By Staff

August 10th. 2017

BURLINGTON, ON

 

Any day now you can expect to see the Back to School flyers in the print edition of newspapers. It will be a thick package of advertising material.

While many kids look forward to back to school shopping, new clothes and school supplies are unaffordable luxuries for about 1 in 10 students in Burlington, Oakville, Milton and Halton Hills.

The Halton Learning Foundation (HLF) is on a mission to raise $10,000 by September 1 to ensure those students can start the school year with the basics they need to be successful.

The Foundation annually provides more than 1,000 students and their families with emergency funds for clothing, lunches, and other basic necessities, and helps ensure all students can be included in school activities.
Lesley Mansfield, executive director of HLF, says the majority of students who receive support are from families where one or both parents work.

“The high cost of housing in Halton, low‐paid work and unexpected events like illness or accidents can affect a family’s income to the point where they can no longer afford to buy their children new shoes or send them on a school trip,” she says. “We don’t want kids in our community to give up on their education and the opportunity for a better future because they are unable to fully participate in school.”

Mansfield says even small donations can make a difference; for just $20 a student can be included in a class field trip instead of being left behind.

The help is needed to help prepare a child in our community to go back to school.  You can donate on line or give the office a call: 905‐ 335‐3665, ext. 3408 or 3388.

The Halton Learning Foundation helps eliminate financial barriers to education for students of the Halton District School Board by providing emergency help for students in need, post‐secondary scholarships, and funds to assist schools that have classroom needs beyond core education funding.

By Staff

July 28th, 2017

BURLINGTON, ON

 

It was MP Karina Gould’s job to fill in for her Cabinet colleague The Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour and deliver the announcement that The Centre for Skills Development & Training (“The Centre”) in Burlington was going to be given $1,931,884 over a three year period.

The funds are to be used to assist youth in determining a career path, introducing the skilled trades, building confidence and getting a paid work experience are the hallmarks of Get In Gear (GIG) – a program funded by Skills Link, part of the Government of Canada’s Youth Employment Strategy, and delivered by The Centre for Skills Development & Training.

Skills Link supports projects that help young people who face more barriers to employment than others develop employability skills and gain valuable job experience. This helps them in making a successful transition into the workforce or to return to school. These youth could include those who have not completed high school, those who are unemployed or underemployed, low-income single parents, Indigenous youth, young persons with disabilities, youth living in rural or remote areas, or newcomers.

In a media the federal government explained that “Developing Canada’s youth is a priority. This project is a concrete example of what we can achieve for youth by working in partnership with organizations across the country. Projects like this one can help put regular paycheques into the reach of those who need it. But more than that, they give young Canadians the chance to change their future.”

The Centre’s CAO, Lisa Rizatto said the “program is a solid stepping stone. The three-year funding represents a strong investment in our youth. It provides them with choices to gain valuable real-world experience and to make informed decisions to positively impact their future, which not only improves their lives but also gives life to the economy.”

The working title for the program is Getting in Gear (GiG); it is free with a limit of 15 seats per session. Participants interested in the 10-week, in-class program which is followed by a 10-week paid work placement, can call 905-333-3499 x182 to find out more about the application procedure, or visit thecentre.on.ca/SkilledTrades/GetInGear/

 

Eligibility requirements for Get in Gear participants include:
· Between 17-30 years old
· Legally entitled to work in Canada
· Not attending full-time school, work or training
· Not in receipt (or never have been in receipt) of Employment Insurance benefits
· Motivated to succeed
· Looking for help to overcome difficulties finding and keeping a job

Graduates of the GIG program have many options from pursuing full-time employment to undergoing formal training such as The Centre’s pre-apprenticeship skilled trades programs. The next GIG session will run from September 25.

The Centre for Skills Development & Training is a not-for-profit incorporated affiliate of the Halton District School Board with locations in Burlington, Milton, Oakville and Mississauga. The Centre helps people at all stages of life get on a path to career success—from youth just starting out, to older workers who have been laid off; from newcomers to Canada who need to improve their workplace English, to people interested in the trades who need to build their technical skills; and from small business owners looking to hire staff, to large companies who need help developing and transitioning their workforce.

By Pepper Parr

July 25th, 2017

BURLINGTON, ON

 

School is out and not for just the students.

Much of the staff at the Board of Education are taking their vacations, however there is work that has to be done – one of those tasks is responding to the requests for an Administrative Review made by parents from both Lester B. Pearson and Bateman high school.

Each parent group is preparing their requests separately and when completed they file the request with the Ministry of Education. That was dine early in July.

The Ministry sends a copy to the Board of Education and gives them 30 days to prepare the Board staff response to the parent request for the review.

Board communications people advise use that the task of responding was assigned to a number of senior staff.
That document is due in the hands on the Ministry during the first half of August.

When the Ministry has both sets of documents they sit down and do a review to determine if they, the Ministry, should appoint a facilitator who will be given the task of reviewing the documents and making a decision.

