THE VOICE OF EAST ELGIN FOR 140 YEARS.
Express-O-Gram THEIR TIME HAS COME – AND GONE There is every indicator that our Thames Valley District School Board has lost the plot and should disband. This is the entity that is entrusted with the expense of almost a billion dollars a year. It demonstrated several years ago to be largely out of touch with the rural communities with the threatened closing of several area schools. It was only demonstrative and persistent public protest that overturned those decisions which threatened the educational backbone of several communities, especially Springfield. But that was then. Now we find this clumsy powerunto-itself is obsessed with secrecy, a threat to any healthy democracy. They operate mostly in a vacuum and recent action would suggest they want it kept that way. The stumbling point covered in this week’s Express, was a report submitted to the board by a two-year internal task force studying rural education. That’s us. The task force had been mandated to listen to the ideas and concerns of rural communities and develop a strategy and recommendation to strengthen and better fund rural schools. It had been intended to inspire “honest and open dialogue”. But board staff had halted the report before it was finished, without explanation. Trustees Megan Ruddock (Elgin-St. Thomas) and Sean Hunt (Middlesex) attempted a motion to continue the study. Mr. Hunt said that the task force had improved relations with rural communities with the reassurance that “the board is listening”. Despite that the board staff stopped assisting the project. CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
WHERE THE COMMUNITY MEETS
all passion from speakers Steve Peters, Petrusia Hontar and Daria Hryckiw. It raised at least double its goal of $10,000 for Ukrainian relief, Petrusia reported. Petrusia opened up the presentations, asking the audience to stand during a video where a choir sang the Ukrainian national anthem. “It really hits hard now,” she said of the anthem. “We want to be free in our land.” The anthem went to the essence of what Ukrainians were. “We just want to be left alone.
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Board buries rural schools study
by Rob Perry Local Journalism Initiative reporter Thames Valley District School Board trustees, in a split vote on Tuesday, March 22, effectively entombed under a mask of “confidentiality” three years of work by its rural education task force. Trustee and task force member Sean Hunt called the move “a slap in the face” to those who participated on the task force and provided input at community meetings. The contents of a draft report from the task force made up of four trustees and one elected official each from Elgin, Middlesex and Oxford counties was suppressed by board staff members earlier this month. But the mandate of the committee itself, outlined in its draft report (and released by the tree municipal elected officials on it), included, “Report findings and make recommendations to the board regarding rural schools.” (Elected municipal leaders who had been task force members sent the draft report to their county councils, concerned that its suppression would obliterate the work that had been done. As a result, the Express has seen and reviewed the draft report and found nothing that would require any degree of confidentiality.) At the meeting March 22,
trustees voted to circulate the draft to the three First Nations communities with education service agreements with TVDSB, its special education advisory committee, the board’s equity and inclusion committee and board administrators for comment. “The advisory committees of the board (planning and priorities advisory committee and/or program and school services committee) would receive the feedback from those stakeholder groups and consider it along with the full report,” TVDSB said in a statement. However, trustees who had been task force members had pleaded with their colleagues to allow them to conduct the additional consultations as a task force, and then issue a final report to the board in June. The discussion on the report and its fate didn’t start until 10:30 p.m. March 22, three-anda-half hours into the meeting. Trustees on the task force included Arlene Morell (Middlesex) as its chairman; Meagan Ruddock and Bruce Smith (Elgin-St. Thomas); and Sean Hunt (Middlesex). Municipal leaders on it were: Central Elgin Mayor Sally Martyn, Zorra Mayor Marcus Ryan and North Middlesex Deputy Mayor Adrian Cornelissen. Trustee Morell thanked members of the public, includ-
“March for Ukraine” raises at least $20,000 to aid that war-torn country by Rob Perry Local Journalism Initiative reporter All 250 tickets were sold out and the CASO Station in St. Thomas was standing room only for a “March for Ukraine” relief fundraiser Tuesday, March 22, for that beleaguered European country, invaded first by Russia in 2014 and then again starting in February. The event included vendors, tastings of traditional Ukrainian foods including borscht (beet soup), sausage and varenyky (boiled dumplings) and most of
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We don’t want to be part of another country.” Steve, former MPP and Speaker of the Ontario Legislature and currently a city councillor, talked about the history of Ukrainians in Canada and, in particular, St. Thomas. “I’m going to cry,” he said as he tried to start his remarks and, while he didn’t, his voice remained tinged with emotion through his presentation. “A lot of you have known me a long time, but a lot of you don’t know my origin.” His grandfather, on moving
to Canada from Ukraine, had to change his name to Peters “because he was a foreigner,” Steve continued. His maternal grandmother left Ukraine in 1928 while still a teenager, a priest having changed her birth certificate to say she was 18 so she could leave. Despite being two generations removed from Ukraine, “There’s a loyalty to the old country I can’t explain.” He recalled his grandmother sending cash and care packages back to Ukraine. “It was just CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
St. Thomas Councillor Steve Peters was the keynote speaker for the event. He spoke of the history of Ukrainian immigrants coming to Canada, including from his own family. He even wore sneakers in the colours of the Ukrainian flag, blue and yellow. (AE/Rob Perry)
Daria Hryckiw, left, of London’s Ukrainian Centre, sold traditional handicrafts to participants at the March for Ukraine fundraiser held at the CASO Station in St. Thomas on Tuesday, March 22. About 250 attended, which raised at least $20,000, double the original goal. (AE/Rob Perry)
ing elected municipal leaders, who had joined the task force trustees on the front steps of the board administration offices in London prior to the board meeting. She outlined the mandate that the board had given to the rural education task force three years earlier, including: • Listen to the ideas and concerns of rural communities;
