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November 5th, 2016 BURLINGTON, ON
It is the best show in town for the political junkies – and it seems that tens of thousands of Canadians are fixated on what our southern neighbours are putting themselves through.  A graph that updates almost every 10 minutes. One of the best data site on the American election. There is a web site that provides exceptionally current data. Link to the site: www.fivethirtyeight.com/
November 4th, 2016 BURLINGTON, ON
What is the value of convenience? Is it worth sacrificing some of our democratic institutions, like the secret ballot and the knowledge that our election results accurately reflect the intent of voters? This Monday Burlington City Council (sitting as the Community & Corporate Services) will consider a staff report which recommends Burlington continue its experiment with remote Internet voting. I call it an experiment because Internet voters made up a relatively small overall percentage of ballots cast in the 2010 & 2014 elections in which it was offered. I do not believe that as a City we should continue to embrace this flawed method of electing our leaders, and I believe most citizens would agree if they better understood the significant challenges involved. Here is a brief summary of the issues with online/Internet voting:  This is a secret ballot • Internet voting eliminates the protection of the secret ballot and could enable coercion of voters by family members and others. With the large population of seniors in Burlington, and the very real issue of elder abuse this is a significant concern. At the public polling station election staff are there to ensure you can vote in privacy, free from interference; at home or work just about anyone can be standing behind you as you cast your ballot. • It also facilitates vote buying and/or individuals casting ballots on behalf of others, with or without their knowledge. This has already happened back in 2010 when an Eastern Ontario man was charged and fined with voting on behalf of his family members. It is probably safe to assume there have been other cases (perhaps even here in Burlington) which went unnoticed as it is not uncommon for several family members to share a computer or Internet connection. A mother or father might, for example, decide to vote on behalf of their kids who are away at University or College. • Evidence indicates that Internet voting does not increase turnout, even among youth. The most recent example of this is Halifax’s 2016 municipal election where the number of online voters dropped by over 10,000. Leading researchers in the field have analyzed 15 years of data and concluded that Internet voting is unlikely to solve the low turnout crisis faced by Western democracies. Perhaps surprisingly, they also found Ontario voters age 18-34 were more likely to prefer paper ballots.  The level of sophistication the ID thieves have is close to beyond belief – if they want the information – they can get it. • Most computer security experts warn that Internet voting is not secure. A large number of multinational firms as well as Canadian government departments have been successfully cyberattacked in recent years. There have been many stories in the news recently of high profile attacks like the ones that affected the Ontario EQAO exam and attempts to influence the US election through the release of emails obtained through hacking or phishing attempts. Third party IT security consultants hired by the City of Toronto to study proposals for Internet voting in that city recommended against moving forward with any of the options. Many other jurisdictions that considered or experimented with online voting have dropped support for Internet voting. These include Toronto, Mississauga, Kitchener, and Huntsville Ontario, the provinces B.C. & Alberta as well as the country of Norway. A City of Kitchener 2012 staff report was the impetus for that city rejecting Internet voting; it recommended strongly against implementation for their 2014 election. Most of the aforementioned issues were cited. According to this report and other academic studies the highest user of Internet voting is the 45-55 demographic and the vast majority of Internet voters would likely have voted anyway. Problems with Internet voting were in the news again as recently as this past week in P.E.I. where they are using it for a non-binding plebiscite on electoral reform. An unknown number of voter information packages with personal identification numbers (PINs) were sent to the wrong addresses. These codes could potentially be used to cast a ballot on behalf of another voter. If the vote is cast from a public location like a library, there would be little that could be done to track down the offender. Many advocates point to the opportunity Internet voting provides to make it easier for disabled voters to cast their ballot. However, as Dr. Barbara Simons a former researcher with IBM pointed it out during her recent testimony to the Electoral Reform panel in Ottawa, it does a disservice to voters with disabilities, to anybody, to provide them with a tool that is fundamentally insecure. We owe it to them when we provide them with alternatives to make sure those alternatives are secure. Despite the issues we continue to hear that, based on opinion polls, there is a demand and support from the public for Internet voting. To quote Dr. Simons again, if this were a medical hearing to determine whether to approve a new drug for human consumption, safety would be paramount. A drug that is likely to result in serious injury to patients would be rejected, no matter how many people wanted to use it. Internet voting is like a drug we are considering for our democracy. If this scares you as much as it scares me be sure to contact your Councillor before Monday.
