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D.uwck Iyssen and the zest of the ISH EFoundation a new Warertoo Interâ€"Faith Supportive Housing group. should be com mended for their hopes to clean up the locat homeless problem. The churches have witnessed firsthand through the annual Out of the Cold shelter program that homelessness in Waterloo is on the Theyre proposing a supportive housing model that would tie bachâ€" Homeless issue not churches‘ problem Hendry‘s column was way off base Waterloo‘s trustees are very capable School councils were conceived as collaborative. communityâ€"based orgamizations. "Education is a partâ€" nership involving parents. students, teachers. principals, school boards. governments. and the community." Suggesting that the umbrella organization for school councils in the WRDSB has the right to be a parent run organization without representation from those groups identified by legislation and the Mirustry guidelines is not only arbiâ€" trary. but appears to be illegal. armer Waterloo Region Disâ€" Fnc’. school board | WRDSB:i trustee john Hendry‘s article last week â€" Waterioo Chronicle. Sept. 29. 2004) was clearlv off base in premise and conclusion regarding the Waterioo Region Assembly of School Councils. WRAPSC. the Waterioo Region Assembly of Public School Counâ€" cils. is failing to meet the mandate of school councils as outlined in legislation in The Education Act ©2000) and The School Councils Guide. produced by the Ministry of Education {200 i In direct contradiction to this, WRAPSC describes the Assembly Structure thus: "The Assembly is an independent. parent/guardian run. nonâ€"political. umbrella organizaâ€" tion of School Councils at the Waterioo Regron District school One cannot claim to be an umbreila organization while at the same time ignoring the mandate of the very organizations you claim to he bringing together Should the group wish to repre sent only parents. they should iden ufy themseives as such. They must lwould like to respond to John vs article about the motion to establish am advisory council i Wateriloo Chronicle. Sept. 29. 2004). This advisory council was never uxended to replace school counâ€" cils. It was intended to help school councils. School councils are very iumportant and necessary. Parents are valuable partners. I‘m sure it‘s not a mystery to john that bureauâ€" crats and trustees are far removed from school councils and teachers that serve on the front lines â€"conâ€" nabIg‘s elorâ€"apartmentâ€"style living accomâ€" modations to services like job trainâ€" ing. education and development and independent living skills trainâ€" ing, while offering access to mental health and substance abuse counâ€" selling. WISH is now on the road to being incorporated and getting its charitable status. Once that‘s comâ€" plete. the group will seek funding from all three levels of government, as well as through the Kitchenerâ€" sequently, sometimes making deciâ€" sions without their valuable input. Forgive me for wanting to bring all of the partners of education together â€" trustees, teachers, parâ€" ents who could be members of the assembly, community members and the director â€" twice a year to discuss educational issues that could potentially have a positive impact on our students. Of concern to teachers is the fact that teacher representatives have been denied access to parents at the regional level. A callaborative, communityâ€"based ideal is impossiâ€" ble in the present structure. The approach of the parents who craftâ€" ed the charter for WRAPSC actually serves as a wedge. dividing parents from professional educators. Information does not flow between teacher representatives, principals, nonâ€"teaching staff, comâ€" munity members and WRAPSC because of the inability to open lines of communication that are not filtered by the Steering committee. Promoting communication and a working relationship with all of our partners in education has always been my goal. not continue the charade of preâ€" senting themselves as representaâ€" tives of school councils. For former trustee Hendry‘s benefit, let me highlight the following: EACH SCHOOL DOES NOT HAVE A PARâ€" ENT COUNCIL, THEY HAVE A SCHOOL COUNCIL In Waterloo Region, a small group of parents appear to have seized control of the WRAPSC by controlling the Steering committee for the organization. Ten parents administer the operation of the Assembly, set agenda items, research issues. plan meetings and receive delegations. When local teachers compare the efforts of WRAPSC to People For Education. we can but shake our heads in disappointment. For eight years, teacher repre sentatives, naonâ€"teaching staff, board officials and school trustees have led the fight against inade quate funding in education WRAPSC has done very little to advocate publicly for the funding our schools require to provide the ) THE CHRONICL] ns adIUKOINET COMMENT Warerloo Community Foundation, the Trillium Foundation, regional and municipal grants and fundraisâ€" ing from private and corporate donors. Their enthusiasm is inspiring, but the responsibility shouldn‘t rest on their shoulders. As Tyssen said. the City of Waterâ€" loo should be leading the charge in the fight to get homelessness off our streets, instead of letting others bear the local burden. In conclusion, if this motion passes, perhaps John could join the advisory council and help find some positive solutions for our stuâ€" dents instead of continually critiâ€" cizing those who don‘t see things his way. Last year WRAPSC claimed to represent school councils when they wrote a letter to the Ministry to complain of the decision to use a modified