 By Staff
March 6, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
The Ontario Legislature will be meeting on Tuesday, which will be an Opposition Day that has Progressive Conservative leader introducing a motion that reads:
Whereas, school closures have a devastating impact on local communities; and
Whereas, children deserve to be educated in their communities and offered the best opportunity to succeed; and
Whereas, rural schools often represent the heart of small towns across Ontario;
Therefore, the Legislative Assembly calls for an immediate moratorium on rural school closures and an immediate review of the Pupil Accommodation Review Guideline.
We, the undersigned, are asking for all-party support on March 7 for an immediate province-wide moratorium on school closures and Program & Accommodation Reviews (PAR). We’ve seen first-hand the problems with the PAR process, as one is currently underway in Burlington with the initial recommendation to close two schools: Burlington Central High School in downtown, and Lester B. Pearson High School in the North.
Our story is not unique; the challenges we’ve experienced are playing out in rural and urban communities throughout the province and led to the formation of the Ontario Alliance Against School Closures.
A broken process can only deliver a broken outcome, not in the best interests of our students or our communities. Stop closures and PARs until the broken “baker’s dozen” below can be fixed:
Provincial elimination of “top-up funding” for so-called “empty pupil spaces” in schools. This policy change penalizes school boards that maintain geographically diverse schools, situated within walking distance (or in rural areas a short bus ride) from where students and their families live. Boards are pressured to eliminate these spaces by closing schools and warehousing students into larger big-box schools, further from where people live.
This must change: The education funding formula needs a complete overhaul to focus on education not counting the number of students that can fit in a classroom.
A focus on what can be counted, not what counts: Boards can call a PAR if average utilization across several schools is less than 65%. The assumption is that programming choice suffers when utilization falls below this rate – but no evidence need be provided that programming choice is a problem before calling a PAR.
This must change. Communities deserve real, not anecdotal, evidence of programming concerns.
No guarantee savings from school closures will go into programming. In a classic government Catch-22, the PAR committee cannot discuss what might happen to savings from closing schools before we close the schools, because the decision to close schools hasn’t been made.
This must change. PARs called to deal with programming challenges must be required to show how closures will deliver programming improvements.
No quality control on data. The five year facility renewal costs for Burlington’s seven schools changed by a factor of $23 million halfway through the process, due, we are told, to a change in company and software used by the province, and whether costs were put inside the five year window or later than five years. Some costs were included that had already been complete. The new data contains errors.
This must change. The process should be stopped until reliable data can be procured.
PAR relies on enrollment projections that look backward not forward: Enrollment projections are based on Statistics Canada data which look at what has happened, not what will happen. Previous projections underestimated enrollment at Dr. Frank J. Hayden High School, and at Burlington Central. Recent Statistics Canada data has Burlington’s overall population well above projections; household data isn’t projected to be released till May – after the school board director has already released his preferred recommendation for a vote by trustees.
This must change. The process should be stopped until reliable data can be procured.
No requirement to include elementary students housed in high schools as part of any high school PAR. No solution has been or must be provided for the 260 grade 7/8s who are currently in Burlington Central High School if the school closes.
This must change. PARs called for high schools must require inclusion of all elementary students housed in high schools.
Impact on community and economic factors eliminated by this government as part of PAR considerations. Many of the schools targeted for closure in Ontario are located in areas where the most vulnerable students live, often in downtowns where the greatest number of low-income families, single parent families and immigrant families are located. Downtown schools like Burlington Central, are located in business districts that provide access to co-op placements, volunteer hours, and work placements at 430 businesses and several civic centres – which will all be lost if the school is closed.
This must change. Community considerations must be added back to the PAR process.
PAR decisions violate a range of provincial policies. PARs increasingly lean toward closing historic downtown walkable schools and shipping students to larger, newer schools outside their community (for example Barrie Central Collegiate, Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute, and Central which will turn 100 years old in 2022). This directly violates provincial policies to encourage walkable, complete communities, revitalize downtowns, protect our most vulnerable residents, give them equality of opportunity, and preserve Ontario’s heritage resources.
This must change. The government must ensure PARs uphold provincial policies.
