Lessons

Community still reeling from slated school closures; some trying to find positives

Communities around the County are still getting over the shock of the drastic changes Hastings Prince Edward District School Board (HPEDSB) board trustees approved for study last week.

The proposed changes would affect six of the County’s eight public schools. It includes closing Pinecrest in Bloomfield and Queen Elizabeth in Picton, sending the K – 8 students to Prince Edward Collegiate Institute as a modified K – 12 school beginning in 2017, with Sophiasburgh following suit in 2018. The proposal also called for CML Snider school in Wellington to be demolished and rebuilt to mitigate nearly $7 million in renewal and repair costs estimated over the next 10 years. Kente public school in Ameliasburgh would also be closed, with those students redirected to CML after the Wellington facility is rebuilt.

Emotions ran high after the board meeting on November 21, with parents and community members frustrated by the process.

The board faces some hard choices. The province funds schools by the amount of students, and while this has been a boon for schools in city centres, rural areas across the province have seen a massive decline in enrollment—there has been a 20 per cent drop in the HPEDSB region alone. The ministry of education has been putting pressure on boards with declining enrollment to close schools in order to better manage thinning funds.

Similar financial constraints are being put on the province’s Catholic school boards.

The problem is, when rural areas lose a school, there is a danger young families will leave. In the County, that’s a bleed already difficult to stem.

Neil Carbone, the County’s director of economic and community development is worried about the effect school closures will have on the community, but says his department needs to do more research.

“Clearly, we’re concerned about what the proposed school consolidations could mean for existing families and for the attraction of future young people to the County,” Carbone wrote in an email. “Plus the impact it could have on the affected communities, neighbourhoods and downtowns.”

Carbone added that County staff is researching the proposed closures and their possible effects. He would not comment publicly until there’s been a bigger internal conversation.

That was a common theme. Neither of the trustees representing the County, Dwayne Inch and Jennifer Cobb, made themselves available for comment. Parents on councils of affected schools were hesitant to speak publicly.

But despite the quick, drastic changes outlined in the proposals, there is a prescribed timeline, and this process has been a long time coming.

Selena Prinzen, chair of the student council at CML and mother to two kids at the school, has been following the process for more than a year now, so she wasn’t caught by surprise over Monday’s meetings, which she attended.

Prinzen says that while she knows the process isn’t perfect, it is necessary.

“I think the staff on the board has done a great job. They did their long-term capital and accommodation plan. They’ve looked at enrollment. It’s declining. You can’t deny those numbers. We’re not getting the growth in the schools, and that’s all across Ontario,” says Prinzen. “What scares me is the alternative. If the community isn’t involved, and the board doesn’t go through the process, the ministry will say, we gave you time to do it. And then the people making the decisions aren’t the staff and the trustees.”

And Prinzen can see some of the good that can come from consolidating schools and increasing school populations. For one thing, there’s an opportunity to make details like bussing more efficient. And she says with a concentration of community groups in hubs of rural communities like Picton and Wellington, there will be more community support for students.

“When we come together, I think good things can happen,” says Prinzen. “I think having a school in a community like Picton and Wellington, where you have the Rotary, Wellington on the Lake, the food bank helpers, the churches… those groups are part of the community that is helping to create the best environment for our kids.”

She also sees the opportunity for better programming if funds are more concentrated, and hopes that makes the schools in the County more attractive.

“You have seven [elementary] schools spread across the County. If we combine them a little bit, the programming is what is going to be better at those schools,” says Prinzen. “Maybe it’s music, maybe it’s arts, maybe it’s sports—something that school will offer to keep people from going to Belleville.”

Although the proposed K – 12 model at PECI won’t affect Prinzen’s children, she hopes parents will warm to it once there’s a clear plan.

“PECI is amazing. They’re doing amazing things. It’s different today, and I really feel that they are building on that community piece and are really passionate about it,” says Prinzen. “The K – 12 part, I don’t want to comment on it because I don’t know enough. I see the concerns… if we could see a picture that said, this is what PECI looks like, this is what we’re thinking, I think that would be a lot more helpful for people.”

NEXT STEPS
The next step in the process is to develop Accommodation Review Committees (ARCs) for each of the six affected schools in the County.

The board’s communications officer, Kerry Donnell, clarified that this is just the beginning.

“The public consultation process have to happen before any final decisions are made. The proposed recommendations that were approved last Monday night are starting points,” says Donnell. “The ARCs need to have something to consider and talk about once their working meetings begin.”

The ARC will include the school principal, a teacher and one other staff member, three parents including the school council chair, two community members, possibly including a delegate from the municipal council and one student. The board may also send a non-voting member to help guide the ARC process.

These committees will represent their schools and communities, helping to determine the best possible approach to consolidating schools. They can suggest changing or even nixing details from the current proposal.

While those meetings are open to the public, the first meeting during which members of the public may comment on the proposed changes, or contribute to the process, will be scheduled in the new year, on January 16 or later. Notification for that meeting will be advertised at least two weeks in advance.

A subsequent public meeting will be held on or after March 21.

The deadline for the completed recommendation is June 19, 2017. At that point, the board can execute the recommendations.

If Pinecrest and Queen Elizabeth schools are closed, that means the board has 11 weeks to renovate PECI and prepare the school for receiving children as young as four years old.

Donnell says renovations will include “things like fenced play yards for younger students, as well as modifications for Kindergarten students. This will be an area of discussion for ARCs.”

The details haven’t been hammered out yet. That will be part of the ARC process. But there are benefits to school consolidation. Funds can be more concentrated allowing for opportunities to offer more specialized programs and extracurricular activities. Donnell says grades will less likely be split. As Queen Elizabeth students move to PECI, there is the potential to see French Immersion offered all the way through to grade 12.

Donnell was not able to say if the closures will mean layoffs for employees of the board, but did say that since leave requests and retirements have not yet been factored in, it’s not possible to know how many jobs will be lost.

“The accommodation reviews are a starting point.” says Donnell. “Lots of discussion needs to happen. The school board will provide all kinds of data for the committees to look at. While we recognize the challenges ahead, this is an exciting time at Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board. We are looking forward to engaging with students, families and communities as we continue to focus on student achievement and well-being.”