November 3rd, 2016 BURLINGTON, ON
The first two of seven meetings that will take place at each of the high schools in the city were held at Bateman and Nelson. The Director of Education, Stuart Miller and a number of his staff gave an hour long presentation to six people at the Robert Bateman high school, zipped up their briefcases where they did the presentation a second time to 12 people at Nelson high school. These meetings were not a required part of the Program Accommodation Review the Board of Education is going through. “It is not an easy time” said Miller  Joey Edwardth, President of Community Development Halton with Director of Education Stuart Miller – she has the data he needs. Director Miller and the General manager of the Board shared the delivery of the presentation – they were laying out the facts as they understood them. And the facts are critical. There are far too many seats in high school classroom that are empty and that just isn’t sustainable. Miller said the city has one and a half too many high schools – and to make matters worse the capacity the board has it at times in the wrong place. Unfortunately the Board has known about this for some time. This problem first appeared on their radar screens back in 2013  The city of Burlington doesn’t have a demographer on staff and apparently the Board of Education doesn’t have any of that capacity as well. Community Development Halton (CDH) has a solid team that has the data at its finger tips – but the city and the board don’t seem to know what CDH can do for them. If the problem of falling enrollment was identified in 2012 – it was in the data long before then. Of more interest to parents is the depth of the problem. Except for Hayden and Nelson high school there is not a high school in the city that is not at some risk. Set out below is the critical data for every high school – the numbers are not nice and they certainly are not comfortable. At the first meeting of the Board and the parents at Bateman there were six parents. Bateman is at rick – look at the numbers. The doted line is the On the Ground capacity of the school. The critical number is 65% of that OTG. When a school falls below that the Board of education is required to do a Program Accommodation Review. Each year the Board does an LTAP – Long Term Accommodation study – the quality of those studies may not have been as good as they should have been.  Central has a problem but it is not as bad as Bateman.  How did the demographers miss this one? Add to the problem is the development of a housing project in the north east quadrant of the city.  The sense seems to be that closing Pearson and sending them to Robinson will solve the Robinson problem.  At some point in time the Eaglesfield project will get developed – it looks like that is going to be a family community – will children attend Aldershot?  Bateman would appear to be more at risk than Central.
November 3rd 2016 BURLINGTON, ON
The closing of a school is no small matter – and when it happens there is disruption at many levels – especially for the parents who have children in one of the schools that was recommended for closure. In the Program Accommodation Review the Halton district School Board is undergoing, the Director of Education put a recommendation before the trustees that two specific schools be closed. Central and Pearson. There are parents who wish the Director had not done so.  Blue indicates a small school; green indicates a large school. Lynne Crosby, a parent with children at Central high school said yesterday that “They did NOT have to make a recommendation that named two schools. This shows a complete disregard for the students and staff at those two schools, plus the students in grade 7/8 and the feeder schools. The high school students at these schools have been greatly negatively affected, and in many cases their school year is tainted if not ruined. They (the Board of Education) could have chosen option 7 which is to close no schools to begin the PAR. Or they could have made an Option 20 to close one school or two schools, particular ones to be determined through the process, and not naming specific ones. Crosby is bothered by the rule that does not allow any questions during the presentations that are being made to each high school. “We can’t ask him this question because they don’t allow questions. What a farce. I doubt they are taking questions from the media either, but this is a point that should be raised, since they keep giving us this line about how they had no choice.” “One thing that really bothers me” said Crosby, “is them saying how they had to make a recommendation, as if their hands were tied by the Ministry rules. All the board had to do was ask the trustees to decide if they wanted to do a Program Accommodation Review to begin the process. The Board did produce a report that had a recommendation – which is all it is at this point in time.  Doesn’t take a rocket scientists to figure out that there is a problem. The enrollment numbers to show that there are far too many seats in the high schools that have not been filled.
There was an error in the report on the delegation the Director of education is making to city council The Stuart Miller delegation will be to the Corporate and Community Services Standing Committee were he will have ten minutes to tell his side of the story. The corrected story is at:
November 3rd, 2016 BURLINGTON, ON
School Board Director of Education Stuart Miller isn’t getting home for dinner very often this month.
The delegation will outline the process for a program and accommodation review, including timelines and consultation.
They are their own fiefdoms. The school board is shaking up every household in the city with their requirement to go to the parents and talk about closing high schools. The city gets this kind of feedback when it want to close an arena or a swimming pool – so they both have experience dealing with the public. The public would say that neither are very good at communicating. For the record the school board is putting itself in front of people. At city Standing Committee meetings delegations are limited to ten minutes – watch how quickly that gets waived. The Board of Education isn’t allowing Q&A at its meetings with parents – but at city council meetings Councillors can ask questions. Parents might want to lobby their member of council to get some answers. The biggest issue we hear from parents is that the school board doesn’t appear to be thinking in terms of “community” – focusing instead on what they can do for the students. Parents want to think in terms of how community can be retained.
November 1, 2016 BURLINGTON, ON
Teachers do a lot more than teach. They are one of the sets of eyes that watch our children as they grow from that shy little girl who steps cautiously into a classroom with her Mom on that first day of school to seeing the change taking [;ace in a boy because the family he is part of is falling apart. That teacher is the one who realizes when a student is ready for a bigger idea and knows just which book should be given to the child. They see the student who comes to school in the winter weather with just a heavy sweater – there is no winter coat.
There is a group – the Halton Learning Foundation that is in place to provide some of the money needed to fill these gaps. There are other organizations, Food4kids is one, that provides food for those that are going to go home to a house where there may not be a real square meal on the table. Later this month the Learning Foundation will be holding their Benefit Bash. The event isn’t one of the fancier, splashy events where people get to wear that dress. It isn’t a major event on the social calendar – but it is an important event. It raises some of the money that gets used to pay for some of the needs that students have that their parents can’t handle. The business of taking care of these situations is always slim resources chasing growing needs. On the 16th school day of this school year the request for funds was double what it had been the previous year at the same time. The social helpers in this city can see serious problems coming their way. The Benefit Bash takes place November 10th at the Burlington Convention Centre. This might be one of those places you could send a donation along to. They will be announcing their No Student Left Behind campaign at the Benefit Bash – this is something we are looking forward to telling you a lot more about.