Increased bussing in Burlington: 92% of students attending Burlington Central High School live in the walking catchment. If the school closes, 100% of students will be bussed outside the community. Walking to school is both physically and mentally the healthiest choice – one actively promoted by this government.
This must change. PARs in urban areas should be required to promote walkability.
A “recommended option” is required to start a PAR: The schools named in the recommendation are immediately on the defensive to save their schools, while other schools ignore the process – until they pop up later in the PAR as a potential option and feel ambushed.
This must change. PARs should have no recommendation or an open-ended recommendation that alerts all schools they could be impacted, to ensure full participation from the beginning.
Lack of clear communication about the PAR. PAR communication by the Board in Burlington has used jargon and mentioned “options” and “process,” without naming schools that could be closed.
This must change. The province should require boards to use plain language, name schools slated for potential closure and clearly communicate the gravity of proposed changes.
Involvement of MPPS, elected trustees, and municipal councillors is discouraged so as not to be seen as somehow interfering. This simply drives advocacy underground and behind the scenes, and deprives residents of the democratic right to have their elected representatives represent them – throughout the process, to shape the best outcome, not simply to react when a report and recommendation is already written.
This must change. Trustees, MPPs and municipal Councillors should be welcomed to full participation in the process.
Province and board play hot potato: When residents complain to the board about school closures, board staff throw the hot potato to the province: they are just following provincial policies and funding formulas. When residents complain to the Ministry of Education or their local MPPs, they throw the hot potato back to the board: the trustees have the final decision. It’s a perfect dodge to accountability by any level of government.
This must change. This government must fix the broken policies creating the crisis in education in rural and urban communities across Ontario, not shift responsibility to boards.
In conclusion
Our community’s faith in this process has been sorely tested, like so many other communities across Ontario who have gone through PARs. Residents feel the process is skewed and set up to promote the Board’s preferred option from the beginning. Public engagement has been stage-managed and appears simply as checking off the box of a Ministry requirement that the boards must go through in order to close schools. Incomplete, outdated or incorrect data is permitted. None of the information gleaned from the process needs to be considered by the board, because PARs do not make a recommendation. It’s time to stop the process and begin again.
Residents deserve and demand better than this broken process which is bound to deliver a broken outcome that hurts students, families, rural and urban communities alike. We are asking all parties to work together to support the motion on March 7 for:
An immediate moratorium on school closures
An immediate moratorium on existing PARs underway
Review and reform of broken PAR process
Review and reform of the broken education funding formula
Sincerely,
Marianne Meed Ward & Ian Farwell,
PARC members, Burlington Central High School.
centralparc@hdsb.ca
Dania Thurman & Lynn Crosby,
CentralStrong Community Group.
www.centralstrong.ca
 Members of the Program Accommodation Review Committee in session with the public observing. 
 By Pepper Parr
March 6th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
The 21st session of the International Women’s Day Breakfast hosted by former Burlington MP Paddy featured newly appointed Senator Kim Pate.
She gave the room of women an eyeful when she talked about the criminal justice system and how it treats women.
 Paul Hensall gave Senator one of the Convo Plates his Foundation created to keep a conversation about mental health going. Pate was the Executive Director of the Elizabeth Fry Society for more than 35 years. She was instrumental in and widely credited as the driving force behind the Inquiry into Certain Events at the Prison for Women in Kingston, headed by Justice Louise Arbour. During the Inquiry, she supported women as they aired their experiences and was a critical resource and witness in the Inquiry itself.
It was no surprise then that Senator Pate chose to get very specific about what the federal government does and doesn’t do with and to women who are in conflict with the law.
Pate told the audience of influential Burlington women and representative students from almost every high school in the city, that it costs the federal government $348,000 to keep a woman in prison for one year.
She told the audience that the federal government spent more than $2 million transporting Ashley Smith from prison to prison before the young women ended her life in her cell while prison guards stood outside the cell door.
Ashley Smith was sent to prison for throwing stones at a postal worker. Her time in federal penitentiaries did not go well – she was a discipline problem and the time she had to remain in prison kept getting longer and longer.
