Board challenged

Parents ask ministry to take a closer look at school closure process

Today, a group of five members, some from the Queen Elizabeth Accommodation Review Committee (ARC), submitted a request for an administrative review of the board’s process that led to the decision last month to close Queen Elizabeth School in Picton, as well as Pinecrest School in Bloomfield.

J.J. Syer, who was one of the parent representatives on the ARC, says the group identified a number of flaws in the process that they argue runs counter to the guidelines for the process outlined in Policy 15, a document created by the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board (HPEDSB) to guide school closure and consolidation processes.

The administrative review is an avenue afforded by Ontario’s Ministry of Education in the interest of accountability. If the ministry accepts the request, it will send an independent facilitator to look at the ARC process and to determine whether the board adhered to Policy 15.

“It’s not on us to create any proof, it’s just for us to create a case and say here’s what they say, and here’s what we think didn’t happen. They give you a template and the template is basically the policy states this and they did this. You basically fill in the blanks. That’s the boring side of it,” says Syer.

Syer says the group’s biggest concerns are to do with the review’s timing, the board’s rationale for the school closures and the lack of shared information.

“I think that we’ve never been given a lot of information,” says Syer. “I’m not an education specialist, and none of the people on our board are. None of us are in the education business, so it’s hard, for what the board tried to do in saying ‘provide us with alternative with rationale’ when they never provided us with the information to make decisions in the first place.”

They are also concerned about the board’s strategy moving forward. According to Policy 15, a transition plan is supposed to be created before students are moved. For Pinecrest students and Grade seven and eight students in both schools, that means before September 5.

“There’s very clear data from different boards of education and different studies that have been done about how [important] that transition is for the future success of students,” says Syer. “It boggles my mind that to think of a JK that started at Pinecrest, moved to Queen E for SK and is going to be in PECI for Grade one. That’s a tough one to swallow.”

On June 28, less than two weeks after the board’s final decision on school closures, Education minister Mitzie Hunter announced the process, which has been taking place in school boards across the province, would be halted until a review and update of the process could be completed. That followed a series of meetings, including one in the County, that highlighted issues with the process.

Syer hopes that decision will help with the credibility of the administrative review and the concerns it lays out.

“You have to hope that in a democratic society if the province has deemed, through meetings, that the process is flawed, yet somehow believes that decisions should stand under a flawed process, that if enough groups are coming together and requesting administrative review and giving good reason, and municipalities are coming forward and helping with the cause in some areas, you’d think that they would stop and look and say, ‘okay, maybe we should look at this again,’” says Syer. “It’s the future of our kids, so one can only hope.”

As part of the administrative review application, the group required a petition with signatures of at least 30 per cent of parents or guardians of Queen Elizabeth students. That number was difficult to achieve, but they were successful.

Syer clarifies that the group is not necessarily working to save the school, although as an alumni of Queen Elizabeth, she has a sentimental connection to the school. A similar application submitted for Pinecrest Memorial has also achieved the necessary amount of signatures from that school population.

“We’re not committed to keeping Queen Elizabeth open. We’re committed to finding the right decision and a County solution for the best possible education for the kids,” says Syer. “We don’t have the best solution, but we think that there’s lots of people with great ideas out there, and I don’t think the board gave us the time or the resources to really explore that.”