The facilitator can decide that there was nothing wrong with the Program Accommodation Review that took place or he can decide that there were flaws and order the Board to hold another Review. There is a considerable amount of latitude for the facilitator. 

Halton District School Board has been told in the past that the process they used to decide to close a school was not acceptable.

Sometime in September the public should learn what is come to come out of the request for the Reviews.

The Gazette recently published the request that was made by the parents at Lester B. Pearson. It is a strong document and has merit. 

We were not as fortunate with our request for a copy of the document prepared by the Bateman high school parents.

Responding to our request, Lisa Bull, a Bateman parent and a member of the Program Accommodation Review committee, who was a strong and very vocal advocate for more innovation in the thinking from the Board staff, said the following:

You continue to call out/blame the parents of Bateman for not getting into the ‘fight’ soon enough. This is problematic for several reasons. First, it ignores the fact that few parents from any schools other than Central and Pearson attended the first public meeting. How about blaming the HDSB for not adequately or competently explaining WHAT the PSR process was and how it could potentially impact schools and communities? I am an engaged and informed parent and I wasn’t at that first meeting. I did not understand, at that point in time, what PAR was about or why I should care. As you know, the more I learned the more active I became as was the case with many in our community. I blame the HDSB for their lack of competence in community engagement. Not the parents who have proven that they can and will show up when needed.

Ward 5 school board trustee Amy Collard told the Gazette that “communications to parents come directly from the HDSB. All Burlington parents with an email address in our system would have gotten the emails through our synrevoice email system.

Ms Bull, the excuse you give just doesn’t hold water.

For many of the parents of special needs students at Bateman, getting to additional meetings is incredibly difficult. Many of these parents are exhausted by the daily challenges of caring for their kids. To blame them for not getting into this sooner is victim blaming and is behavior that is just as shameful as that of the HDSB.

I know that you believe that our Admin Review document should be made public and that this should be done via the Gazette. This is your opinion and desire but is not a requirement. Given the position that you have taken and the opinions you have published about the Bateman community, our Committee will not be sending our report at this time.

Responses like this are often described as “shooting the messenger”

Bateman parents have struggled with getting their response out which is unfortunate – they have a very strong case but instead of making their case they fell back on emotional arguments and claimed that the Central parents had ‘thrown them under the bus’.

The Central parents fully understood the risk and pulled together as a team, raised $14,000 in a silent auction to ensure they had any funds they might need and then dug deep and pulled out all kinds facts that the Board staff had missed.

The Central case was so compelling that the Director, with the support of his staff, decided to change the recommendation and ask the trustees to close Bateman and send some of the students to Central and others to Bateman.

Bateman parents weren’t prepared to accept that the Director of Education did what any intelligent person would do – review new information and if the information was valid and relevant change the decision.

The Bateman parents had only to look at the map that showed the distance between Nelson and Bateman to realize that they were at risk for closure.

When the Director of Education revised his decision the Bateman parents began to say that it was because Ward 2 city Councillor Marianne Meed Ward, who had a child at Central high school and was made one of the Central high school representatives on the PARC, had undue influence with the Director.

They alluded to meetings Meed Ward had with the Director of Education and all the communications tools she had as a city Councillor.

What Meed Ward had going for her was her skill as a community organizer.  She worked hard with a dedicated team that was focused and supported by a community that was going to do whatever it took.

Bateman had skills of its own.  Lisa Bull was also a member of the PARC and she was consistent in her drive to get the Board staff and the trustees to look at the problem the Board faced with fresh eyes and not take a simple solution: – too many schools – close a school or two and the problem is solved.

The Bateman parents know it is n’t quite that simple and the tragedy for this city is that the trustees were not able to see a solution within the more than 50 delegations made.

Bateman was fortunate in that they had the best trustee there is on the Board.  Amy Collard bust her buns to sway her fellow trustees and gave the Director of Education more than one uncomfortable moment when she did her level best to get her motion on the table and ensure that it was properly and fully debated.

Collard, serving her second term as a trustee, was acclaimed on both occasions.  She should be acclaimed a third time.

When Bateman realized it had a fight on its hands they did some superb community grass roots work.  They got excellent television coverage but they were not able to catch the ears of a majority of the trustees.

It was at this point that the public began to get a glimpse of just what the Community Pathways Program was really about and how unfortunate the impact was going to be on the parents who had children in those programs.

We don’t know what the Bateman parents chose to say in their request for an Administrative Review. The document is public and the Gazette will use the provincial Freedom of Information process to get a copy and publish the details.

The tragedy in all this is that there are several hundred students who will experience significant upset and turmoil in their lives.  There are parents who believed they had finally found a school that met the needs of their children.  All that is at risk.

The Board staff has said they will provide the Bateman parents and their children with facilities and a level of service that will be better than what they currently have.

The saving grace in all this is that the Bateman parents have a trustee who will be watching very closely to ensure that the students don’t go without.

What Collard is not going to be able to change is the social environment in the school they are being transferred to – that is the real challenge for everyone.

 

By Pepper Parr

July 12, 2017

BURLINGTON, ON

 

The decision to close two of Burlington’s seven high schools took place just over a month ago.