The Ashley Smith case is one of those tragic embarrassments for which no one was held accountable.
 There was a long line up at the registration desk – for many high school students it was their first major event where they were celebrated as young women. Accountability is big with Senator Pate – but she takes it much further than most and preaches that society as a whole is accountable for how we handle those people who come into conflict with the judicial system. She does not pull her punches and being soft is just not her manner. She differentiates between being soft on those who are responsible and being compassionate to those who need help.
Pate asked her audience – why does any of this matter to Burlington and replied to the question saying it is in our best interest.
Before she started her talk Senator Pate encouraged her audience to ask questions – interrupt me if you have a question. Clearly the Senator had not been to Burlington before – that isn’t the way we Burlingtonians behave. We choose to be polite – which some describe as our complacency – after all there is no serious criminal element in the city.
 It was the safest room in the city – four female police officers shared the table with four high school students. Pate pointed out later in her talk that she is in pretty consistent touch with five people in Burlington who are on the wrong side of the bars. A Gazette reader mentioned to us a few days after the talk that they were working with a young man who is serving a prison sentence.
More than 88% of the women in prison are there because of poverty issues – they cannot sustain themselves and are not able to get away from relationships that are abusive.
Pate is a strong advocate of a living wage being paid to very person in Canada.
The two groups of people most as risk and who end up being tangled with the courts are women and students. At the root of all their problems is the matter of poverty.
“You will be changing that” Pate told her audience.
More than forty years ago in Dauphin, Manitoba residents were selected to be subjects in a project that ensured basic annual incomes for everyone. For five years, monthly cheques were delivered to the poorest residents of Dauphin, Man. – no strings attached.
And for five years, poverty was completely eliminated.
 The hall was filled – the guests at this table were at the buffet. The project’s original intent was to evaluate if giving cheques to the working poor, enough to top-up their incomes to a living wage, would kill people’s motivation to work. It didn’t.
But the Conservative government that took power provincially in 1977 – and federally in 1979 – had no interest in implementing the project more widely. Researchers were told to pack up the project’s records into 1,800 boxes and place them in storage.
A final report was never released.
 Senator Kim Pate You can guess what Senator Pate is going to be advocating for while she serves as a Senator.
The money is always there she said – they found the $2 million they needed to transport Ashley Smith between eight different penitentiaries when she was behind bars.
The Ashley Smith story:
Ashley Smith, born 29 January 1988 in New Brunswick was adopted when she was 5 days old. According to her adoptive parents, Coralee Smith and Herbert Gober, she had a normal child hoodbut between the ages of 13i-14, her parents noted distinct behavioural changes in the child; by age 15 she had been before juvenile court 14 times for various minor offences such as throwing crabapples at a mailman, trespassing, and causing a disturbance.
In March 2002, Smith was assessed by a psychologist who found no evidence of mental illness. However, her behavioural problems continued and she was suspended from school multiple times in the fall of 2002. In March 2003, after multiple court appearances, Smith was admitted to the Pierre Caissie Centre for assessment.
She was diagnosed with ADHD, learning disorder, borderline personality disorder and narcissistic personality traits.
She was discharged several days early from the Centre for unruly and disruptive behaviour and returned to the New Brunswick Youth Centre (NBYC).
Smith was remanded to the NBYC multiple times over the next 3 years; during this time she was involved in more than 800 reported incidents and at least 150 attempts to physically harm herself.
In 2006, Ashley Smith turned 18; in July of that year a motion was made under the Youth Criminal Justice Act to transfer her to an adult facility. Smith hired a lawyer to fight the transfer, but was unsuccessful.
On 5 October 2006, Smith was transferred to the Saint John Regional Correctional Centre (SJRCC). Due to her behaviour at SJRCC, Smith spent most of her time there in segregation; she was tasered twice and pepper-sprayed once. On 31 October 2006, Smith was transferred to the Nova Institution for Women in Nova Scotia (a federal institution). Through 2007, Smith was transferred a total of 17 times between eight institutions during 11 months in federal custody.