November 1, 2016 BURLINGTON, ON
It is going to be a busy month for the bureaucrats at the J. M. Singleton Education Centre.
The dates for the events at each high school are set out below. Tuesday, November 1, 2016 Robert Bateman HS 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm The meetings are going to be brisk and to the point – and there will not, we are advised be a Q&A session during the meeting. The Gazette will cover some of these meetings are report back on what takes place.
October 29th, 2016 BURLINGTON, ON
There is time during each day that Member of Parliament get to say something about their community. Madam Speaker, on October 15, I had the opportunity to celebrate one young boy’s determination in revitalizing an important space in his community.  Griffin Gervais with his parents Eleven-year-old Griffin Gervais was disappointed that his baseball diamond at Lakeshore Public School was in rough shape and not scheduled for an update. Rather than just accept the fact, Griffin decided he would lead the effort to repair the diamond. Starting last January, Griffin with the help of his family, classmates, his community, and the city of Burlington’s neighbourhood community matching fund, raised a total of $12,000. Today, with two updated benches, new chain-link fencing, and a freshly mowed field, the Lakeshore Public School baseball diamond now looks better than ever.  A smartly laid out baseball diamond behind Lakeshore Public school. Griffin’s story is one that is truly inspiring and shows that individuals can make a impact on their community if they set their mind to it. I thank Griffin for all of his hard work. I was proud to attend the grand opening and to see him throw the first pitch on the field.  Burlington MP Karina Gould throwing the opening pitch at a Burlington Bandits baseball game. Gould by the way is no slouch on the baseball diamond either. She got it right across the plate – which is more than can be said when the Mayor was asked to throw that opening pitch.
October 28, 2016 BURLINGTON, ON
Burlington parents with students in Central high and Lester B. Pearson high school are scrambling. The Halton District School Board (HDSB) put a series of recommendations before the trustees earlier this month that could result in the closing of the two high schools. The Board of education is driven by provincial funding rules that require them to do a Program Accommodation Review (PAR) if the percentage of the seats available in a school that are being used falls below 65%  Hayden High school, Burlington’s newest built as part of a complex that includes a Recreational Centre and a public library with a skate park across the street is at 115% capacity and already has portables in the parking lot. The Board situation is complicated in that the three year old Hayden high school is at 115% capacity. Director of Education Stuart Miller explained to the trustees that the city has one and a half too many high schools – and that they are south of the QEW where the student population is falling. The process of closing a school requires that a Program Accommodation Review Committee (PARC) be formed and that the trustees listen to what that committee recommends before making a decision. The PARC process is to be completed by May of 2017. That is a tight timeline. There are people in the academic world who think the province is forcing the school boards to do this the wrong way – and that opting for larger school rather than smaller school is bad pedagogy. Schools play a central role in their communities. They are essential to economic development and they make communities more attractive to new- comers. Businesses are more likely to move to communities with schools, and families will not move to communities without schools. When a community loses its school, it loses its viability. Extensive research over the last decade shows that small schools make excellent learning environments for students, and that, despite economies of scale, they are often cost effective because of their higher graduation rates. Creative and proactive strategies must be developed now to recognise the value of small schools and to ensure their viability and that of their communities. Bill Irwin of Huron University College and Mark Seasons at the University of Waterloo school of Planning argue that the push to close school doors seems to be an economic exercise, overlooking educational and community needs. Irwin is a professor of Economics and Management and Organizational Studies at Huron. “We believe,” the website states, “that the theory and best practices of both urban planning and public participation are good foundations from which to ameliorate the school closure process, and ultimately lead to a more effective and equitable outcome for those involved.” The website is one of the outcomes of a 2013-14 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Development Grant. “We’re looking at the whole issue surrounding school closures, in terms of several touchstones – as a public policy issue, and how policy is developed and delivered; as a public participation issue and the relationship between institutions and communities; and the implications of closures in terms of impacts on financial, social and human capital,” Irwin explained. There are a number of factors driving this school closing trend. • The last of the baby-boom generation’s children (who have created an enrollment swell since the 1970s) are now completing their secondary education.  Terry Ruff, a former Central his school principal explained to parents how a possible closure was avoided when he was principal in 2000. “The research into the subject of school closures is grounded in developing and implementing a better decision making process with regards to accommodation review. To complement this, the researchers are concentrating on three areas of focus; public participation, urban planning, and the accommodation review process itself. We believe that the theory and best practices of both urban planning and public participation are good foundations from which to ameliorate the school closure process, and ultimately lead to a more effective and equitable outcome for those involved.  The Simms building, directly across the street from city hall is a number of city departments – Legal and Human Resources. Might they take up some of the spare space at Central ? “One of the key components to realizing this objective is the ability to achieve an increased awareness of this issue, and to encourage an informed discussion between government officials, policy makers, school board administrators, and civic leaders alike. To support this, the researchers have provided material that they believe will enable a wide range of stakeholders to become better informed about the various guiding aspects of accommodation review and school closures.” A major problem the closing of a school stumbles upon is that planning is a municipal function – and in Burlington the Board of Education and city hall tend not to work very closely together; the two don’t have an organizational structure they can meet on as equals. The last time there was an educational issue that involved the city was when the Charles Beaudoin School wanted to add more portables – but in order to do so they had to get permits from the city. The parents at the school didn’t want more in the way of portables so they pressured the city not to give the Board of Education what they said they needed. The school board eventually got permission to install additional portables – just not as many as they needed. “There is documentation that will enable others to become better informed about some of the more subtle elements and underlying causations that have led school closures to become such a highly contentious and polarizing experience.  