For immediate release
October 22, 2001

Trustees meet with Parliamentary Assistant
 
Belleville - Today at 10:30 a.m. Trustee representatives from the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board met with Garfield Dunlop, Parliamentary Assistant to Janet Ecker, Minister of Education.
        Chair Audrey Carter introduced the meeting agenda to discuss the impacts of the Student Focussed Funding Model on the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board. The Board is underfunded in the areas of Transportation, School Secretarial, Principals / Vice-principals, and School Operations and with declining enrollments projected, the situation will only worsen.
        "We feel the funding model places too much emphasis on the per pupil allotment," said Chair Carter. "We cannot reduce costs at the same rate of pupil decline. There is an immediate and very critical need for additional funding to cover fixed costs."
        Larry Langdon, Director of Education, highlighted some of the great programs and services currently offered to students and touched upon only a few of the achievements of students and staff.
Carter, and Trustee Carl Pitman presented both the long term financial situation and the immediate impacts of the Student Focussed Funding Model to Mr. Dunlop.
        Trustee, Judy Edgar, talked about the actions School Councils are showing in support of the Board of Trustees, including letters to and meetings with MPPs, petitions to the Legislature and letter-writing campaigns from the community.
        "Although there were no promises of additional funding, Mr. Dunlop assured us that the government is looking into the immediate issues of declining enrollments and transportation costs," said Carter. "We remain optimistic, therefore, that there may yet be an announcement of more grant money to offset these expenditures that are currently not covered, in total, by provincial grant money."
        Also in attendance at the meeting were Trustees, Cliff Cotton and Sam Clements; Dallas Sanders, Executive Assistant to Mr. Dunlop; MPP for Hastings - Frontenac - Lennox & Addington, Leona Dombrowsky; MPP for Prince Edward - Hastings, Ernie Parsons and his assistant, Brian Smith; and Marlene Parks on behalf of the MPP for Northumberland, Doug Galt. Dave Rutherford, Superintendent of Finance, and Tara Hall, Communications Officer, attended as resources for the meeting.
 

For information contact:
Audrey Carter, Chair, Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board, 967-2332
Larry Langdon. Director of Education, HPEDSB, 966-1170 ext. 2257