crewing and mainte nance he said cn will not bid on a new deal its contract with go expires in 2008 cn has provided crews to go transit since its inception go transits ontime perform ance in the latter half of 2006 fluctu ated from a low of 81 per cent in october to a high of 89 per cent in november go said it aims for performance times in the low to mid90s mr hallman could not say if gos decision to put its rail crews contract out to tender would affect an earlier agreement between cn and the unit ed transportation union utu to keep go trains running if a conduc tors strike this weekend i cant speculate the two parties have signed an agreement that in the event of a strike the utu members would continue to protect go com muter rail service mr hallman said although cn conductors have said they will continue to provide crews to go transit in the event of strike they have the right to withdraw service with three days notice as far as we know things are still the same and we will be providing servicebased on the agreement the utu and cn made said stephanie sorensen of go transit public affairs go trains move approximately 165000 passengers every weekday will smaller class sizes mean more busing by teresa latchford staff writer busing students out of their own community to reach a gov ernment class size mandate is ridiculous says ayork region par ent by 2008 the province expects all school boards including those in york will have 90 per cent of primary classes capped at 20 pupils the rest will have no more than 23 to allow for the enroll ment fluctuation to meet the mandate the york public board will create split- grade classes and may bus stu dents to schools outside their communities they cant even bus within their own community right now thomhill parent krista olins said my kids live 01 kilometres too far to be eligible for busing parents want children at near by schools since the community is centred around its school she added to take students to anoth er school in a different town effects the sense of pride children are supposed to have in their communities smaller primary class sizes are supposed to mean more individ ual attention for your child newmarket mother victoria whiteside likes that but said id be beside myself if my child had to be bused to a different commu nity to go to school it would affect him socially not only is she concerned her son would attend a different school than neighbourhood chil dren but seeing classmates after school would prove difficult and even being on a bus at such a young age is not a positive experi ence starting school is hard enough and not knowing anyone makes it even harder mrs whiteside said its not easy for the kids busing students outside their communities will be rare york region district school board spokesperson ross virgo said if it does happen we have created an option for parents to request the student return to the local school in the intermediate grades he said laura sailes richmond hill mother of four has no problem with her children being bused however she would be asking questions if she lived near a school busing is always an issue when it comes to supervision but other than that the board is already busing students she said the other concern with reach ing a capped class size of 20 is cre ating split classes to accommo date the overflow of students whose numbers are not enough to justify another singlegrade class mrs olins believes split classes are fine for bright students but the average student would strug gle to keep up you are squishing two grades in one she pointed out the teachers focus is split time is split and most of us do only one job well unless we are super multitaskers mrs sailes grew up with split classes and has no bad memories her own daughter excelledin a split class since it challenged her to keep up with students in the higher grade sometimes it is hard on the kids or sometimes they do really well she added but with my experience the school tries to match the right more advanced student to a split class i- 0 first dates especially blind dates can be love at first sight or they can go down in flames tell us about your most memorable first dateblind date experience be it with your current partner or someone from the past to enter our valentines day contest go to yorkregioncom and click on the contest icon fill out the online entry form and either type in your story or cut paste from another program maximum length is 250 words all entries will be judged in the categories of 1 romance 2 comedydisaster the best story in each category as judged by our panel will receive a jwnner for two at one of two local restaurants including 15474 yonge st aurora wwwawshucksca deadline for entry is monday feb 12 at 5 pm winning entries will be published on yorkregioncom by february 14 along with a few honourable mentions for contest rules and more details see the online entry form on yorkregioncom yorkregion your community 905 830 1201 wwwy6rkregionc6m every february across the country candy flowers and gifts are exchanged between loved ones all in the name of st valentine but who is this mysterious saint and why do we celebrate this holi day the history of valentines day and its patron saint is shrouded in mys tery but we do know that february has long been a month of romance st valentines day as we know it today contains vestiges of both christian and ancient roman tradition so who was saint valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient rite today the catholic church recognizes at least three different saints named valentine or valentinus all of whom were martyred one legend contends that valentine was a priest who served during the third century in rome when emperor claudius ii decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families he outlawed marriage for young men his crop of potential soldiers valentine realizing the injustice of the decree defied claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret when valentines actions were discovered claudius ordered that he be put to death other stories suggest that valentine may have been killed for attempting to help christians escape harsh roman pris ons where they were often beaten and tortured according to one legend valentine actually sent the first valentine greeting himself while in prison it is believed that valentine fell in love with a young girl who may have been his jailors