The parents at Central high are well organized – Pearson is trying to catch up. “School closure decision making process have been framed by policy makers in Ontario, through the accommodation review process (ARCs) (2006), as exercised in public participation. Critics of ARCs have decried the process being more of a subterfuge than a genuine attempt of joint institutional-community review. At its core, the research is a quest to better understand the relationship between institutions of education, in Ontario represented by the provincial Ministry of Education and local school boards, and the community. “Furthering this understanding will require addressing the question: How do people view the concrete and practical application of school closure policy in their community? Critics of the current ARC process in Ontario have stated that the provincial government appears to ne be making use of school boards to regulate the citizenry to their own end, applying the version of the Foucauldain (a form of discourse analysis, focusing on power relationships in society as expressed through language and practices) notion of governmentality. “The questions are: How does the community view the consequences of school closings, especially as the closing occur in local settings? How does (or do) the end results of school closings reflect what community members’ desire? or the process of review? “The research starts with the premise that ‘true public participation’ in any policy decision rests not only with the institution listening to the community; the institution needs also to consciously include the community insights into the final outcome. Therefore institutional context and motive plays a pivotal role in determining a group or individual’s capacity to make informed choices, and then transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes. Capturing that institutional context and motivation as it relates to public participation, actual and perceived, is a major focus of the research.” Bill Irwin explains: “When I started my research – my thesis (in 2012) was on school closures – no one else had looked at this issue since the policy had come forward in 2005,” he continued, adding if the province was closing smaller community schools as a fiscal savings measure, there was no tracking of those savings. More importantly, there was no review of community costs. “How does a closure impact students as learners? We don’t know if this is impacting students’ ability to learn or their marks. This happens in young people’s lives at the same time they’re going through emotional, physical changes. There are so many unanswered questions in this,” Irwin continued. “The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing is spending resources on rebuilding houses, while the Ministry of Education is supporting closures of community schools. We want to rebuild our inner cities, yet we want to shut down schools in their communities,” Irwin said. “We’re taking schools from poor neighbourhoods and putting them in affluent neighbourhoods. It’s a reverse Robin Hood situation.” “What’s more, current policies surrounding school closures ignore previous research that shows smaller schools have a great impact within their communities. “In the 1960s, 70s and 80s, robust research literature was done on the benefits of small schools as learning environments, as having long term benefits to students. That literature has been totally ignored in this whole process,” Irwin said. “All of us realize there will be a provincial election this year. This should be part of the discussion. How we treat our schools has a tremendous impact long-term on the social fabric of our communities,” Irwin said. • The number of small elementary schools with full-time principals has dropped by 15%, twice the rate of the drop in all elementary schools in the province.  The Alton public school is scheduled to have a second floor added – the school hasn’t been open three years. Three quarters of Ontario’s small elementary schools and 83% of small high schools report that their schools are used by the community after school hours for everything from sporting events to ratepayers’ meetings. Ontario’s drive to build larger schools is solely a response to an education funding formula geared to larger schools – it is an economic decision rather than a pedagogical one. The HDSB recently approved taking on commercial enterprises that could use some of the space; meetings were held but nothing has come of this kind of opportunity so far. The city of Burlington has been renting space in the Sims Building directly across from city hall for years. There is a consultant’s report in a filing cabinet gathering dust that sets out what the city is going to need in terms of office space and what is currently has – that report has not been released to the public yet. After years of stopgap solutions, it is time to reverse the trend and recognize that closing a school is not simply an educational issue, it has major social and demographic repercussions as well. The researchers declare that “we must recognize the reality of declining enrollment in Ontario, and come up with new and proactive solutions to maintain the viability of small schools and communities. It is time to develop creative ways to keep the school buildings vital and expand their role as the hub of their communities. We can take cues from other places: English small schools are inviting postal sub-stations to occupy a part of their buildings; Newfoundland has community schools that have on-site social service agencies, community radio stations, and seniors’ programs. It is possible to modify school buildings slightly so that they can function as community centres as well, and, if provided with adequate funding, day care centres enhance schools and act as a draw for young parents.”  Expect to see a lot more evening with rooms packed with parents as the |Board of Education begins a series of meeting to explain the PAR process. There will not be a Q&A session at any of these meetings. Somewhere in the research there is mention of adjusting transportation guidelines and funding to ensure that no student spends more than 1½ hours per day on the school bus. That amount of time suggests students in Burlington are being prepped for commutes on the QEW, The battle in front of the parents right now is the very real threat to two of the city’s high schools – there might be a higher level discussion these parents can put in front of the trustees and that is – what size of schools do we want and can we slow things down a bit and take the time needed to get this right the first time. This article draws heavily on the work of Bill Irwin at Huron University College and Mark Seasons at the University of Waterloo.
