By Pepper Parr
March 16th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
There is something wrong with the schedule.
The 14 members of the PARC are going to meet on March 21st and again on the 23rd.
Superintendent Scott Podrebarac, Chair of the PARC, will write the report on what he determines the PARC members arrived at in the way of conclusions and any recommendations they might make.
Then the Chair of the PARC, Scott Podrebarac is going to write a report on whatever conclusions he thinks the PARC arrived at and turn it over to Stuart Miller, Director of Education who will in turn craft his report to the trustees which they will receive on March 29th.
The Director will have less than six days to write his report, review it with staff and do a couple of re-writes.
Where is the time to reflect on the months of deliberations the 14 PARC members put in.
Will individual PARC members be putting together their comments and sending them along to the Director of Education?
PARC members will have deliberated for more than six sessions, some of which went for more than three hours – they exchanged hundreds, probably more than 1000 emails and debated vigorously.
Might the PARC itself file a minority report to give some balance to what Scott Podrebarac, Chair of the PARC produces?
There are many who think the work that PARC was asked to do is a farce.
At some point the people paying for the operation of a school board, that’s you the taxpayer, have to stand up on their hind legs and declare that enough is enough.
Parents listen intently at what the PARC members have to say.
Many feel the completing of the PARC report allows the Director of Education to tick off a box on his to do list and move on to the next task which is to shut down two high schools.
There was a point at which the Halton District Catholic School Board (HDCSB) was in serious talks with the public school board for a possible purchase of Pearson high school. The Gazette has been told that Fred Thibeault, one of the HDCSB planners, exhausted all possibilities with coterminous, (that would be HDSB) French Catholic, French Public and the City and wasn’t able to work something out – they didn’t really go anywhere was the comment the Gazette got from a former chair of the HDCSB
The Catholic school board held a Program Accommodation Review for the elementary Burlington panel of schools. The Board staff had St. Paul slated to close; the vote to do that was lost – so it can be done.
When you consider the financial implications of this decision, the impact it has upon both children and parents in this community, not to mention teachers, it is truly surprising that the Report and its related recommendations gets prepared in just six days.
I remember my old Shop teacher in high school who used to say “Measure twice and cut once ’cause you can’t take back a mistake”. Obviously, the logic and wisdom of that sage advice doesn’t apply here.
What worse Steve – Have the school board answer “How many people live in Burlington in 2025?” absolutely no interlock with the Burlington official plan. Look they want thousand kids plus power plant schools so they can jam classes full of kids. That is all that is going on here.
Even if the PARC decides against it, the “Director of education” will just write something different.