By Pepper Parr
November 22, 2106
BURLINGTON, ON
After an hour and a half of Question and Answer done on line – does the public, and particularly the parents with children at Pearson and Central high school, know any more than they did when they woke up in Monday morning.
Not really. Everything Director of Education Stuart Miller and his Senior Manager Planning, Dom Renzella said was already public.
Director of Education Stuart Miller looking just a little tired after telling his story for the umpteenth time.
What did come through, even though Miller didn’t say so in so many words was that the Board of Education wants to hear what the community thinks should be done.
Miller has explained that given the information they have the recommendation that went to the trustee was what they felt was best. Of the 19 recommendations that were worked up – # 19 was seen to be the best one to go forward with – and as Miller has said time and again – it is a recommendation that he is fully prepared to have rejected.
It’s a starting point.
Miller agreed that there is a good case to be made for closing Bateman – it’s a couple of km away from Nelson. What wasn’t heard all that clearly is that Bateman is a newer school with better program offerings than Central and that for the educators it’s all about the programs for the students.
Community is not the focus for the Board of Education and it is on this issue that the divide is going to take place.
Central needs a lot of work – it is an old school that has fallen behind.
There was the additional issue that if Central is closed the PARC process will have to be done all over the for elementary classes given in the building – but that wasn’t an issue for Miller or Renzella.
Dom Renzella, supervisor of planning for the Halton District school board.
Miller got taken to task for advocating bigger schools – the 1200 student level – he agreed that there was merit in the argument for small schools but kept coming back to the need to offer as much subject selection as possible to the students.
What hasn’t been seen, so far, are any totally out of the box suggestions from the community. If anything out of the ordinary is going to be done with our high schools it is going to have to come from the public. That kind of thing is not going to come from this Board and its numerous Superintendents.
We did learn that the Board currently has 300 portables in use and that at some schools there are students who have every class in a portable.
Someone (there were no names attached to the questions that were read out) asked why on line and not live for the Q&A. Miller said he didn’t think there was a location that could hold all the people that would want to talk – and when you go live with hundreds of people in the room – it does get messy.
Miller doesn’t like messy and his colleague Renzella shudders at that idea.
Miller kept trying to get across that there was a lot of opportunity for people to get answers to questions they have. And that is true – but it was clear from many of the questions asked that there is a trust issue.
The two were asked why Hayden was built and the answer they gave wasn’t all that convincing. Except for the fact that there wasn’t a high school in that north east part of the city where a lot of growth had taken place.
Hayden High, Burlington’s newest high school built as part of a complex that includes a Recreational Centre and a public library with a skate park right across the street.
Early in the 90’s the planners at the board could see that growth in Alton and the Orchard was going to require a high school.
Boards of education don’t just get to build a high school because they think one is going to be needed. They have to put together a business case and convince the province that the need is real.
One of the unique and really interesting aspects of Hayden high school is that it includes a public library and a recreation centre. In that sense it is probably the high school in the city with the most “community” in it.
If the decision the trustees make ends of requiring more busing – that is something they are going to have to deal with. Miller admitted that there is a shortage of bus drivers – it is a problem that will have to be dealt with – he didn’t have an answer – he was just confident that I would be worked out.
The implementation of whatever decision is made would be in 2018 – effective at the start of the school year in September – which is when the trustees will be running for re-election. Watch for an interesting set of contests at the board of education level.
That might draw a higher turnout that would inevitably impact city council results.
What happens to the property should a school be closed?
Lester B. Pearson students demonstrating when teachers were on strike.
On that Miller covered all the bases. It isn’t going to go to a developer – or if that eventually happened it would be because no one else wanted it.
The property has to be offered to other school boards, colleges and universities that might have an interest, then the municipality. If one of them take up the opportunity it then goes on the market and sold at fair market value.
Miller was emphatic that the board does not have the ability to sell the land to anyone.
Miller seemed to flip flop a bit on involving the students; first the listeners were told that they were not going to be involved until February so they could concentrate on their exams in January but a survey is going to be sent out to the students in December.
What is his whole process going to cost? The Board allocated $100,000 in its budget.
Stuart Miller and Dom Renzella taking questions from an on-line audience Monday evening.
Miller admits that this process is having an impact on both staff and students. “I can see it in their eyes” said Miller and “we get that”.
Miller described the PARC as the process that lets the community gives its input – the Director of Education uses that input to give his final recommendation to the trustees.
The trustees make the final decision – and it is not just the four Burlington trustees – all 11 trustees get to cast a vote on this one.
There was one issue that was not clear to this listener and that was the PARC would not be making a direct recommendation to the Director. Then what will they be doing. I want to get some clarification on that point.
I am sure that holding the Q&A online seemed like a good idea at the time and there was nothing wrong with the way the process went Monday evening.
But it was a little like having plastic covers on the chesterfield – it just didn’t seem right.