calendar. They did this after polling their own members (receiving a scant 18 replies to an eâ€" mail}. This is hardly representative of the feelings of the parents of some 60,000 students. What they ought to have done was to stay neuâ€" tral during a debate clearly outside of their mandate. I would also like to reassure Mr. Hendry that the people of Waterloo have chosen three very capable and intelligent trustees. best possible opportunities for our children. WRAPSC has protested seldom, not over the issues such as the closâ€" ing of our school libraries and the loss of teacherâ€"librarians; massive cuts to special education, which included the loss of teachers‘ posiâ€" tions, educational assistants‘ posiâ€" tions; secretarial time; and custodiâ€" al time. WRAPSC has never orgaâ€" nized to protest the lack of textâ€" books, lack of classroom supplies, aging computers, split grades or overcrowded classrooms. It is time for WRAPSC to decide: are they a parent council or a school council? If they decide they want to be a school council, then they must begin to work collaboraâ€" tively with teachers, administrators. trustees, nonâ€"teaching staff, stuâ€" dents and community members. The best way to effect positive change for our children is by particâ€" ipating in the collaborative, com munityâ€"hased madel provided in the legislation creating school councils. Rick Moffitt FElementary Teachers Federation of Ontario _ Waterloo Region Cindy Watson Trustee. Waterloo Region District school board Il' the NHL lockout continues, there is a real possibility that the league may shrink once the players get back to work and some of the smaller market franchises discover their teams are no longer financially viable. If this happens, what about the idea of returning to original six hockey? The NHL could have the six original teams: Toronâ€" to, Montreal, Detroit, Chicago, New York and Boston, with Vanâ€" couver thrown in for good measure. Add a European division and now you will have NHL hockâ€" ey that‘s great to watch all year long and not just during the plavoffs. Teams would at least be located in areas where fans know the meaning of winter and have actually seen snow on the ground rather than just on a postcard. How the NHL expects the game to survive long term in places like Florida, Arizona. California and South Carolina defies common sense and logic. Local sports fans need not despair because there is plenty of live action right here in the city. The Waterloo Siskins are reinâ€" vigorated with new leadership and are making great strides on and off the ice. If you want to see a lot of goals and action, check out the Siskins at the Waterioo Memorial Recreation Complex one Sunday afternoon. Incidentally, when it comes to TV ratings, more people watch monster truck pulls on U.S. television than watch the Stanley Cup playoffs. Go figure! University football is also in full flight and both local schools have exciting teams this year. Wilfrid Laurier is one of the top teams in the country and recently knocked off the McMaster Marauders, who were on the longest winning streak in OUA history at 39 games. Way to go Hawks! The Waterloo Warriors have fielded a competitive team and hopefully they can muster a few more wins and get into the playoffs. There is a univerâ€" sity football game every week at Uniâ€" versity Stadium (formerly Seagram stadium}) and it is well worth the few bucks to watch some great student athletes in action. The U.S. presidential election is heating up. and if the last week‘s debate on foreign policy is any indication, it‘s sure is going to be a close one. Many analysts described Kerry‘s performance as mare pres idential and more sureâ€"footed. Bush, on the other hand, per formed adequately enough but has come under much criti cism for his demeanor during the debate. The contrast was striking. When Bush spoke, the split screen showed Kerry nodding his head and appearing quite pleasant. Conversely Bush looked petulant, angry and annoyed when ever Kerry spoke. The Bush camp was aware of this potential pitfall and unsuccessfully lobbied the network to keep the cameras off the candidates when the other candidate was speaking. Kerry appeared respectful and kept his emotions in check when under the glare of the camera. Bush didn‘t seem to care how disrespectful and pugnacious he appeared on or off the camera. This may seem like a minor point, but these differences of politeness may very well define the differences in the men and their view of the world. A more polite White House would bode well for diplomacy and international relations. It is hard to say but in a close presidential race the American people may choose the candidate with the better manners, a simple yet insightful way to make a good decision at the ballot box. Turning to Canadian politics, with the federal election behind us the knives are apparently out for Prime Minister Paul Martin. According to some newspapers, the speculation is that with a minority government in place, the PM will call an election in 18 months to two years and after that â€" win or lose â€" the race to be his successor will be on. The story is more rumour than truth, but faced with the reviewing the caliber of some of the potential successors to the PM, one pundit suggested that maybe former U.S. president Bill Clinton should renounce his American citizenship, become a Canadian citizen, and run for the leadership of the Liberal Party Kerry vs. Bush Bill Clinton as prime minister of Canada? Well, stranger things have happened. but this idea will likely never become reality. Eâ€"mail your questions/{comments to sean@seanstrick land.com. Ideas worth repeating