Announcement of who the facilitator will be for the Administrative Review is somewhere between Queen's Park and Burlington.

By Pepper Parr

October 4th, 2017

BURLINGTON, ON

It is taking a bit longer than anyone expected but the Ministry of Education assures us that there will be an announcement shortly on who has been assigned the task of doing the Administrative Review of the PAR process that resulted in the decision to close two of the city’s seven high schools.

Is there any life left for this high school?

“The Ministry is currently in the process of finalizing the details regarding selecting a facilitator to undertake an Administrative Review for the Pupil Accommodation Review which included Lester B. Pearson High School and Robert Bateman High School.

“Once finalized, the ministry will notify the Halton District School Board, lead petitioners and the broader public.”

The parent groups at each high school feel there is a lot riding on whatever the appointed facilitator concludes after looking at all the documents.

HDSB Director of Education Stuart Miller with students during a public meeting. Bate parent group member Denise Davy stands to Miller’s left.

Halton District school Board Director of Education Stuart Miller told the Gazette recently that “these reviews tend to be paper heavy”.

There are those in the community who feel that the delay in appointing someone is a part of the process to keep the issue out of the public eye until the June 7, 2108 provincial election is out of the way – that’s ten months off.

The Board staff had hoped that this would all be done quickly so they could get on with the job of getting one school upgraded so they could take in the students. Many of the Bateman students are due to move to an upgraded Nelson high school in 2020.

Lester B. Pearson is scheduled to have their last high school graduation in June of 2018; in 2019 they are supposed to become M.M. Robinson students.

One wonders if the PARC that was created to serve as the communications channel from parents to the Board will have anything to say once the Administrative Review is completed.

Most parent groups felt the PAR failed the community – which is part of why they requested the Administrative Review.

The school board staff just want to get on with the job of transitioning students to their new schools – the parent groups have taken the position that this isn’t over yet.