Pretty sure this is a first for high school students – a letter from the Director of Education explaining the possibility that their high school might close. Interesting decision. October 27, 2016 Dear Students,
According to the Board’s Program Accommodation Review policy, the Director’s Preliminary Report must include a staff recommended option. This recommendation is not a final decision, but a starting point for consultation in this PAR. Staff has recommended Option 19 which proposes various boundary and program changes across Burlington secondary schools, as well as the closure of Lester B. Pearson High School and Burlington Central High School. The PAR process will begin in November with information sessions held at each Burlington high school. You are welcome to attend these sessions and learn more about this process and help you formulate your own opinions. These evening meetings are on November 1, 3, 14 and 15. Refer to the HDSB website at www.hdsb.ca for more details. If you are unable to attend, the presentation will be posted on the Board’s website. On November 21 at 7 p.m., Board staff will join me in hosting a live online question and answer session. Log on at www.hdsb.ca . Your questions are most welcome. The Board of Trustees will make their decision in May 2017; however the earliest date that any changes could take place is September 2018. 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! As a parent and educator I understand many of you are deeply loyal to your school, your teachers, and the school traditions that have developed over many years.
I encourage you to stay informed and engaged in the PAR process. We will keep you informed through ongoing information posted on our website at www.hdsb.ca We will provide more details about how you can share your input in the New Year. Sincerely,
October 26, 2016 BURLINGTON, ON
Do you remember the day you first went to school? It was certainly a different time – we live in a different world. To start with there are no longer rows of desks. The Halton District School Board wants to make that transition as smooth as possible. In November and December, future students and their parents/guardians are invited to attend one of five Kindergarten Open Houses to learn more about starting school.  The years in school will probably be longer than the time they spend in any one job. Drop by any one of the following open houses between 6:30 to 7:30 pm. Georgetown: Burlington: Milton: Acton: Oakville: At the Open House, students and parents will: • Explore a Kindergarten classroom Children born in 2013 can start Kindergarten in September 2017. Registration for Kindergarten begins in January 2017 and takes place at the school your child will attend. View our video to see what you will learn about the Board’s Kindergarten program.
October 25th, 2016 BURLINGTON, ON
Should the Halton District School Board trustees decide that the Lester B. Pearson High School should be closed and its students asked to attend M.M. Robinson instead that would bring to an end a school that was created for the community more than forty years ago when the idea of a community school was considered important.  Great way to get an idea as to just what the alphabet is for the nursery set. The Pearson school was made even more unique when a Co-op nursery program was included. That nursery now provides classes for close to 100 children. There are morning and afternoon sessions in a setting that will be very very hard to replicate. Fiona Wielhouwer, with a certificate that is the equivalent to the Canadian Early Childhood Education that she earned in the United Kingdom, is the supervisor who reports to a nine parent volunteer board. That board may have a very serious and perhaps daunting task ahead of them.  Tucked in at the very back of the high school the nursery has a seperate entrance and a secure well outfitted playground. The nursery co-op was planned as part of a school that would serve the wider community. A school the size of Pearson would normally have two gymnasiums – Pearson has three. The intention right from the beginning was to make the space available to everyone in the community. The nursery serves as a student placement location for those who think they might want to work in the childhood care field. It is also affiliated with both Sheridan and Mohawk colleges where Early Childhood courses are given. Fiona Wielhouwer explains that the nursery uses an enquiry based approach to the care they give the children. “We aren’t a drop and run location – we work with the parents and prepare the children for the JK and SK classes they will move on to – during their time with us the children get used to the idea of being away from Mommy for short periods of time and they learn to mix with other children. The nursery interacts with the high school but administratively it is a separate organization. We do get help from the IT people in the high school and when we need something from the shop people they work with us.  Portables that were once necessary are now empty – a sign of the enrollment decline. As a community school it works. Pearson was never intended as a large high school. When enrollment exceeded the capacity a bunch of portables were stuck at the front of the school – they are now empty. When the school was created it was intended as a “lab” school – a place where different ideas would be tested. The co-op nursery in a school has worked out very well. Some of that original thinking seems to have been forgotten and now it is a matter of numbers. There are now parents who have their children in the nursery – there was a time when they were in the nursery and then attended the high school. The city is said to have invested some money in the school when it was built and the belief is that the Region supports the nursery financially. There was a time when there were community clubs in the school – the place was a real community hub – that too seems to have been given up on.  Current Director of Education for the HDSB, Stuart Miller was once the vice principal at Pearson. The school is now set out as the preferred option of the board staff for closing – the current Director of Education Stuart Miller was once the Vice principal at the school and he knows what kind of a school it is – however, his job requires him to initiate the process of determining if a school should be closed when it falls below 65% of its capacity utilization. It is now up to the trustees to determine of the school should close – and it is up to the parents to inform the trustees as to what they want. For the children – this week is all about pumpkins – especially the ghost pumkins.