Parents with children at the two schools, Lester B. Pearson and Bateman, are still recovering from the shock of the 10-1 vote that closed Bateman and the 8-3 vote that closed Pearson.

The single vote against closing Bateman was cast by trustee Amy Collard who fought valiantly for a different decision. Many are still stunned with the way things worked out.

Collard was devastated and still does not understand why her fellow trustees could not see the merit in the ideas she put forward.

She felt there was merit in keeping Bateman open and making it part of an arrangement that would have Bateman and Nelson linked as one school with two properties.

Collard saw this as providing a better service for the students from both schools and an opportunity to not spend the $12 million that would be needed to upgrade Nelson for the influx of Bateman students.

Collard’s task now, as she explains, is to ensure that the transition serves the students at Bateman – her job for the balance of this term of office is to hold the Board administration accountable at every possible level.

Bateman parents are fortunate to have a trustee that will go to the lengths Collard has on their behalf. While she was personally devastated with the decision – Collard has accepted it and now wants to get on with the job of serving the Bateman parents and their children.

There was a time when Collard thought she might take a shot at running for the ward 5 seat on city council, currently held by Paul Sharman, “I have abandoned that idea” said Collard. There is work to be done to ensure that the students at Bateman are cared for properly when they are forced to move to Nelson in 2020.

For Collard, the ward trustee, the task is to ensure that the Board lives up to the promises that were made and that the transition benefits the Bateman students.

Not many knew how complex the programs are at Bateman for the disadvantaged and how vital those programs are to the parents. The impact the move is going to have on those parents is hard for most people to fully appreciate. The Board staffer who explained that “it is just a program and programs can be moved” just isn’t aware of what the Community Pathways Program means to hundreds of families.

An issue that no one really wants to talk about but that is critical to the success of any merger of Bateman into Nelson is the environment at Nelson.

The early comments on social media about some of the Bateman students were rude, crude and totally unacceptable. Nelson’s culture is significantly different than that of Bateman. It is going to take a principal with a remarkable skill set to oversee the merger and Nelson parents prepared to ensure that the school and their children adapt.

Done poorly this merger could become a disaster.

The Community Placement Program is made up to a large degree of students who need special attention and care. Bateman had a total of 42 Educational Assistants (EA’s) to work with those emotionally disadvantaged students.

The day before our interview with Collard she attended the Bateman graduation ceremony that included a child who is severely disadvantaged from a family that has more than its share of challenges.

The child and her mother were one of the delegations. It was painful to watch the child in a wheelchair struggle to control her body movements – she spoke in short outbursts that was close to impossible to understand. The pride in Collard’s voice when she said the student who graduated wanted to be a writer was palpable.

And why not Stephen Hawking tells us what he has to say from his wheelchair.

Collard has served as Chair of the Board of trustees for at least one year.  She ran for that position again this year but was defeated.  She is not seen as a popular person by her colleagues – she doesn’t do the social stuff – for her being a trustee is important and she tends to take the work more seriously than the others.

That is not to suggest that the other trustees are all slackers. There are some promising newcomers; there are others that shouldn’t even be in the room and there are some that have served for some time and served well.

The Gazette does not include Oakville trustee Kelly Amos, the current chair among the latter.

A group of Bateman parents have filed a request for an Administrative Review of Board’s decision to close their schools.

The Pearson high school parents filed their report earlier this month. A copy of the report was published by the Gazette.

When asked if she was involved in the preparing of the Administrative Review request Collard explained that as a trustee she believed her job was to support the decisions made by the Board; not exactly the approach one would expect from a person who worked so hard for a different decision.

Collard is serving her second term as the trustee for Ward 5 – she was acclaimed in both the 2010 and the 2014 elections.

She views her role through several lenses – ensuring that the promises made by Board staff are met; working with the parents to ensure that their grievances and concerns are addressed and then working with her fellow trustees to do some of the healing she feels needs to take place.

During the lengthy- nine months – process there were very few who spoke publicly for the closure of any schools. There were two – perhaps three people who spoke for the closure of Bateman; one a delegation made by a Central parent who said that keeping Central open and closing Bateman served the best interest of the city.  That was perhaps one of the most gratuitous comments heard during the whole process.

Collard is not popular amongst the other trustees. Being a trustee is not a popularity contest; Collard believes the trustees are there to ask hard questions and to hold the Director and his staff accountable.

One seldom hears tough questions from the other trustees – few come forward with well thought out suggestions. Photo ops are part of the job, visiting schools and being treated with dignity and respect is part of the job.

What the public seldom sees is a trustee asking – Why? They tend to take their cue from the Director of Education and for the most part have failed to understand that the public put them in place to hold that Director accountable for what he and his staff do.

During the nine month period that the PAR process was taking place the trustees chose to say very little. Most said they were collecting data and listening carefully to everything that was being said.

At the same time these same trustees spent well over an hour closely reviewing plans for a new high school that was to be built in Milton. They concerned themselves with the width of hallways, where windows would be placed – the only thing they didn’t do was try to choose the colour of the paint for the walls.

