LOGAN'S PONY CLUB
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SUCCESS ACHIEVED THROUGH HARD WORK, PERSEVERANCE
Ancaster News, May 07, 2004
Re: Kennedy Leaves Wallet at Home for Whirlwind Tour. This is an open letter to Gerard Kennedy, Minister of Education.
Just a quick note to let you know how much I appreciated meeting you in person when you visited Franklin Road Public School with Hamilton Mountain MPP and fellow Cabinet Minister Dr. Marie Bountrogianni.
Allow me a moment to highlight some of the many successes my school district (Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board) has achieved through the hard work and perseverance of thousands of stakeholders, students and parents coupled with the good governance and leadership provided by Dr. Jim Murray, the supervisor of the board who was appointed by MPP Elizabeth Witmer, the education minister back then.
Unlike the other previously supervised school boards in Toronto and Ottawa, the Hamilton board was able to balance the books with a surplus for new programs and initiatives, consolidate under-populated and decrepit schools, redefine catchment areas to better reflect the student populations from Junior Kindergarten to graduation, catch up on hundreds of much needed renovations and infrastructure renewal that improved the learning environments for children throughout the school district, which has finally allowed the board to build 10 new state-of-the-art schools over the next five years which will serve the next generation of students very well indeed.
I look forward to continuing to correspond with you and the Ministry of Education about the challenges, and in many cases the successes, that special education children like my son face while trying to get a quality education like the rest of their peers in the classroom.
Mark-Alan Whittle, Hamilton