October 25th, 2016 BURLINGTON, ON
There is an Ontario Arts Council workshop where valuable guidance on applying to the OAC’s Visual Artists grants program for individual artists is available. They can answer any questions you may have about applying for funding.
It is being put on by the Hamilton Arts Council Visual Arts Committee – no reason why someone from Burlington can’t attend. There is also the November 22 deadline of the Visual Artists: Emerging program is one of the few OAC programs selected as a pilot for a new online grant application system. This session will highlight some of the changes artists will see online, and provide some information on further Visual Arts program updates coming up in 2017. To learn more about these upcoming changes, visit https://www.arts.on.ca/Page6375.aspx Attendance is free but registration in advance is requested by Wednesday November 2 at 5:00pm.
October 25, 2016 BURLINGTON, ON
There is a team of four people, Dania Thurman, Michael Kukhta, Lynn Crosby and David Sykes, who rely heavily on parents from Central High School that are putting together the argument for keeping Central High open.  At a Central high school parents meting they identified some of the issues that needed to be researched. At their most recent strategy – planning meeting, they wrote out a list of topics they need to research to make their case for keeping the high school open. The topics have been assigned to different attendees at the meeting who volunteered to look at them. The leadership team believes there are many more “out there” who can also help out with the research and who might have additional topics that need to be researched. Set out below are the topics they have identified. They expect that as the research work progresses some will naturally merge with others. If anyone has any information, articles or research on one of these topics (or any other) to share with the group as a whole, send it along to them at: info@centralstrong.ca If you would like to add your name to one of the topics and be connected with the person doing it please email them so introductions can be made. What will they do with this research? They want to ensure that their trustees on the PAR Committee have it, so they can present it and use it at the committee meetings and use it in letters to the committee during the public input sessions. People can use any of this research to present at the 5-minute “public delegation” sessions to the trustees that are scheduled for April 18, 2017 and any other meetings where delegations are allowed. Their objective is to convince trustees that closing Central is not the best option.  The trustees will make the final decision next May. Parents are going to have to work with their trustees and convince them of the merits of the arguments they put forward. “It is important that Trustees receive letters on any of these topics or other factors you feel will make an impact. Simply explaining your own personal thoughts on why Central is so important to you and your family is also very important, ” suggested the team leaders. The Program Accommodation Review (PAR) process begins officially on December 1 with an orientation session that will take place in each high school. Tuesday, November 1, 2016 Robert Bateman HS 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm These is just orientation sessions – there will be no Q&A. Just the facts as the HDSB sees it all. The first public meeting is on December 8. The PAR Committee (with two representatives) will work through January, February and March. A second public meeting will be held on March 2. The Director will then prepare a report with all of the compiled feedback. April 18 will be another public delegation night. The BCHS parent group wants to see a big turnout of supporters at all of the public sessions. The final report will be presented to the Board of Trustees on May 3 and they will vote on it on May 17. The BCHS goal is to show the Board why their recommended option is the wrong one. Here are the topics the BCHS parents are going to research. The list may expand and some of the topics may merge.  Some of the issues to be looked into that came out of a BCHS parent meeting. – Accessibility issues – Cheryl Other topics that should be considered as recommended by Terry Ruf and others include: – Catholic Board PAR/LTAP interaction There were 19 options identified. The Board staff chose to go forward with Option 19 however the PARC is free to use any other option or a mix of several options. The options were possibilities as the board staff saw things. Option 13 makes a statement about unified cohorts, acknowledging this advantage, yet Option 19 will see split cohorts coming out of Central Public and Tom Thompson (depending what happens to the 7/8) as well as FI students from Pineland  A Tim Hortons is considered part of a “complete community” Should the high school actually close – the revenue stream at this Tim Hortons is going to take a big hit. – Community School culture – Terry Ruf sees this in Central but is not sure all the high schools has what Central has. Central is suffering from some tunnel vision on this one. Pearson has a culture every bit as rich as Central. – Central does have a unique configuration its Jk to graduation is unique. Does it limit the horizons of a student who does every day of their public school education in one location? There is a lot of work to be done – and the parents at Central are well into it.
October 24, 2016 BURLINGTON, ON The meetings to explain the Program Accommodation Review to patents will take place on the dates and at the high schools set out below. Date School Time  There is a lot of work to be done on the part of parents. Central High school parents set out the tasks as they saw them. Once parents have an understanding of the process the Program Accommodation Review Committee (PARC) gets set up. The members of the PARC (there will be just the one committee) will be: A Trustee as an ad hoc member, and Superintendent, both from an area not under study; the school Principal or designate (resource only) The Superintendent will review all parent representation and endeavor to ensure that all affected geographic areas and programs are represented. A municipal Councillor will be invited to the committee once the committee is formed. This is not going to be a small committee” 1 trustee Our count is 24 people. Timeline for the complete process: Expect to see rooms full of parents for the next number of months. This was the first parents meeting for Central High school parents. Formation and orientation of Program and Accommodation Review Committee (PARC) Public Meeting #1 PARC Working Meeting #1 PARC Working Meeting #2 PARC Working Meeting #3 Public Meeting #2 PARC Working Meeting #4 Director’s Report to Committee of the Whole Public Delegation Night Presentation of Report to Board of Trustees for Decision There is a lot of work to be done – and a considerable amount of disruption throughout the high school system in Burlington. What the parents need to understand is that it is the trustees they elect who will make a final decision not the bureaucrats. Work with your elected officials.