It would have been wonderful to see these same trustees take as detailed an interest in what was about to be done to Bateman, one of the most effective high school operations in the city.

Bateman parents have reported that some of the trustees did not even visit Bateman during the tours that were arranged for them. The Gazette had asked if they could take part in those tours – we were told that taking part would not be appropriate. We would have had an opportunity to see just who did show up.

While not all trustees will agree that their board is a fractured one with policies and procedures that have not served the public well, Collard thinks there is a need for some healing and an opportunity to work together in a setting that is more collegial and informal than a board room.

A retreat would be an excellent idea – the trick is going to be to get everyone to agree to attend and then to have a trained facilitator in the room to draw out the differences and moderate the discussion. Done properly it could be the smartest thing this Board of trustees does.

School board matters get relatively little media attention. Their meetings often run long – very long. They meet more frequently than Burlington’s city council and oversee a much, much larger budget.

The eleven woman who sit on the Board have been known to take part in meetings that have run into 1:00 am in the morning.

During the final debate on the school closing the meeting went past midnight which was when the system that records the votes electronically went off line – the trustees had to hold up their hands to vote.  Time management is a trustee issue that needs to be dealt with.

What the Board of trustees needs most is a clearer sense of purpose and mission. Despite some very impressive evidence and dozens of shortcomings in the Program Administration Review process none of the trustees questioned the process – they chose to remain mute and refusing to get involved until all the evidence was in.

But when the evidence was in – and there was a lot of it – the public saw nothing in the way of trustees asking hard questions and setting out their views on the process that in its final stage required them to make a decision.

They did have the option of directing the board staff to look at the problem in more depth and comeback with detailed recommendations in specific areas.

What was never made crystal clear was just how many empty high school classroom seats are there?

What was possible in the way of boundary changes to take the pressure of Hayden high school that is well above capacity which would have given Pearson a better chance at staying open?

And would the trustees explain why they voted for a decision that is going to require a $12 million spend to replicate at Nelson high school what already exists at Bateman?

Board staff said what they build will be better – for $12 million one would certainly hope so.

Trustees are elected to represent the interests of their constituents – other than Collard and to a lesser degree Grebenc, it was a dismal demonstration of elected officials serving their public.

By Staff

July 11th, 2017

BURLINGTON, ON

Revised at 9:30 am Tuesday morning.

The June 7th decision to close two of the city’s seven high schools stunned parents with children in both schools. Many saw it as an inevitable decision – few expected the 10-1 vote for the staff recommendation.

There were two different votes:

Bateman’s vote was 10-1
The Lester B. Pearson vote was 8-3 with the ward trustee Papin voting for non-closure.

The two high schools had different stories to tell: Lester B. Pearson was being starved of students from the feeder schools and Bateman had a great story which few people knew that much about. When the Board Director of Education decided to change his position on which high school should be closed (Bateman instead of his first decision – Central high school – there wasn’t enough time for them to get their story out and sway the 11 elected trustees who made the decision.

Parents at each school decided to seek an Administrative Review of the decision made by the trustees.

A request to have a decision reviewed can be made by filing a request if the the following conditions are met:

Demonstrate the support of a portion of the school community through the completion of a petition signed by a number of supporters equal to at least 30% of the affected school’s student headcount (e.g., if the headcount is 150, then 45 signatures would be required). Parents/guardians of students and/or other individuals that participated in the accommodation review process are eligible to sign the petition1

The petition should clearly provide a space for individuals to print and sign their name; address (street name and postal code); and to indicate whether they are a parent/guardian of a student attending the school subject to the accommodation review, or an individual who has participated in the review process.

Submit the petition and justification to the school board and the Minister of Education within thirty (30) days of the board’s closure resolution.

The school board would be required to:

Confirm to the Minister of Education that the names on the petition are parents/guardians of students enrolled at the affected school and/or individuals who participated in the review process.

Prepare a response to the individual’s or individuals’ submission regarding the process and forward the board’s response to the Minister of Education within thirty (30) days of receiving the petition.

If the conditions set out above have been met, the Ministry would be required to:

Undertake a review by appointing a facilitator to determine whether the school board accommodation review process was undertaken in a manner consistent with the board’s accommodation review policy within thirty (30) days of receiving the school board’s response.

What Steve Armstrong, part of the driving force behind the request, is saying is that the Board failed to follow its own Program Accommodation Review (PAR) rules

He sets out the position and the views of the Lester B. Pearson parents on just how the PAR process failed the community.

We have greatly exceeded the number of signatures required in support of asking for this review.

As a former Programming and Accommodation Review Committee (PARC) member I can attest first hand to many of the details in what follows.

Armstrong says he believes the intent of the PAR process was to have meaningful consultation with the communities involved and that in this regard the process failed.

He then sets out 16 different sections of the PAR policy and proceeds to set out where his community believes the Board failed.

