Gathering resistance

Parents and community begin working to seek alternatives to school closures and toddlers attending school with teenagers.

As 2016 nears an end, the school board is convening committees of parents, teachers, principals, students and community members to help develop a plan to implement changes to schools in the best way possible.

The board is currently seeking community members, parent council representatives and grade 7 or 8 students to participate in an accommodation review committee (ARC), which will determine if and how the plan is implemented.

Two weeks ago, after pressure from the ministry of education to close and consolidate schools in regions of declining enrollment—an issue throughout rural Ontario— the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board implemented step one of school closures in Centre Hastings, Belleville and Prince Edward County.

Although discussions about the plan had been taking place for a year at trustee committee and board meetings, and an initial plan unveiled this past June, many parents were caught off guard by the swift timelines.

According to the plan, Pinecrest in Bloomfield and Queen Elizabeth in Picton would close at the end of this school year, with Prince Edward Collegiate Institute (PECI) taking in kids from grades K – 12, and in total, four schools would be closed by 2020. Six schools will be affected.

The ministry prescribes nine people be appointed to an ARC for each school affected: the principal, one teacher, one non-teaching staff member, three parents, one of whom chairs the student council, one student who is at least in grade 7 and two members of the community.

Because the school consolidations will affect each other, the ARC in the County will consist of 54 people— nine from each of the six schools affected.

The board is working on a data package that will be ready for the orientation session, giving information about the school along with information about the amount of work needed, the current and projected enrollment and other information for the ARC to look at.

According to Kerry Donnell, communications lead at the board, it will be up to the ARC, with some board supervision, to organize the meetings.

It is also up to the ARC to address community concerns.

The first ARC meeting will be an orientation session, scheduled for January 25, with a public meeting scheduled for the following Wednesday, February 1.

Donnell urges any parent or community member to either apply to participate as an ARC member or to voice their ideas and concerns at the public meetings.

At the Sophiasburgh school, which the plan proposes to close in 2018, with those students redirected to PECI, parents and teachers met last Monday to discuss the next steps.

The gathering was larger than a normal student council meeting, with more parents and teachers joining the discussion, along with Sophiasburgh councillor Bill Roberts and Prince Edward north trustee Jennifer Cobb, who was on hand to answer questions about the process.

During the meeting, a council of parents shared an online document filled with questions, concerns and ideas from parents. Those in attendance decided to form an ad-hoc committee that could communicate the will of the community to those who would participate as part of the ARC committee.

Michael Farrell, whose eldest child is in grade two at Sophiasburgh, volunteered to be a part of that committee, and will apply to join the ARC. He says it’s an important part of a process that must remain democratic.

“And the idea behind that—and I think it’s a good one—is that we’d form an ad-hoc committee to align ourselves, to get all the opinion out there, and be as representative of the parent body as we can,” says Farrell. “The idea is to form a consensus around, what are we fighting for? Are we fighting for something? What are the ideas we need to address?”

Most of the concerns came from a lack of information, some of which should come to light when the ARCs hold their first public meeting on February 1.

Parents are hopeful that the upside to consolidating schools is an improvement in programming, but want to know exactly how the shift will be managed.

“Most people are definitely not satisfied with the information around [the K – 12 model],” says Farrell. “There are some concrete ideas, one that would involve a bussing schedule that works, separate buildings for the different ages, green space, a better arts program— all things that aren’t as well developed in the outlying country schools.”

Farrell says that while most parents seemed to understand the financial situation the board is in, their reactions were as much emotional as practical. While the school board may not be able to answer to those issues, there is a fear closing a rural school would harm the community.

“In that meeting, there was a sense of practical realities of this fiscal concern, but some people have been there much longer than I have, and they have strong association with Sophiasburgh school and what it means to them as family. The history around that community, and there’s the potential loss of that” says Farrell. “What [does it] mean for the community at large? What [does it] mean for the role that country life really plays in the County in the future? The impact on the community is a big concern,” says Farrell. “Everyone is well aware that a community without a school, or a church for that matter… starts losing its essence. It becomes a bit of an empty vessel.”

But the shift the board proposed might not be the one that’s implemented.

“We don’t have the answers right now,” says Donnell. Since Athol and South Marysburgh schools were amalgamated in 2009, the ministry has changed the accommodation review process. Part of that change has meant a proposal has to be ready to present before the process can even begin.

“In order to kick off an accommodation review happening, the requirements say that school board administration has to put out a proposal. There has to be a starting point,” says Donnell. “It’s challenging for everyone, because there are a lot of questions and not a lot of answers… we could have spent the next year ourselves going through and doing the analysis. The intention was to have a starting point for public consultation.”

Donnell wants to remind anyone who is concerned that they should be getting involved with the ARC process, either as a member of the committee or as a member of the public.

“This is a very prescribed process, from the ministry of education through the school board. There are venues for the public to have input,” says Donnell. “That’s where all of this will be captured and addressed, and whatever other data the committees need to look at.”

Donnell also points out that the board is experiencing the same crunch as other schools in Ontario.

“In almost all other school boards outside of the GTA, declining enrollment is creating issues such that programming can’t be offered to students,” says Donnell. “And that’s the driving factor behind this. Effective programming in elementary and secondary.”