October 22, 2016 BURLINGTON, ON
The following is not something you are likely to see coming out of Burlington’s city council. Halton District School Board trustees. The Halton District School Board passed the following: With the unanimous approval of Motion M16-0121 on June 15, 2016, the Halton District School Board authorized the posting of the Board’s Trustee Code of Conduct Policy on the Board’s website for public input, for a period of no less than 25 days. Any feedback received was to return to the Board at the second meeting in September 2016. RECOMMENDATION: Be it resolved that Halton District School Board approve the “Trustee Code of Conduct Burlington’s city council has been avoiding the creation of and agreement on a Code of Conduct for the members of Council – not the sign of a healthy organization.  Burlington’s city council One has to wonder why such a state exists. The task was left with the City Manager to get something worked out. Don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen. This council does not want a Code of Conduct and the city manager isn’t going to work all that hard to bring anything to the table.
October 21, 2016 BURLINGTON, ON
For the parents at Lester B. Pearson high school the thought of their school closing is a tough one. Some talk about actually moving out of the community or “we will send our kids to St. John”, which is the local Catholic school. Another parents, who asked not to be identified said she did not want her kids “going to the pharmacy”, which was code for a school with a drug problem.  Trustee Richelle Papin During the Board of Education discussion about Lester B. Pearson (LBP) trustee Richelle Papin talked about the Nursery Program in the school that has been in place for more than forty years that has become a model and a training ground for students from Mohawk who expect to work in the child care field. The Halton District School Board is acutely aware that they face a serious situation where, as Director of Education Stuart Miller put it – “Students will begin voting with their feet and we will lose even more students”. Yes, there is some intensification taking place but condominiums are being built and they tend not to house families with several children. Add to that – the population growth has been north of the QEW and the high school capacity is south of the QEW. The Board of Education staff set out 19 possible options – and recommended what is referred to as option 19 – which proposes that: • Close Lester B. Pearson HS, and redirect students to M.M. Robinson HS  Hayden High school, Burlington’s newest already has portable classrooms and spotty WiFi service as well. This recommendation is not a final decision of the Board of Trustees, but a starting point for consultation. Stuart Miller, Director of Education said: “I want to stress that the recommended option is the starting point for the Program Accommodation Review (PAR) process.” “With feedback from the public, and the research and work of the PAR committee, a different solution could arise as a result of this process.” Initial information sessions will be held to provide communities with further information about the PAR process and rationale for why the Board is undertaking a PAR for Burlington secondary schools. These sessions will be ‘information only’. There will be no question and answer opportunity at these initial sessions. There is a massive amount of data and detail the public will need to think through the alternatives.  Parents looking over the agenda for a Board of Education meeting. Parents are now in the process of setting up what will be called PARC (Program Accommodation Review Committees) that will work through everything and give the Board of Trustees their recommendations. It is the Board of Trustees that will make the final decision – however, whatever decision they make has to comply with provincial government guidelines and the cold hard fact is that – there are too many spaces south of the QEW and not enough north of the QEW. The Hayden High school that hasn’t been open for three years already has portables set up – and worse – the WiFI service is “spotty”. The people you elected as trustees are going to have to work with parents groups to come up with solutions that satisfy as many people as possible. It is going to be a busy year for everyone. The really positive upside is that the parents who have surfaced and are facing the challenge are a bright, energetic bunch of people –they are going to come forward with a solution. It is the parents that are going to make the difference.