We have set out those 16 points below along with details that WORD

What makes this particularly relevant is that the provincial Ministry of Education has admitted that there were flaws in the PAR process and put a hold on all future PAR proceedings.

That hold did not apply to the decision by the Halton Board that had already been made.

The parents at Bateman were preparing a request for an Administrative Review as well. Communication with the Bateman community is somewhat limited.

Here is the Pearson application

1) The board’s policy states:

Processes for decision‐making including those related to program, accommodation, school boundary reviews, school closures/consolidations will be timely, inclusive, transparent and open.

As will be elaborated further in the discussions below examples of a lack of timeliness, inclusivity, transparency and openness, have each been demonstrated during this process.

2) The board’s policy states:

The HDSB is committed to sharing relevant information with the public and affording affected school communities and stakeholders the opportunity for input.

Some community members sought to access information from the Board they felt was relevant to the issues at hand. Those efforts were met with roadblocks, and in one case even after filing a Freedom of Information request the results yielded an incomplete picture of the information being sought. A Trustee offered up, during delegation by that individual, that she would have gotten it for him had she known. Clearly there are inconsistent messages being sent.

3) The board’s policy states:

The HDSB will invite parents, students and staff from the school(s) under review and the broader community to participate in the pupil accommodation review process.

The PARC members took seriously their responsibility to interact with their communities, but were excluded from various process steps that would have helped facilitate those conversations.

From Director Miller’s letter to the Students on Oct 27, 2016 (a copy of the entire letter can be found in Appendix B)

As high school students your opinion is valued. The decisions made by the PAR committee will profoundly impact your school experience and those who follow you. In the new year, the PAR committee will gather feedback from Burlington high school students. We want to hear your voice!

The above paragraph erroneously setup the expectation that PARC members where making the decisions, when in fact it is the Trustees who have sole responsibility for the final call. The comment that PARC members would be gathering feedback in the new year set up an expectation that there would be interaction once the committee was up and running. Against the desires of many PARC members there was in fact no such opportunities. The student survey was conducted in December of 2016 before the PARC could review or suggest modifications to any questions. The PARC, and ultimately the Trustees, were left with only the data generated based on what HDSB thought was relevant. No opportunity to further explore the outcomes of the survey were permitted.

Likewise, the teacher/staff survey was sent out early in January before the PARC had its first working meeting.

Again no chance to shape the questions, seek follow up information, and ultimately no results were made available to either the PARC or Public at large. When asked on April 26th by a Trustee during the initial presentation of the Director’s Final Report draft where the Staff Survey results quoted in the report were, it was stated that the results contained information that would have to be heavily redacted. Ultimately the information was shared only privately with the Trustees. The PARC members and public were never given insight from this important stakeholder group.

The final online survey for community input was taken following the third public meeting. PARC members had asked to be involved in setting those questions, and initially were told that would be possible. Ultimately the questions were frozen without PARC input, and the results didn’t inquire on aspects we felt important to seek input on.

4) The board’s policy states:

Prior to establishing a pupil accommodation review, the Director will present to the Board of Trustees a preliminary report that identifies a school or group of schools that may be considered for a Program and

Accommodation Review (PAR) if one or more of the following conditions apply:

● The school or group of schools has experienced or will experience declining enrolment where the On the Ground (OTG) utilization rate is below 65%;

● Reorganization involving the school or group of schools could enhance program delivery and learning opportunities for students;

Much of this PAR process has centered around utilization rates of the individual high schools. The HDSB PAR policy uses a 65% Utilization rate as a trigger threshold for review. This threshold is not something that appears in the Ministry guidelines, and in fact has caused much confusion to both the PARC members and community. Given that the overall utilization in Burlington is currently sitting at 75%, and will reach 80% by 2020, this fact alone raised concerns among many as to why Burlington was undertaking a PAR itself.

Underutilization is mostly an economic factor and has little direct impact on the student experience. This stands in contrast to under enrolment which does have significant impact, mainly felt in the number of student programming options available. Conversely over utilization does have a negative impact on the student experience, especially when facilities are pushed beyond they’re total capacity. This condition exists at Dr. Frank J Hayden (Hayden) high school which is a one of the schools included in this review.

Throughout the process declining enrollment was highlighted as the root cause of all the problems.

The graph below plots the actual enrollment numbers as well as the projections from the yearly LTAPs going back to 2006

What clearly jumps out is that for the last 2 years Burlington’s overall enrollment has in fact, been increasing, and will continue to do so for the next number of years.

The closure of Pearson and Bateman will leave approximately 5300 student places available. One can easily see the projected enrollment over the next 10 year period will be in excess of this remaining capacity.

During the PARC process the question was raised as to the accuracy of the projections. The official response was “that historically the projections have been very accurate”. A statement that is clearly not supported by the evidence. Many of the conclusions, and recommendations, have been made by focusing on the furthest point out in the projections. This data point that has in fact been historically the least accurate.

The second part of the highlighted policy concerns reorganizing to enhance programming options.

When PARC members tried to get answers as to how much better the student experience would be after closing a school or two we were always given a generic answer that failed to quantify the improvements.

