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Alexandra public school with a current enrolment of 161 students, has been suffering a gradual decline in student enroiment in the last 10 years. Earlier this year, the Waterâ€" loo County Board of Education resolved that the school could not continue to operate at 39.9 per cent of its effective capacity. At that time, the Alexandra School Accomâ€" modation Review Committee was charged with the task of finding a solution to the problem. The comâ€" mittee investigated approximately 25 proposed alternative uses for the school, and in its report, recomâ€" mended three proposals that it had going into operation in early December will Janet Chisholim, Bell‘s manager locaily, said the new equipment toâ€"person, collect, long distance card and third number billing calls with reduced assisâ€" tance from the operaâ€" An end to the uncertainty about the future of Alexangra public school may soon be at hand. Trustâ€" ees of the Waterioo County Board of Education plan to resoive the issue :t. the board‘s next meeting Thursâ€" y. . At last week‘s meeting, the board voted to keep Alexandra open to aeperate as an alternative school, providing there is sufficient enrolâ€" ment of students in the new school to make the project feasible. Yet to be decided, however, is the type of alternative that will be adopted for Alexandra. At the meetâ€" ing, trustees discussed three potenâ€" tial alternatives for Alexandra: the Alexandra Staff Alternative, Process Place and Operation Open Door. A final decision on the matter was deferred until information on cost estimates for each proposal could be provided. Bell Canada 'mti: putting into opera new equipment which will provide a fast and easy way to place long distance calls. Alexandra â€" uncertainty . soon resolved New equipment aids Bell long distance Elizabeth Witmer also enable customers to dial their overseas Instead of having the operator place the call, the new system allows the caller to dial the This is especially imâ€" portant during the upâ€" coming holiday season, said Chishoim, because the lowest rates apply number. While auto mated equipment routes the call, the opâ€" érator will arrange the billing or personâ€"toâ€" person details. grams designed for students at kindergarten to grade six levels. The Alexandra Staff Aiternative involves an enrichment program in the arts, environmental studies and electronics (computers). Taught as a supplement to the regular proâ€" gram, it would make extensive use of community resources and volunâ€" Process Place concerns itself with the total growth of the child, putting emphasis on both the emotional and cognitive development. A distinâ€" guishing characteristic of the proâ€" gram is its stress on the importance of preâ€"service and inâ€"service trainâ€" ing of teachers as a group. Operation Open Door, a program that has already been implemented at Bluevale collegiate, provides adults with an opportunity to return to school and a comfortable learning environment in which to do it. The program has shown dramatic growth in its 15 months of operation and is currently seeking a more suitable location. Many trustees at the meeting echoed the concern of residents in the Alexandra school area that the issue be resolved quickly so that any changes to Alexandra may be imâ€" plemented in time for the 1983â€"84 school year. Lynne Woolstencroft, in an interâ€" view with the Chronicle expressed support for the board‘s decision to turn Alexandra into an alternative school. Woolstencroft sees alternaâ€" tive education as a potential saviour of core area schools. ~â€"_**We must have a magnet to keep young families in the core," she said. As an older school, Alexandra may be deficient in some ways, she explained. We must make the school attracâ€" tive in other ways. If we made boundaries flexible and offered one or two strong alternative programs, we could solve the population probâ€" lem," she said. Elizabeth Witmer is also supporâ€" tive of alternative schools but feels that the board‘s decision on which alternative to adopt for Alexandra School, will hinge on the cost of implementing such a program. *‘*I don‘t think I can support any venture that has a high cost inâ€" volved," she said. The board will have to weigh which alternative will best serve the needs of the peopie, in Witmer‘s *‘I personally favor Process Place because that‘s what the community wants," she said. "I am aware that Open Door does need a new home. I don‘t feel we can discount that. We will have to decide which one of those needs is greater." Both the Alexandra Staff Alternaâ€" designed for students at the on overseas calls when dialed directly. Full details for placâ€" ing overseas calis are included in the front pages of the telephone The new system, deâ€" signed by