The Bluewater Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC) has some advice for the school board when it comes to saving money.
The group wants the board to only use Word Perfect as a computer word processing program in schools, instead of Microsoft Word, which comes with extra licensing fees.
Dave Mason — a former teacher with the To Realize Advanced Independent Learning, or TRAIL program — says the savings could be reinvested into more special-ed programming.
The savings are estimated at 100 thousand dollars.
Mason says other school boards have decided to go Word Perfect only.
Funding for TRAIL was slashed in budget cuts in 2007 and 2008.
Mason — who also represents the local Association of Bright Children — says when the cuts were made, provincial regulations requiring school councils to be consulted were not followed.
Lillian Waterworth, a parent from Huron Heights School in Kincardine says parents were not notified when TRAIL programming for Grades 6, 7 and 8 was cut.
She feels like it was taken away with no justification and left students wondering.
Mason says other programs that have recently suffered include speech pathology which has gone from direct service to assessments only.
SEAC would like to see the software change phased in over three years.
The board has decided that staff should look into the matter before any decision is made.
Board Chair Jennifer Yenssen says she understands what SEAC is trying to do and appreciates their sincerity.
But she adds the manager of information technology should look into the feasibility of only using one type of software before trustees make a decision.