An analysis of the SIP data much later in the process finally shed some light on the specifics and is shown above.

The data suggests that there is a critical mass that occurs around the 700 student enrollment point. Below 700 students course options are strongly effected by enrollment, at rate of 15 courses per 100 students of change. Above critical mass the benefits of larger enrollment on the number of course options is drastically smaller. What makes this very interesting is that if Burlington’s current enrollment was evenly spread over the 7 high schools there would be 780 students per school, certainly above critical mass.

Taken together these observations call into question some of the statements repeated during discussions that ultimately shaped opinions and presumably decisions.

Some of this information was present as a delegation, and the later part was only allowed to be shared as an email to individual Trustees. The process certainly has flaws. The complete document discussing these two issues can be found in Appendix C.

5) The board’s policy states:

The report must also include information on actions taken by school board staff prior
to establishing a pupil accommodation review process and supporting rationale as to any actions taken or not taken

Both the Ministry guidelines and the HDSB PAR policy talk of re balancing school enrollments in response to changing enrollments. Of the 19 Options originally developed by the Board only one explored keeping all schools open. That Option simply used capping of enrollment at Hayden to lessen the overcrowding crisis present there.

Twelve of the original nineteen options called for closing Pearson despite its’ proximity to Hayden, and completely ignored the fact that boundary changes to Pearson’s previous catchment are the root cause of Pearson’s declining enrollment. Those boundary changes were made when Hayden was opened and ultimately are now contributing to Hayden’s problems.

The Director’s Initial Report is silent on all actions taken or not taken before this process was started. Clearly the Board had awareness of the issues surrounding both Pearson and Hayden and has failed to take any corrective action, or provide the required information.

When asked by a Trustee on June 7th, the Director responded that his team had looked at boundary changes for Pearson but simply couldn’t find a scenario that fixed the problems. This is troubling in that it came up on the evening of the decision and not as an input to the PAR process as required in the PAR policy.

Additionally, it should be noted that community members had no problems developing multiple suggestions that were presented to Trustees during delegations or in emails sent directly to them. The conclusion is that neither the Board or Trustees spent much time deliberating on community inputs in opposition to their mandates.

6) The board’s policy states:

If new capital investment is required as a result of the pupil accommodation review, how the school board intends to fund this, as well as a proposal on how students would be accommodated if funding does not become available;

While this is listed as a requirement for the Director’s Initial report the original recommendation did not require significant capital outlay as City wide utilization was projected to only reach 100% of capacity.

The updated recommendations in the Final report will push overall utilization up to 110% of capacity which when combined with specialized program moves will require significant Capital funding.

The Final Report fails to explain how students would be accommodated if funding were denied.

7) The board’s policy states:

The PARC will review the completed School Information Profile(s) and have the opportunity to discuss and consult thereon.

PARC members identified a variety of errors in the first set of SIPs provided by board staff. Some of these data were corrected, but even after a second major release many issues remain. There was great concern expressed from PARC members when the projected facilities capital needs grew greatly during the revision process.

The Superintendent of Facilities explained that part of the issue was the transition to a new set of data as the Ministry was in the midst of requiring a change to the tool used for capturing capitol requests. Also highlighted by the Superintendent was the fact that forward looking projected costs are somewhat inflated to convey to the Ministry that HDSB always has need for more capital then it receives. Some fraction of the listed items will come to fruition based on actual funding provided.

Ultimately it doesn’t appear that this data was used as part of the decision making process, thus reducing the concerns of PARC members (and the public) to questioning the level of commitment of staff towards data integrity.

8) The board’s policy states:

The PARC acts as the official conduit for information shared between the Board of Trustees and school communities.

The PARC will provide feedback to the Board of Trustees and the community on the options considered in the Director’s Preliminary Report and may, throughout the PAR process, seek clarification of the Director’s Preliminary Report.

These statements imply communication is expected between the Trustees and PARC members. Unfortunately, nothing to this effect was undertaken during the PARC portion of the process. The PAR policy states that Trustees are not required to attend PARC meetings, but are free to do so. Like general members of the public they must sit in the gallery thus eliminating any interaction with PARC members. As many in the public gallery will attest it was difficult to hear the discussions going on.

Trustee attendance at the Public meetings was also optional, and tended to usually be just the 4 Burlington Trustees plus the PARC Trustee member.

Trustees had been instructed at the beginning of the process that they were to have limited interaction with PARC, and community members. Participation at School Council meetings or other Community meetings was to be strictly in a listening mode.

Throughout the process, PARC members primary method of interaction with the Trustees was by sending emails, most of which received either no response or a short acknowledgement indicating receipt. The Board’s instructions to the Trustees greatly interfered with any thoughtful dialog. How where their questions raised and answered?

The PAR policy clearly states that PARC will provide feedback to the Board of Trustees. There was no presentation, dialog, or documents created as an output by PARC members. The Director’s Final Report simply itemized the actions undertaken at each meeting, and included the unapproved minutes in an appendix. There was no direct feedback from the PARC, only the basic proof of process.

