By Pepper Parr
April 5, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
City council had decided they were going to keep a barge pole length between what they do and what the Public school board has to do.
These two organizations –both vital to the smooth operation and functioning of the city are far apart when it comes to working together on joint issues. The city and the school board are so far apart that they don’t even meet on a formal basis.
The Halton District Regional Police make a presentation to the city; the Library makes a presentation to the city. When the Board of Education meets with the city it is usually at the staff level and then it usually boils down to a turf war. These guys tend not to play golf with each other.
Everyone in the city is the lesser for that political failure.
When the Board of Education told its trustees that it believed it was necessary to close two high schools (that was one of 19 options the School Board staff had considered) City council seemed to be hoping that the matter would stay at the school board level – let them deal with the inevitable political fallout.
Councillors Sharman and Lancaster were te only two who wanted the city to write a letter to the Minister of Education to halt the Program Accommodation Review the school board was undertaking.
And it seemed to be working out – that was until Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman asked Council to waive the advance notice of a motion rule and debate his motion that the city write the Ministry of Education asking for an immediate halt to the school closing process now in place to consider the closing of one and perhaps two of the seven high schools in the city.
It has become the hottest political potato the city has faced in a decade.
There was considerable discussion and debate on whether city council was going to let the Sharman motion come forward. Eventually they did on a 5 for, 2 against vote.
One of the negative votes was cast by Ward 2 city Councillor Marianne Meed Ward who argued that it was too late for the city to have any impact on the decision.
Meed Ward said: The moment for the city to show some leadership passed when city council chose to appoint the city manager to the PARC instead of the Mayor and then not give the city manager anything in the way of a mandate. “That ship has sailed” she said.
The motion was to ask that the city write the provincial government and ask that there be an immediate halt to the school closing process now taking place.
Council agreed to allow the motion to proceed which brought Denise Davey to the podium who was given permission to delegate.
She said:
As I wrote in my column in The Hamilton Spectator, this has been an extremely difficult and emotionally draining few months for thousands of parents across the city. We’ve been pulled into a process that we knew nothing about and it’s been a steep learning curve trying to figure it all out.
In addition to trying to sift through a maze of information, we’ve had to deal with ineffective public information sessions where we had no voices and a tedious online survey.
Delegator Denise Davey
My worry is that that flawed process and that misinformation that’s been floated around is leading us in the wrong direction and my position – and the reason I approached Paul Sharman – is that I believe Burlington city council needs to take a leadership role.
This is your city and the closure of any school will have an impact on the social and economic fabric of the entire community.
I am not asking that you take a stand around which school to close but simply that you support Councillor Sharman’s motion to suspend the process immediately so that in the end the right decision will be made.
I want to offer an example of how problematic this process has been and why it needs to be suspended, namely, that the data and information being thrown out to the public about Bateman school has been seriously misrepresented.
Shortly after this point Committee chair Meed Ward cautioned Davey that she was straying from the subject being debated.
Davey pressed on and was cautioned a second time – she was determined to get the Bateman high school plea on the record.
Councillor brought in a “walk on” motion to have the city write a letter to the province asking that the Program Accommodation Review in Burlington be halted.
Sharman then began to explain what he was hearing from his constituents. He said he had been asked to help find corporations that might help fund keeping the high schools open. He didn’t mention any specific corporations and asked council to support his request that the provincial government be asked to immediately halt the school closing process in Burlington.
Ward 3 Councillor John Taylor, the longest serving member of Council, joined the debate. He didn’t support letting the motion get to the floor of council and he wasn’t going to support the motion either.
He then went into what was pretty close to a tirade about party politics getting into the debate.
He did however bring some background and wisdom when he explained that the “baby boomers” – those born just after the end of the Second World War, have changed everything they touched as it grew and evolved.
They changed the way education was delivered; we were building elementary schools all over the place and then high schools, and then then universities.
The woman who worked in factories during the war returned to their homes, married and had children. Three to four children was not unusual. Those children needed schools. They were the boomers and as they grew families found they needed two incomes to pay for the housing they wanted.
Taylor asked his colleagues why anyone was surprised that we face this problem today. It has been in the making for more than fifty years. When dozens of elementary schools were closed it should have been no surprise that at some point high schools would have to be closed as well.
Councillor Taylor gave Council members a broad stroke picture of what they were dealing with.
Taylor added that the next phase the boomers are going to impact is the building of hospitals and nursing homes to take care of the boomers who are now aging.
To add to it all Taylor pointed out that advances in medicine have us living longer.
We have to do something about this problem – it can be avoided, he added.