Beliâ€" Northern research in Ottawa, is currently in operation in such areas Ottawa and London. There features will not be available to cusâ€" tomers in the St. Clemâ€" ents exchange until the new switching centreé is installed in 1983. Harold Duggan (left) and Peter Jackiin (right) study a letter which notified them of their win in the Dorothy Shoemaker Literary Awards Contest. The boys are students at St. Jude‘s School in Waterioo, a school which provides assistance to students with learning problems. Pat Arbuckle photo Enough to make you stand up and cheer Pat Arbuckile Chronicle Staff They are bursting with pride this week at St. Jude‘s school in Waterloo. And with just cause. Last week, two of the school‘s students were notified that they are winners in the Dorothy Shoemaker Literary Awards comâ€" petition â€" and what makes that announceâ€" ment even more remarkable for the St. Jude‘s pair is that both of them, Peter Jacklin, 9, of 44 Hickory St. in Waterioo and 13â€"yearâ€"oid Haroid Duggan of Stratford both suffer from learning disabilities. To say nothing of the fact they were competing against approximately 700 students from the regular school systems and individuals from the community. â€" The Dorothy Shoemaker Literary Contest, sponsored by participating libraries in the Midwestern Regional Library System, awards cash prizes annually in prose and poetry. The contest, which was first held in 1967 at the Kitchener Public Library, was named in honor of Dorothy Shoemaker, a former librarian at the Kitchener centre. Prizes are awarded in three categories: junior, under 12 years; intermediate, 13 to 17 years, and senior, 18 years and older. Everyone was urged to submit something to the contest at the end of September. ‘*We felt it would be a good exercise for the students to submit their poetry," Gore explained. ‘"We didn‘t feel anyone had a particular chance of winning." But Peter and Harold proved them wrong. The boys, who both continued to write poetry in their spare time, were prizeâ€"winners in the junior category. _ o â€" -IIIV“‘ “I;-v ll"(lll ©CREDOEY l‘-‘: ;-'““w. _Students at St. Jude‘s developed an interest in poetry in a poetry appreciation class, conducted this fall by teacher Karen Peter, who has been experiencing weakâ€" ness in most areas of the regular school curriculum, submitted two poems, entitled Cats and Kittens. Both were inspired by his kitten Spooky, he expiained. One was a sixâ€"line diamond poem and the other a [hikg. a Japolen‘stylo d poetry Elnt is ‘The students became turned on to poetry," said Fred Gore, director of St. Jude‘s. syllables per line. When he learned of his win last Tuesday on Bnthis excitement was matched only by his parents‘, Gail and Douglas Jacklin‘s surâ€" prise. They were unaware that Peter had entered the contest. Anxious to spread news of his victory, Peter persuaded his mother to drive him back to the school to show the letter which notified him of his win, to Gore Harold entered two Haiku poems in the contest, entitled Jam and Sleep, "thinking that I would never win," he said. Harold‘s victory is especially satisfying both to the staff at St. Jude‘s and Harold himself because the 13â€"yearâ€"old suffers a learning disability in written expressive language skills, the ability to transduce information into written form. As Gore pointed out, the writing of poetry, particularly Haiku, reâ€" quires considerable manipulation of written language. ‘"‘This is the first big thing I‘ve ever entered that I have won, except Wintario," said Harold. planning to attend the awards ceremony on Friday evening at the Cambridge Public Library where contest winners will be announced and prizes awarded by author June.Callwood and professor John English. and the other staff members. Meanwhile Peter and Harold are not planning to rest on their laurels for long. Both are gearing up to enter more contests, even after they return to the regular school system next September. **(They are thinking) if Peter and Harold can do it, it is possible for us as well to get recognition in terms of academics." â€"‘The boys‘ win has aiso had an effect on staff at the school. ‘"It made me aware that students with learning disabilities can excel if given the right direction," said Gore. "I have been as high as the boys. I got just as much a lift out if it as them." _*"I would like to enter any contest," said Peter. ‘"For sure, I would like to enter other contests, if I had a chance to win," qualified Harold. There promises to be some stiff competiâ€" tion from the other students at St. Jude‘s, however. Both students have been ‘"on top of the world" since learning of their victory and their success is having a profound effect on the school‘s other pupils, said Gore. ‘"‘They are walking around with a real feeling of power, that they are capabile of