It seems inappropriate that Trustees would receive instruction from the Board on what they can and cannot do when interacting with the constituents that elected them. The Trustees are not beholden to the Board, it is the other way around.

9) The board’s policy states:

The PARC does not need to achieve consensus regarding the information provided to the Board of Trustees and the Director

The processes used did little to encourage consensus. When a few attempts were made to use an informal show of hands to gauge the degree of any consensus these where quickly shut down by the Chair.

For any sort of meaningful consensus to be achieved all outstanding questions need to be answered, at least to some degree. Multiple times during the PARC meetings the members found themselves being asked to take Options off the table, including at the very first working meeting in January, long before clarity started forming on some of the important concepts in play. In hind sight, the process utilized at the working meetings was inappropriate.

Discussion about what the real issues to be tackled where, and resolution of questions arising from that work are necessary before anyone should start eliminating Options. The use of a Dotmocracy exercise on the third of seven working meetings was totally inappropriate. The Options being discussed were far from being fully developed, or even the best ones to choose from.

Coming into the PARC working sessions there was a belief held by a number of the members that the Board needed to close schools in Burlington in order to receive funding for building new ones in Milton. This perception was finally laid to rest during the third meeting, but not before the consequences of that mistaken belief had impacted the process. When decisions on what Options should be removed, or added, are based on false information the damage is done. In this case it also was destructive to the collaboration needed in this process as communities had already been pitted against each other to save their school. Unfortunately, this misinformation also existed at the Trustee level as evidenced by the Vice Chair asking for clarification on this same issue during the Board meeting of May 24th. Well into the process and only a short time before the decision was to be made.

10) The board’s policy states:

Members of the PARC will solicit input from the community they represent. The format and process of the input will be discussed once the PARC is formed.

Any information requested or additional options generated by the PARC will be shared through a combination of methods including community meetings, letters to the community, website postings, school newsletters, and media releases.

At the outset of the PAR process the Board had given guidance to school administrators (Principals) concerning the interactions and support to be given during the process. This guidance apparently was not explicit enough to ensure consistent application across the 7 high schools undergoing the PAR.

It wasn’t till the end of the second working meeting that clarity was brought about allowing the board provided PARC member email address to be added to individual school websites, the control of which rests with the school Principal.

The Pearson PARC members were severely disadvantaged in efforts to connect with their community on multiple occasions. While some schools allowed PARC members to send out emails to their specific student / parent database we were denied that channel.

When we tried to engage with teachers and staff we were cut off.

While some schools even allowed community meetings to be held on site Pearson was not. Not only was there inequity in accessing school resources to enable meaningful engagement with our communities, the fundamental premise stated in the policy was not adhered to.

The Pearson PARC team was not provided any practical way to contact, meet or interact with its community. It instead had to rely on the “SaveLBP high school” team as a conduit, along with motivated parents who sought out the PARC email addresses. Neither mechanism ensured the broadest engagement.

11) The board’s policy states:

The secretary of the PARC will be responsible for preparing detailed minutes of all meetings.

Once approved by the PARC, the minutes will be posted on the Board’s website.

Minutes were never approved. Procedurally they were emailed out to PARC members, who invariably requested additions or corrections, some of which were incorporated others of which weren’t. At no time was the committee asked to approve the minutes either during a subsequent working meeting, or by email.

Since the minutes were the only correspondence included in the Director’s Final Report as output from the PARC there is a significant under representation of that group’s thinking.

12) The board’s policy states:

The Board of Trustees encourages PARCs to be clear about the challenges and opportunities being addressed and work actively to identify and promote shared values and interests

This is an area where the PAR process as whole has performed poorly.

When the committee members sought clarity on the specifics of the original challenges and opportunities as presented the answers were generalizations that didn’t quantify either the downsides or upsides. Moving forward making decisions on which Options to continue discussing early on was inappropriate.

13) The board’s policy states: PARC Framework

In respect of the school or group of schools being studied, the PARC will consider, but not
be limited to the following:

Accommodation of students in permanent school facilities and minimal use of portable classrooms;

Balance of overall enrollment in each school in the area to maximize student access to programs, resources, and extra‐curricular opportunities and avoid over and under-utilization
of buildings;

Fiscal responsibilities;

The Final Recommendations and decisions made on June 7th leave Dr. Frank J Hayden high school in a significant overcrowding situation over the next 2 years, and are dependent on student/parent choices regarding participation in the optional French Immersion program at MM Robinson high school to bring down the stresses being felt by the students at Hayden in the long term. Over the full 10 year period of the LTAP projections this school is not projected to see its enrollment brought down to the OTG capacity of the building.

Consequently, the decision made will not reduce the use of portables over the next 10 year period. This later aspect deprives the residents of Burlington the full enjoyment of the sports fields, library and community center gymnasiums during the evenings and weekends.