While at Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ontario, on 16 October 2007, Smith requested to be transferred to a psychiatric facility; she was placed on a formal suicide watch on 18 October. In the early hours of 19 October, Smith was videotaped placing a ligature around her neck, an act of self-harm she had committed several times before. Guards did not enter her cell to intervene, and 45 minutes passed before she was examined and pronounced dead.
On 25 October 2007, three guards and a supervisor at the Grand Valley Institution for Women were charged with criminal negligence causing death in relation to Smith’s suicide; the warden and deputy warden were fired, but Warden Cindy Berry later quietly rehired. The criminal charges against her subordinates were later dropped.
No charges were ever brought against the warden or deputy warden.
On 8 October 2009, Smith’s family launched a wrongful death lawsuit against the Correctional Service of Canada, demanding C$11 million in damages; the suit was eventually settled out of court in May 2011 for an undisclosed amount.
By Pepper Parr
March 6th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
It was a fully engaged crowd at the first public meeting held at Hayden high school where parents got to see just what the high school closing options were.
 The parents who attended the first public meeting at Hayden high school last week were fully engaged in trying to figure out and understand what the options for possible school closing were. They don’t like the way the information is being made available and they want to be able to ask questions.
Last October the Board of education trustees accepted a report from the Director of Education and agreed that a Program Accommod-ation Review should take place.
That resulted in a committee (PARC) looking at the staff recommendation that Central and Pearson high schools be closed and accepting other possible options.
The PARC looked at 30 options and whittled the list down to the six that are now being taken to public meetings.
The second public meeting takes place at the New Street Education centre – it is going to be noisy.
 The Board of Education staff put up large posters setting out the boundaries that would apply to the various school closing options. Parents found that the staff members on hand to answer questions didn’t have much in the way of answers. Comments from Gazette readers tell us that “many, many people (as in hundreds) are extremely dissatisfied with the way the so-called public information sessions are being held, specifically the display stations that were set up.”
“Parents want their questions answered, many have complained that staff at the last meeting were not able to do this properly. Every single member of PARC has asked that the format be changed to include a large group Q and A and they have refused.
“Their pathetic excuse is that the last meeting was with display stations and it wouldn’t be fair to the people who went to that one to change this one.
“Again, like so many answers coming from the board, this makes no sense.”
“Angry parents from Central, Nelson and Bateman are planning different tactics to have their voices heard at tomorrow’s meeting. Not sure how it’s going to play out but I think there might be fireworks.”
 This was the extent of public participation at Bateman high school when the Board of Education gave an overview of the school closing process. Everyone thought that Central and Pearson high schools were on the list. Truth was – every high school was at risk. Getting to the point where the Board of Education now has public interest has taken some time – earlier meetings at all seven high schools were very quiet and very poorly attended events.
That isn’t the case today – and parents want their Board of Education to respond to their demands.
The elected trustees are close to mute on this – they have the power to direct Board of Education staff to make changes in the way the public is informed – it is almost as if the trustees are in the pocket of the Director of Education.
The high school parents are not happy campers.
Central high school parents will be walking from the Roseland Plaza to the New Street education Centre. Nelson, Bateman and Pearson high schools are also reported to have plans.
 By Staff
March 6th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
It’s Fraud Prevention Month (#FPM2017) and the Halton Regional Police Service (HRPS) releases the first of four graphics illustrating common scams used on innocent, sometimes gullible people.
The program is being run nationally with the RCMP who report that 748 victims lost more than $17-million in 2016 to con artists purporting to be in love. The figures are believed to be much higher as many victims are too ashamed to report the fraud.
 Poster being used to warn people about romance scams. Dating and romance scams often begin when an individual creates a fake profile and posts it on popular online dating websites and/or social media. From there, he/she solicits interest in an attempt to gain a victim(s) affection and trust. Soon thereafter, a request(s) for funds is made. Believing themselves to be in a committed relationship, the victim often willingly complies. Money sent is not re-paid and the con artist disappears when they believe they have received all they can from someone.
“Dating and romance scams are popular because fraudsters prey upon the desire many people have to be love and accepted,” said Staff Sergeant Chris Lawson of the Regional Fraud Unit. “Sadly, it is often those who can least afford to lose money – older men and women, people who live alone or those with limited funds – who are victimized.”
