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Thursday, 03 July 2008 04:31 |
I cannot adequately express my disappointment at the turn of events at the Board last evening.
Whatever the rationale for the K-8 model, I feel that the SE Oakville community was badly misled through the PARC process. No one from the Board ever disclosed their support for the K-8 model, until the process for genuine public and stakeholder input was long past. Indeed, the Board expressed support for the K-6 model as consistent with the PARC's values, and I recall Trustee Ellis giving a speech in which she advocated the K-6 model by telling us all to get a "reality check".
After the K-8 motion passed last night, I submitted a question about this lack of disclosure. The Chair, Gillian Tuck-Kutarna, responded that the Board did not comment on any preferences during the PARC.
Well, Gillian, you weren't there. Trust me, there was plenty of commentary, and none of it was about why we should support the K-8 model. Given the unanimous decision of the Trustees, after zero debate on the staff's "preferred" K-6 option, wouldn't some notice to the community have been appropriate? After all, you are planning to close four schools in a single ward, without a single word of dissent.
I believe that the time and effort of all PARC members and the public has been wasted, because the Board had no intention of respecting the PARC process unless it generated the desired answer, namely, a school in Clearview.
I also believe it is naive to think that the Board will do a proper job of bringing the older schools up to scratch. Frankly, given the state of neglect to which the existing schools have declined, the evidence suggests that the Board will use its resources to continue to apply Band-Aids or to make minor cosmetic changes, but focus its attention on sexier projects like new schools. We heard backsliding on upgrades before the Board even adopted the motion.
Trustees from other areas even expressed opposition to the idea that the Board should commit itself to spending in Ward 3 all of the funds generated from the sale of land within Ward 3. This, after we heard during PARC that we should expect some additional funding to arise from the review! I guess we should now expect to see our schools sold off to fund portables in Milton.
I have no faith that the Trustees will back off the Clearview project if it turns out that there is not enough money to do the necessary upgrades at the SE Oakville schools to "revitalize" them. In my opinion, Trustee Ellis' amendment to the K -8 proposal was merely a sop to SE Oakville and was watered down to the point of being meaningless before it was even passed. The Board has committed itself to Clearview but made no commitment to SE Oakville other than good intentions. I think we will be let down by the Board and Trustees when it comes to brass tacks.
I overheard someone say last night that the Town would shortly announce its support for funding a library at the new Clearview school site. Many of us have long suspected that there was action behind the scenes on this, and I will be watching closely to see what happens at the Town level.
Personally, I feel that the Board and Town displayed a lack of openness about their intentions throughout the PARC process. I understand that Councillor Mary Chapin received lots of hugs from the COCA people after Trustee Ellis's motion passed -- what did she do for them and why didn't she mention it during PARC?
MPP Kevin Flynn has expressed support for an open and unbiased review of the process by a respected third party. Let's hope that review happens before this gets any farther. If the province believes in open, rational decision-making on educational issues, this will provide an interesting case study.
I know that many, many people in SE Oakville feel duped and abused by what has occurred. Many of us can't help feeling that we are victims of hostility and resentment because of where we live, and that our community's wishes don't matter.
I predict that bitterness over the process that led to this decision will last a long time, and will come back to haunt anyone associated it.
Greg McGinnis
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Last Updated on Thursday, 03 July 2008 07:39 |
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