From a fiscal perspective, the decision to close two schools and immediately require $12M (or more) to reproduce what already exists at Bateman clearly calls into question whether the Board and its Trustees have failed to protect the financial interests of Ontario taxpayers in the near term when enrollment is growing. The decisions made also greatly increase the risk of needing further major capitol funding if the current pattern of increasing enrollment projection in the 5 – 10 year horizon continue.

14) The board’s policy states:

The affected local municipality, the Region of Halton, as well as other community partners that expressed an interest prior to the pupil accommodation review will be encouraged to provide their responses on the recommended option(s) in the Director’s Preliminary Report before the final public meeting.

The Ministry guidelines use much stronger language and state that:

The affected single and upper‐tier municipalities, as well as other community partners that expressed an interest prior to the pupil accommodation review, must provide their response on the recommended option(s) in the school board’s initial staff report before the final public meeting.

Similar requirements surround documenting any relevant information in the Final Report.

The Board has failed on to provide this perspective in any of its reports, including acknowledging letters written by City Councilors opposing the Board recommended closures.

15) The board’s policy states:

The Director’s Final Report will include a community consultation section that contains feedback from the PARC and any public consultations, as well as any relevant information obtained from municipalities and other community partners prior to and during the pupil accommodation review, and for transparency, identifies key considerations in formulating the final recommendations to the Board of Trustees.

The Director will consider all input received in developing recommendations.

Feedback from the public delegations will be compiled and included as information to the Board of Trustees together with the Director’s Final Report.

The Director will present the Final Report, including the compiled feedback from the public delegations, to the Board of Trustees.

The Director’s Final Report is deficient in providing feedback from public delegations, public consultations, and municipalities, thus calling into question how much consideration was given to these inputs if at all.

16) The board’s policy states:

There must be no fewer than ten (10) business days between the date of the public delegations and the final decision of the Board of Trustees.

Given that public delegations occurred on June 7th, the same evening as the final decision was being made, it is a trivial thought process to see that a clear deviation from the PAR policy occurred.

Given the above policy violation, and the immediacy in which prepared statements were made by Trustees during the decision making portion of the meeting, it is quite clear that thoughtful deliberation could not have occurred.

Many Trustees lamented that they had read all the over 700 emails, listened to the numerous voicemail messages, and phone calls received. Combined with the knowledge that the clear majority of this occurred post the PARC phase, and post the release of the draft of the Director’s Final Report, when any questions arising would be answered solely from the Board’s perspective, without any engagement with the community, it becomes easy to understand the appeal of the Board’s recommendations

In summary:

It is consideration of all the above, we the petitioners believe that HDSB did not follow its Programming and Accommodation Review policy, and request that a you undertake an Administrative Review of the process leading up to the decisions made on June 7th, 2017

By Pepper Parr

July 1st, 2017

BURLINGTON, ON

 

Steve Atkinson, the Lester B. Pearson high school parent, who has worked tirelessly to keep the school open thinks there just might be an opportunity to put the decision to close the schools on hold.

Earlier in the week Minister of Education Mitzie Hunter announced that there will be an overhaul of the process school boards use to review schools for potential closure.

While the process is under review, school boards will not begin any new reviews, with the exception of those reviews which would support joint-use projects between school boards or for student safety.

In a comment made in the Gazette earlier today Atkinson said: “Now that we have been proven correct in our assertion that the PAR was flawed, by no less than Mitzie Hunter and Premier Wynne with their decision to immediately pause Ontario school closures, I wonder if this administrative review can be used as a “decision pending” designation for Pearson & Bateman as opposed to “on the chopping block”?

“I am certain our MPP can now provide input AND valuable assistance on this provincial decision and will contact her immediately.”

Atkinson and parents at Bateman high school are in the process of preparing a request for an Administrative Review of the decision the Halton District School Board June 7th, to close both Bateman high school and Lester B. Pearson.

It’s a long shot but certainly one well worth taking.

Related article

High school parents seeking an Administrative Review of Board’s school closing decision.

By Staff

June 28th, 2017

BURLINGTON, ON

 

The Halton District School Board announces that the graduation rate of Halton students continues to exceed that of the provincial average.

In 2016, 90.7 per cent of Halton District School Board students graduated within five years of starting Grade 9, exceeding the Ontario average of 86.5 per cent.

The Board’s four-year graduation rate for students in 2016 (Grade 9 students enrolled in the 2012-13 school year) is 83.3 per cent compared to the Ontario average of 79.6 per cent.

“The progress represented in the graduation rate indicator, both provincially and locally, is reflective of the efforts and leadership of many people including our students, staff, and families,” said Julie Hunt Gibbons, Superintendent of Education (Secondary Programs) for the Halton District School Board. “We will continue to support all students through our various Student Success initiatives so our graduation rate continues to trend upward.”

“The Halton District School Board provides innovative Specialist High Skills Majors, dual credit options, apprenticeships and cooperative education opportunities that help students customize their high school experience,” said Julie Hunt Gibbons, Superintendent of Education (Secondary Programs) for the Board.

No mention that there will be fewer high schools for these students to graduate from starting next year when Lester B. Pearson sees its last student accept a diploma.