Ward 4 Councillor Jack Dennison said that this was a provincial government and Board of Education trustee problem – it is not a city problem. He saw no point in the city making a plea to the provincial government.
Ward 6 Councillor Blair Lancaster said that more and more parents were asking her to become involved. “None of the schools that are being recommended for closure are in my ward but some of the students are”, she said.
And added that she too felt the process was flawed and that while she wasn’t comfortable with interfering she was very concerned about the problem of the quality of the data that was being used to make a decision.
“This is an important decision and I want the best data available to make that decision”, she said. Lancaster added: “If an appeal to the provincial government can get us a time out and let us take a step back and get better data and do it right then I am for sending the letter.”
Meed Ward said she did not believe the province would intercede for one Board of Education and asking it to do so was “irresponsible and inappropriate”.
City manager James Ridge, on the right, with PARC Chair Scot Podrebarac. Ridge said very little during the meetings – he wasn’t given a mandate other than to attend the meetings.
“Council squandered its opportunity to lead on this. There was an opportunity to send an elected member – we didn’t do that and we didn’t give the person we did send anything in the way of a mandate.”
Having “squandered” the opportunity to lead Meed Ward said the city could now join the other organizations in asking the province to put a moratorium in place across the problem. ROMA – the Rural Ontario Municipal Association has done a lot of research that is very well documented – we could join their plea. AMO, the Association of Municipalities in Ontario has made comments however they have not asked for a moratorium.
Meed Ward is troubled by the message city Councillors are sending constituents, particularly parents of Central and Pearson high school students.
Meed Ward said she is “troubled” with the kind of message is this council sending when it said up and down that it was not going to get involved but now we have council members who have schools that might be closed in their wards and want the city to do something when the opportunity to do anything has passed.
What message does this council send to the parents of Central and Pearson? that we did not value their schools when they were subject to closure but now that other schools have been named we want to interfere? This is both inappropriate and offensive.
During the discussion the Mayor mentioned that he had a conversation earlier in the day with the Minister of Education – but didn’t say what words were exchanged.
I’m continually amazed at how stupid people are in fighting one another instead of fighting the Board, which is the true and common enemy.
These people fall right into the trap set for them by the Board that knows they can get people to do their job for them by setting up the conditions that pit one school against another.
This makes the Board job much easier. Set people fighting against each other and therefore not united against the Board.
Again, how stupid can people be to fall for it?
People also fall for the crap coming out of City Council. Council have an inherent responsibility to represent us, and the city interest as a whole, but they refuse.
Meed Ward is pretty much the only leader and representative in the lot.
These Councilors are also stupid. They are pushing intensification and more population and development, but schools aren’t part of the plan.
Instead, the city planners are making school sites much more attractive for disposition, by making them part of secondary intensification zones when disposed of. To be gone and never to return – our schools.
This is really dumb as a moments thought should reveal. But, this is our city Council – unthinking in this.
Seems people never learn.
First of all Councillor Paul Sharman did what his constituents asked him to do, which is what he did.
Second of all Marianne Meed Ward used being a Councillor and still is to her full advantage for Central High School. She had PARC updates in her Ward 2 News, Twitter, Facebook. None of the rest of the PARC reps had the audience that she has.
Thirdly I don’t know what Bateman did to deserve the treatment that is has and is getting. Central PARC reps came up with Option 23. Lets close the school that has the most vulnerable students, programs that no other school in Burlington has. But we can build new facilities at other schools. That’s fiscally responsible.
Central didn’t seems to mind Marianne Meed Ward going to Queens Park and having a Central Poster beside her when she was suppose to be there talking for ALL schools.
Also it didn’t go unnoticed some Central students bulling one of Bateman’s students at the Public Meeting at New St.. That one of the other Bateman students told them to back off and then also the newscaster from Halton Insider.
I really don’t understand Sharman’s motive and change of position. He posted clearly on his facebook page back in February (Feb 20 at 6:58pm) that council should not be involved:
“I have received questions asking for council members to take a position on whether schools should be closed and if so which. Council members are not part of the analysis, city staff are not performing the analysis, and council has responsibility to make any decision. In summary, we are neither informed nor qualified to make a decision. With respect to mayors statement about complete communities, yes and I agree, however, school locations, programming, size and budgets are a complete integrated system across the City, including buying and portables. Council has no involvement, legal accountability, staff, information etc…. So the only decision and involvement you should expect would be political and geared to being re-elected. That is why Council voted to have the City Manager participate on the PARC. It was councils decision to not have a councillor on the committee.”
and then:
“Sorry,,, should say NO responsibility to make any decision.”
So that position was ok, when it was Central and Pearson recommended to be closed but it’s a different position when Bateman is on the block?