Columnists
Deadline
Tomorrow. That’s the deadline. Or if you’re picking this paper up late, it may have passed. But despite notifications in newspapers and online, people still don’t know. Don’t realize that a bureaucratic process could have a deadline come up so bewilderingly quickly, especially for a decision that, left out of the hands of the community, can negatively affect Prince Edward County’s physical and social fabric for a long time.
Calls for parent and community members to join the Prince Edward County school Accommodation Review Committee (ARC) came only two weeks ago, and yet the December 22 deadline looms large. In January, the committees will be formed and the first meeting will be held. From there it’s only two public input meetings and 21 weeks until a final decision must be made on plans for the school board to implement.
The ARCs are mandated by the ministry of education as part of the process for making plans to close and consolidate schools. In theory, it makes the process democratic. But that depends on community participation.
The plans will see schools closed, rebuilt, renovated, students potentially sent into amalgamated schools that serve children from kindergarten until the day they graduate high school.
Parents and students are not the only people to be affected by these changes. Our schools are the centres of our communities. Their existence is a physical and social focal point for our rural centres, our towns.
When they are well cared for, schools are also attractive conduits for newcomers who contribute with new business and added income for the municipalities. It is the young families who are most likely to refresh an aging community with a dwindling population of the next generation.
And that population is dwindling. The ministry of education provides money to school boards based on the head count of their students. Schools in the County are running at half capacity, sometimes even less. That means budgets have been pinched, funds spread thin. Projections for future enrollment, despite being based on five-year-old census data, show a continued slow drop as the population of women of child-bearing age also drops.
Everyone certainly understands that money is finite, and that sometimes, belts must be tightened. The school board contends that closing some schools and putting more students in others will mean more money for programming per school. But with pressure from the ministry to conserve funds and a persistently low population, something has to happen.
It’s up to the community to decide what that is.
So get involved. Apply to be part of the ARC, or support those you think will best represent your community. Go to the public meetings to give your input—the first meeting will be on Wednesday, February 1 at PECI. Attend the ARC meetings to listen in and keep track of the conversation. Read articles, in this paper and in the many other news outlets in and around the County. Go to the board’s website for updates. You can find all the information you need here at www.hpedsb.on.ca/ec/aboutus/ boardMeetings/AccommodationReviews.html/ or look for the link in the online version of this story.
Speak up. Because June 19 is not as far away as you think. If something has to happen, we’d better be there to shape that plan.
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