October 20th, 2016 BURLINGTON, ON There will be a Program Accommodation Review (PAC) – and it is going to keep the parents hoping. Board of Education trustees voted last night 10 – 1 to form Program Accommodation Review Committees. The possible closure of both Burlington Central High school and Lester B. Pearson high school are now distinct possibilities. There is a tremendous amount of work to get done and the learning curve is going to be very steep for the parents. A Program Accommodation Review is something a board of education has to do when the enrollment in a school falls below 65%.  Central High school could handle an additional 275 students – but they just don’t live in the community.  Lester B. Pearson is a small school to start with and enrollment is projected to decline. The recommendation the Board put on the table was to look at closing both Lester B. Pearson and Burlington Central High school. Central High is a large school with a very strong connection to their community – they hit the ground running and have made strong arguments for not even holding a Program Accommodation review at this time. The trustees didn’t see it that way and voted to take the next step which is to form a Program Accommodation Review Committee (PARC). (Note the school board people love acronyms – get used to them.) The task now is to create the PARC’s. Burlington Central is well prepared for this next step.  Trustees Papin, Oliver and Grebenc The Board of Trustees is responsible for deciding the most appropriate pupil accommodation arrangements for the delivery of its elementary and secondary programs. Decisions that are made by the Board of Trustees are in the context of carrying out its primary responsibilities of fostering student achievement and well-being, and ensuring effective stewardship of school board resources. The Board of Trustees may consider undertaking pupil accommodation reviews that may lead to school consolidations and closures in order to address declining and shifting student enrollment.  Trustees Sams, Reynolds and Collard. The PARC process has been revised and this is the first time the Halton Board has had to work under the new rules which shorten the amount of time to go through that process. Here are the steps that are going to be taken: ● Director’s Preliminary Report to the Board of Trustees; DONE A PARC will be formed following the consideration by the Board of Trustees of the Director’s Preliminary Report.  Parents getting the agenda explained to them by the Board o Education communications manager. The PARC will consist of the following persons: A Trustee as an ad hoc member, and Superintendent, both from an area not under study; From each affected school: the school Principal or designate (resource only) two parents/guardians from each school, one of whom will be nominated by the School Council Chair; the other will be selected by the Superintendent(s) through the submission by parents of an expression of interest. The Superintendent will review all parent representations and endeavor to ensure that all affected geographic areas and programs are represented. All Trustees are invited to attend PARC working meetings to observe the proceedings.  Dania Thurman on the left – one of the more active parents at Central High school. The PARC is to be created within five business days of the motion to form the PARC was passed – which happened yesterday. Things begin to move very quickly at this point – and it is going to be difficult for the parents at Lester B. Pearson to keep up. Once the PARC is constituted, it will invite a municipal Councillor or delegate to join the Committee. The Committee will be deemed to be properly constituted whether or not all of the listed members are willing and able to participate.  Matthew DiSouza – a Lester B. Pearson student The Board will invite PARC members from the school(s) under review to an orientation session that will describe the mandate, roles and responsibilities, and procedures of the PARC. That is what the community is going to immerse themselves in – the people selected for the PARC is important – getting the right people is important. How did we get to this point? Well enrollment numbers were the first indicator that a change was needed. Burlington has seven high schools, Oakville has six. And Oakville has a larger high school population than Burlington. Director of Education Stuart Miller explained that the preferred size of a high school is 1200 students. He added using that number Burlington has one and a half too many high schools. That is the lens the board of education bureaucrat use – they have to look at the numbers – the province requires that they do just that. However, it is the parents that are at the top of the food chain. It is their money that pays for everything and it is the education of their children that is at issue. It is now up to the parents to come up with the ideas that will resolve the problem on the table.  Director of Education Stuart Miller getting a briefing. Miller said a number of times that the option put on the table is rarely if ever the option that gets chosen. Which is fine but in order to be able to come up with the best option parents need to ensure that they do not lose control of the process.
October 20th, 2016 BURLINGTON, ON
It is just under a month away but registration for this event is going to fill up very quickly – you will want to register now if you’d like to attend. This struck the Gazette as one of the more interesting ways to promote the history of the city – and if anything is history in Burlington it is the Freeman Station.  Pauline Grondin – the year is 1920 and she is at the Burlington Junction station in Freeman. On Saturday, November 19th, well-known professional storyteller Pauline Grondin will again work her magic as she relates, first-person, her story of life around Freeman Station. The year is 1920, and the Burlington Junction Station in Freeman is a vibrant hub of community comings and goings. Pauline will bring history to life for us as she relates what’s happening around the village. (A bit of gossip here and there?)  Waiting for the train. The Friends of Freeman Station invite you to join them at the Burlington Seniors’ Centre for “Breakfast at the Bistro,” beginning at 8:30 AM for a delicious meal followed by Pauline’s enchanting presentation. Reservations are required, seating is limited, breakfast is only $ 6.18 per person, tax included, it’s all for a great cause, and a good time will be had by all. Nostalgia guaranteed, tears optional. Book early! Registration is required. Limited seating, and typically sells out well in advance. To register, log onto: https://secure.burlington.ca/recexpress/Activities/ActivitiesAdvSearch.asp
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Gareth Williams is a graduate of the Political Science program at McMaster University. He works in Information Technology in Hamilton with 18 years in the field. Gareth lives in Brant Hills with his wife and their dog Misty.’
He is committed to being in front of high school parents and has added to that the desire to delegate before the Community and Corporate Services Standing Committee at council next Monday where he will delegate on the Halton District School Board’s Secondary School Program and Review (PAR) Process.
While the school board and city play the biggest roles in the daily life of citizens in the city (well maybe waste removal – a Regional responsibility – fits in there somewhere) the city and the school board rarely meet in any formal fashion.
She notes that the snow is deep and that boy is wearing just running shoes – there are no winter boots.
The school board will be making presentations to parents at every high school in the city to explain what the Program Accommodation Review (PAR) is all about and what the Program Accommodation Review Committee (PARC) will be doing between December 1st and May of next year – when the school board expects to make a decision on which, if any, high schools are going to be closed.
However, as the Director of Education, I need to ensure all Burlington high school students have equitable access to programs that allow them to explore and enhance their true potential. The PAR process will look at this issue and investigate various options to address the challenge that many Burlington high school students are experiencing.
Taking place at Hamilton Artists Inc., 155 James Street North, Hamilton, Ontario. Attendance is free but registration in advance is requested by Wednesday November 2 at 5:00pm.
The parents at Pearson have begun their work – they do have some catching up to do and they do have a very unique situation to deal with: – The Co-op nursery that has been part of that school for more than 40 years which the Gazette will report on.
