Fort Frances High School will facilitate its bus departures with a one-way road after the Northwest Catholic District School Board approved use of the St. Francis Sportsfield parking area last night.
The proposed “new road” runs northwest parallel to the high school, and branching through a wide gap in the fence around the parking lot to St. Francis Sportsfield.
It previously was used by heavy equipment during construction of the “multi-use” facility but has been used since September by buses leaving the school.
This path allows buses, which pick up students on the west side of the school after entering the property from McIrvine Road, to exit the grounds through the gap and through the Sportsfield parking lot back onto McIrvine Road.
The “proper” route–turning north around the school, past the faculty parking area, cross south in front of the main entrance and handicap parking area, and leaving via a two-way road onto Keating Avenue–has only been rarely used due to “bottle-necking” of traffic and danger to students, FFHS principal Terry Ellwood said this morning.
He noted that to pave a proper route to the parking lot would require the school board’s permission. The Town of Fort Frances has no problem with the path, and referred final consent of the project back to the separate board earlier this month.
The Rainy River District School Board will maintain the route, which should be paved this spring.
The item is expected to show up at the next town council meeting.
Also at last night’s meeting, the board agreed to raise its mileage rate from $.31/km to $.35/km up to 7,500 km in light of recent hikes at the gas pumps.
While the revised rate will help cover higher gas expenses, it will not greatly affect the administrative funding portion of the board’s 1999-2000 budget, Education Director Carol-Lynne Oldale previously said.
Although the board would bump the mileage rate up to $.37/km for trips beyond 7,500 km, said controller of finance Chris Howarth, the likelihood of any trustee or staff member travelling so far were slim, and not warranting a change in policy.
Besides, he added, the higher rate would become a taxable benefit, and therefore self-defeating, under Revenue Canada guidelines.
The new rate goes into effect today.
In other business at last night’s meeting, the board:
•read the Jan. 27 announcement by Education minister Janet Ecker, which declared a three-year plan to improve accountability and altered funding for special education;
•agreed to submit its 2000-2001 school year calendar to the Ministry of Education for approval, which, if approved, will see students going back to school Aug. 29, 2000 and ending school June 20, 2001, with a slightly extended Christmas break;
•accepted the February personnel report, which showed the hiring of educational assistant Brenda Dovick at Sacred Heart School in Sioux Lookout until June, 2000;
•decided which trustees would fill the memberships of its 2000 committees; and
•looked at cash disbursements for January, which totalled $706,987.30.
Fort Frances Times
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