The following dating and romance scam safety tips have been provided courtesy of the RCMP and the Competition Bureau of Canada:
• Only use legitimate and reputable dating sites.
• Check the addresses of online dating websites carefully. Scammers often set up fake websites with very similar URLs to legitimate ones.
• Be suspicious when someone you haven’t met in person professes their love. Ask yourself: Would someone I have never met really declare their affection after only a few letters or emails? Like many scams, if it sounds too good to be true, it likely is.
• Be skeptical of out-of-the-ordinary stories. Common narratives include someone claiming to live nearby but who is working overseas or someone with a sick family member in need of funds.
• In some cases, scammers will try to lure potential victims with flowers or other small gifts before asking for banking details or money.
• Never send money or give credit card or online account details to anyone you do not know and trust.
 Not always what it seems. Anyone with information pertaining to a fraud or any other crime is asked to contact the Regional Fraud Bureau Intake Office at 905-465-8741 or Fraud@haltonpolice.ca. Tips can also be submitted anonymously to Crime Stoppers “See something, Hear something, Say something” at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS), through the web at www.haltoncrimestoppers.ca, or by texting “Tip201” with your message to 274637 (crimes).
By Staff
March 6, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
The heavy weights are beginning to have their say about the closing of high schools in Burlington,
World-renowned artist and Robert Bateman High School namesake is speaking out against the possible closure of the school.
 Robert Bateman “The times that I’ve been there I’ve been just amazed at the things they’re doing that no school has ever done before but that were being done at Bateman,” said Robert Bateman, who taught at the south east Burlington school from 1970 when it opened until 1976.
Mr. Bateman now lives in Salt Spring Island, B.C. and still visits the school once a year. When he learned that Bateman HS was one of six schools being considered for closure by the Halton District School Board as part of the Program and Accommodation Review (PAR), he expressed concern about the impact it would have on students and the community.
“I think it’s much better for the kids and much better for their education to have schools in their neighbourhoods so you have the same geography and you have the same feeling for the history of it,” said Mr. Bateman.
“It’s extremely important for the emotional and human component of children.”
 Bateman high school students during a cook-off with Burlington fire fighters. Bateman High School has had more than $2-million in upgrades over the last six years, and with existing accommodations in place for the Community Pathways Program (CPP) it is the most up-to-date for AODA requirements. It fills a unique void in the city’s education system because of its wide range of diverse programming including: International Baccalaureate (IB) program; the self-contained CPP for students with special needs; LEAP Program to help transition students to grade nine; specialty facilities that include a highly customized kitchen for a culinary program and a specialized auto body paint booth for one of the many Ontario Young Apprentice Programs (OYAP).
There is also an Autism Social Skills and Drama Group, Robotics Specialized Course and multiple design/tech rooms. Having all program pathways under one roof is critical to student success as it allows movement between the pathways. Scattering those programs would effectively limit the opportunities available to our most vulnerable student population.
“The school has all kinds of departments that are getting kids much more prepared for life.”
“I think it’s a terrible idea (to close it) and it doesn’t make common sense” says Bateman.
Closing Robert Bateman would also result in the closure of the on-site YMCA Lord Elgin Day Care and could impact Centennial Pool, which had costly renovations last year.
By Staff
March 6TH, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
It was one of the crisp, clear, cold Canadian winter days with the sun shining brightly.
 Robert Bateman high school gets a hug from parents and students Saturday afternoon. More than 150 people gather at the Robert Bateman high school in the east end of Burlington to give their school, which is being threatened by a possible closure, what the community felt was a much needed hug.
In October, the staff at the Board of Education gave the elected school board trustees a report which said that the required criteria for a review on the high school accommodation has been met.
 Smiles on a Saturday afternoon – serious issue before the school board trustees. The trustees accepted the report and voted to create what is known as a Program Accommodation Review (PAR). A committee of two parents from each high school was created to review the options that existed and to put forward options. There were 30 options on the table at one point – that got whittled down to 14 and then down to six that are on the table at this point.
