Columnists
Optimism
Next Monday, the trustees of the Hastings Prince Edward District School board will make a decision that will have long-term and far-reaching effects on Prince Edward County. It will affect the kids in the County, their families and the community as a whole.
School closures have been on the minds of many communities in rural Ontario as they witness similar processes to the one the HPEDSB initiated in the fall of 2016, proposing the closure of 50 per cent of the County’s schools, along with others in Belleville and Madoc.
People worried about the effect these closures would have on the health of the school communities showed their concern, getting involved as volunteer contributors to the process during a portion designed to allow for civic input.
Others wrote letters, asked questions and attended meetings. They did all the things a person ought to do if they are interested in participating in the democratic process. Their work was a true act of optimism. They put that work in the hands of a public system and hoped for the best.
On Monday, they were rewarded. A committee of trustees voted in favour of a plan that would allow Kente Public school to remain open until a process involving all the County’s western schools can be initiated. Sophiasburgh Central School will remain open, at least for another year, while a proposal for a hybrid school and community hub model is developed.
I have heard, not from those optimists, but from others, more cynical, more resigned, that the closures were already a done deal. That the entire process was a means of paying the piper, and would solve nothing.
I’ve heard several variations of the phrase, “the trustees are puppets of the board,” and “the Ministry of Education is pulling the strings.”
It’s easy, in the confusing and frustrating muddle that has been the accommodation reviews, to forget that the trustees who get the final say in this process are elected officials. They represent not the Ontario Liberal party, not the province or the ministry. They were elected—hired—by the people in their own communities as citizens willing to give those communities voice in the face of the institutions of the board and the ministry.
That is their job. They must take the information they get from the board; its financial situation, the rules imposed upon it by the ministry. They must take the information they get from their community; its will, its needs. And with this they must make a decision.
The cynicism is dangerous. It gives implicit permission for these institutions to treat the trustees like puppets, and give the trustees permission to behave as such.
On the other hand, the optimism is hard. It takes work, faith and a certain kind of stubbornness.
The board of trustees won’t make its final decision until next Monday, but right now, it looks like that hard work has paid off.
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