Memo  to PTA Presidents 

Halifax District PTA                                                                                        
P O Box 33042                                                                                                              Quinpool Road Post Office                                                                                        Halifax,NS  B3L 4T6


Subject:	April 19th meeting and other related topics of interest 

Just a reminder  that our April 19th meeting  will be attended by our four
former city school board representatives:    Stella Campbell, David  Driscoll,
Carolyn MacFarlane and Jim Houston.  Also attending will be Mr. David Reid, 
our new Superintendent of Schools.  
Main topics of discussion will be the upcoming budget, the high - school 
honours program and commercial partnerships   (the Athena Educational
Partnerships - Youth News Network).
We have been covering the subject of environmentally safe schools quite 
extensively this year.  On March 22nd Mr. Gerald Muise, the newly appointed 
environmental advisor for the Department of Education, came to meet with us.
He is there as a resource person  for the school boards to turn to for advice
in dealing with school environmental problems.  The onus is on the school 
board and there  is as yet no requirement for them to avail themselves of 
his expertise but the very existence of this position and Mr. Muise's
readiness to accept these concerns as genuine and requiring of attention is 
an encouraging development.  


Two notices of motion were announced at the last School Board Meeting (Mar23)
and will be discussed and voted on at the April 27 meeting.  They are 
(1) "That when the HRSB discusses Educational Programs and Services during
Budget we examine providing Art, Music and Drama in an equitable way , across
the full board" (A great idea, but what is our supplementary funding for?)
and   (2) "that the HRSB direct staff to seek in input from our Principals, 
Advisory Councils and Home and School Associations in the Former Dartmouth 
and Halifax School Boards on the allocation of supplementary funding and that 
this information is made available before budget discussions to board members and staff.”  (Maybe it should also be provided to Municipal Councillors?)

We have had a lot of interest in the subject of the disappearance of High 
School Honours courses.  We have sent letters to the school board and to the 
Department of Education. (copies of these letters  can be seen on our website).
The position of the Halifax District PTA is that honour courses are an 
important and positive part of the high school curriculum and should be 
protected.  We are calling for the reinstatement of Honours English at the 
Grade Ten level and the retention of all other Honours courses.  This position
reflects the feelings of all members who have contacted us on this subject.      We were surprised to hear that our honours courses are more or less a local phenomenon and don’t exist system wide.  This may be their Achilles’ heel!

Mr. Don Trider has written a proposal on the subject of the Youth News Network.
You may have seen articles on this subject in the newspapers lately. Opinion 
on commercialismin the schools is diverse and in many cases, emotionally 
charged.  A copy of Mr. Trider's paper will soon be available on our
website.( postscript April 9th- It appears that this is, at least for the 
time being, a dead issue as the Department of Education has decided
against having YNN in the province's schools)