The closing options are:
Option 7b – No school closures
Dr. Frank J Hayden SS Boundary change
- No changes to schools south of the
- Lester B Pearson HS catchment expands to include Kilbride PS catchment area, John William Boich PS catchment area south of Upper Middle Road, and Alexander’s PS catchment
- Frank J Hayden HS catchment reduced.
Option 23d ‐ Robert Bateman HS, Lester B Pearson HS closes, Dr. Frank J Hayden SS program change
- No change to Aldershot HS boundary
- Burlington Central HS catchment expands to include Tecumseh PS catchment
- IB program added to Burlington Central HS from Robert Bateman
- Nelson HS boundary expands east. SC‐SPED & Essential programming redirected to Nelson HS from Robert Bateman
- MM Robinson HS ENG catchment expands to include Lester B Pearson HS
- Frank J Hayden SS FI program redirected to M.M. Robinson HS. No change to the English catchment.
Option 19b – Burlington Central HS, Lester B Pearson closes HS, Dr Frank J Hayden SS & Robert Bateman HS program change
- Aldershot HS catchment expands east to Brant St, ESL program relocated to Aldershot HS from Burlington Central HS. 10 rooms available from the Aldershot elementary facility to accommodate additional
- Nelson HS expands west to Brant
- Robert Bateman HS catchment include John William Boich PS catchment south of Upper Middle Rd, and the entire Frontenac PS catchment
- FI program added to Robert Bateman HS with same boundaries as the English program
- MM Robinson HS English boundary expands to include Lester B Pearson HS. FI boundary include Dr. Frank J Hayden SS with the exception of John William Boich PS catchment south of Upper Middle
- Frank J Hayden becomes English only school, with a reduced English catchment area
Option 4b –Robert Bateman HS closes
- No change to Aldershot HS
- Burlington Central HS expands to include the entire Tecumseh PS
- Nelson HS expands east to include Robert Bateman HS. Nelson HS receives the SC‐SPED and Essential programming from Robert Bateman
- MM Robinson HS catchment expands to include Kilbride PS catchment
- Lester B Pearson HS catchment expands to include Florence Meares PS catchment. IB program and Gifted Secondary Placement added to Lester B. Pearson HS from Robert Bateman HS and Nelson HS
- Frank J Hayden SS English catchment area is reduced.
Option 28d – Burlington Central HS and Lester B Pearson HS closes, Program change for Dr Frank J Hayden SS
- Aldershot HS catchment area expands easterly to railway tracks, ESL program added to Aldershot from Burlington Central
- Nelson HS catchment area expands west to the railway
- Robert Bateman HS catchment area expands to include John William Boich PS catchment area and Frontenac PS catchment
- MM Robinson HS catchment area expands to include Lester B Pearson HS catchment area.
- FI is removed from Dr. Frank J Hayden SS and redirected to MM Robinson HS
- CH Norton PS area that is currently directed to Lester B Pearson HS, to be redirected to Dr Frank J Hayden
Option 3b – Nelson HS closes, Dr Frank J Hayden SS and Burlington Central HS have a program change
- Aldershot FI expands to include Burlington Central HS FI catchment
- Burlington Central HS English catchment area expands to Walkers Line
- Robert Bateman HS expands west to Walkers
- FI program added to Robert Bateman HS
- Lester B Pearson HS catchment area expands to include John William Boich PS catchment area and Kilbride PS catchment area. The Secondary Gifted placement added to Lester B Pearson HS from Nelson
- Frank J Hayden SS FI program redirected to M.M. Robinson HS.
- Frank J Hayden HS catchment reduced.
 Members of the PARC deliberating on the various options that were before them. The original option came from the Director of Education – to close Central and Pearson high schools. Other options were added. Anyone can submit an option. The PARC that came up with these options has met on four occasions and will meet at least once more – and possible twice.
They will produce a report to the Director who will in turn give his recommendation to the school board trustees.
Burlington has four trustees on the 11 member school board. All 11 trustees have a vote.
 Amy Collard – Ward 5 school board trustee. Collard has been acclaimed in every election. The elected school board trustee for ward 5 is Amy Collard. She was acclaimed for every election she ran in and at one point served as the chair of the school board trustees.