• Generate fresh perspectives related to rural schools and communities; Develop innovative solu• tions for consideration for a TVDSB rural education strategy; Report findings and make • recommendations to the board regarding rural schools. The task force was also sup-
Enjoy the sun – while you can. Dozens of people visited Port Bruce for a walk along the Lake Erie shoreline earlier this month, when temperatures reached a high of 12 degrees Celcius on Thursday, March 17. As seasons change from winter to spring in March, the weather has been varying greatly, from
posed to bring TVDSB into line with provincial direction on strengthening rural schools, to allow them to qualify for Rural and Northern educational support funding. The report was currently a draft document, and had been intended to start “honest and open dialogue,” she added. Continuing, she said the work of the committee in conducting
final consultations and preparing a final report had been paused “through staff direction.” Despite that, the trustee members of the task force believed their mandate should continue until June, so they could do the work they needed to complete their mission. That would include seeking feedback from “focus groups” CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
the 12°C high, to a low of -24°C on March 3. This week alone has already seen severe winds and -16°C cold on Sunday, white-out snowfall on Monday, shining sun on Tuesday, and predictions of freezing rain, snow, more sun and temperatures reaching 12°C for the remainder of the week. (AE/Renée Hueston)
No changes to TVDBS’s trustee distribution rural-urban power balance is maintained by Rob Perry of The Aylmer Express Thames Valley District School Board members voted unanimously on Tuesday, March 22, to make no changes to the current 6-6 balance between rural and urban trustees. That vote followed a failed proposal by a London trustee to move tracts of city voters into surrounding rural regions (including Elgin). The board, founded through an amalgamation of Elgin, Oxford and Middlesex boards with their London counterpart in 1998, has always had six urban and six rural trustees, plus an appointed trustee from the local First Nations communities. That balance has been achieved by declaring Middlesex as an “underpopulated municipality,” which gives it two trustees, not just the one it would otherwise receive under a provincial formula. Some municipal elected officials had worried that could change this year. The board was required, every four years before municipal elections, to decide how it wanted to distribute trustees through the Thames Valley region. If Middlesex wasn’t again declared an “underpopulated municipality, London would gain a seventh trustee and effective control of the board. General Legal Counsel Ali Chahbar told trustees that the number of trustees a school board could have, was based on the number of electors (i.e., qualified voters) within it. With 454,087 electors in London and the three counties, TVDSB fell into the 400,000 to 999,999 category, with 12
elected trustees. With no “low-population” designation, Middlesex with 50,563 electors would have one trustee, Oxford with 83,4790 would have two, Elgin with 62,355 would have two and London with 257,690 would have seven. With the low-population designation, Middlesex would lose a trustee and London would gain one. TVDSB, he noted, had to submit a report outlining how trustees would be distributed this election to the Ontario Ministry of Education by March 31. He added that the population data needed to make the decision had only been delivered by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation to the board on Feb. 15.
Gonzales’ boundary change proposal
London Trustee Laura Gonzales, recently appointed to fill a vacancy, noted that watching board meetings for the last eight years, she had seen “these very interesting relationships” between urban and rural trustees. This, she said, was an opportunity for all trustees to come together and represent the board area as a whole, and make changes to ensure that representation was by population. Trying to buy into the urban versus rural mindset “is a disservice to our students,” she claimed. “It’s not even real.” The actual situation was more, “counties versus London, which is dangerous,” she believed. She proposed that Middlesex not be deemed to be a lowpopulation municipality. Instead, she moved the fol-
lowing: that London’s Ward 3 be reallocated with its 15,979 potential voters to Middlesex and its 50,563 voters; and That London’s Ward 14, with 16,245 possible voters, be reallocated to Elgin and its 62,355. She also proposed shuffling two more London wards within the city’s total of 14, with two trustees each elected from three “groupings” of wards. The changes would also equalize the workload between trustees and the number of
schools and residents they represented, she said. London Trustee Corrine Rahman seconded the motion. “Make a bold decision in order to support more collaborative decision-making across Thames Valley,” she urged. When she had first run for trustee, she had expected to represent the entirety of TVDSB, but afterward found a “pattern of discussion that divided the board,” and wasn’t CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
Cerna will run, won’t apologize Councillor Rick Cerna announced at a Malahide council meeting Thursday, March 17, that while he didn’t know the plans of anyone else now on council, he did intend to run for re-election in October. He wasn’t certain about which ward he would run in, “but not in Port Bruce. They are not happy campers down there. (But) I still stand by what I said.” Cr. Cerna was elected Ward 4 Councillor in the last election, which encompasses the southern end of the township (south of Sparta Line), including that lakeside hamlet. He had made some critical remarks at a Catfish Creek Conservation Authority board meeting, where he represents Malahide, on Thursday, March 10 about the behaviour of some residents in Port Bruce during flooding there Feb. 17 and 18. Those comments included: “They don’t think sometimes” – of people who refused to leave their homes until they realized
how bad the flooding was, called 911 for help, and when firefighters arrived refused to leave again. In another instance he recounted driving through a flooded area with the conservation authority manager, and a resident complained they were going too fast and creating a wake. “And he’s worried about a wake? That’s the mentality of some of the people down there. You can’t fix stupid,” he added. His comments were not meant to be a blanket statement, he said, but when a resident was offered rescue help from firefighters but turned it down, then called for a rescue and then again turned it down when firefighters arrived, that wasn’t good. “I know they’re a little ticked. I will not apologize for what I said, but it’s only intended for those people.” Mayor Mennill noted that Cr. Cerna’s decision not to run in Port Bruce’s ward “may be a wise decision.”