The Board of Education has created an email list that can be used to communicate with the PARC members who are all volunteers
 Anyone can send an email to the PARC representatives. A single email address has been created for the two representatives for each high school. Lisa Bull, one of the two parents representing Bateman on the PARC said she was “So proud of the incredibly positive approach our community has taken in their support of Robert Bateman High School. Everyone today was highlighting how much they had learned about the great diversity of programs and students at Bateman and how much they really wanted to have this saved – for current, past and future students.
Bateman, as well as three other high schools in the city, are at risk of being closed – there are 1800 + empty high school classroom seats in Burlington and there isn’t a strong enough flow of students at the elementary level at this point to fill those seats in the near future.
The process of deciding whether or not to close a high school is complex. The Board of Education created PAR that will give prepare a report for the Director of Education who will in turn prepare a report for the elected school board trustees who will, on May 17th, decide which, if any, high schools in the city will be closed.
If there is a decision to close a school that closure will take place effective September 2018. The municipal election takes place in October of 2018
 There were less than five parents at the first meeting during which Board of Education staff explained the PARC process at each high school. Few at Bateman believed their school was a risk. Parents didn’t seem to be fully aware that their school could be closed. That is certainly no longer the case.
The next event regarding the school closures takes place Tuesday evening at the New Street Educational Centre.
Central high school is planning a march from the Roseland Plaza to the Educational Centre. No word yet on what the other high schools plan to do.
The schedule for the steps to be taken between now and the final decision date are set out below.
Public Meeting #2 (South Burlington schools)
March 7, 2017 at 7:00 pm
New date New Street Education Centre
3250 New Street
 Parents at the first public meeting where all six of the high school closing options were on display were very engaged. PARC Working Meeting #5
March 23, 2017 at 7:00 pm J.W. Singleton Education Centre
2050 Guelph Line
Director’s Report (with compiled feedback) to Committee of the Whole March 29, 2017 at 7:00 pm J.W. Singleton Education Centre
2050 Guelph Line
Public Delegation Night
April 18, 2017 at 6:00 pm J.W. Singleton Education Centre
2050 Guelph Line
Final Report to Board of Trustees for decision May 17, 2017 at 7:00 pm J.W. Singleton Education Centre
2050 Guelph Line.
Parents looking at the boundary maps and the details for each of th six high school closing options being discussed by the PARC.
 By Pepper Parr
March 4th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
Lynn Crosby, one of the more passionate Central high school supporters advises us that next week there is an all-party debate scheduled in the provincial Legislature with a vote to follow.
The debate is on a motion to stop all rural school closures and launch an immediate review of all PAR processes province-wide.
 Is the solution to the closing of high schools in Burlington to be found in the provincial Legislature? This would stop all PARs currently underway. Crosby reports that the Central Strong group is going to try and see if the motion can be amended to include a moratorium on all school closures, not just rural.
Either way, says Crosby, this is huge.
Central Strong now want to know what position Burlington’s MPP McMahon will take on this vote.
Crosby says that “she votes against this she can kiss her seat in Burlington goodbye”.
 Lynn Crosby, a passionate Central Strong advocate, on the left, sees some hope in the Opposition Motion to stop all Program Accommodation Reviews in rural schools. Unfortunately Ms Crosby – it isn’t quite that simple. The first question is – is this a government motion or an opposition motion or a private members bill.
The tradition in Ontario Tuesday is for the opposition party in Ontario to have a day to introduce their parliamentary wishes. On Tuesday, Patrick Brown will introduce a motion that has the following preamble:
Whereas, school closures have a devastating impact on local communities; and
Whereas, children deserve to be educated in their communities and offered the best opportunity to succeed; and
Whereas, rural schools often represent the heart of small towns across Ontario;
Therefore, the Legislative Assembly calls for an immediate moratorium on rural school closures and an immediate review of the Pupil Accommodation Review Guideline.
The only vote that will take place on Tuesday is whether this motion gets any attention at all.
Citizens in Burlington can, and hopefully will, lobby Burlington MPP Eleanor McMahon and while they are at it, get through to Jane McKenna, who, will not member of the Legislature, is the Progressive Conservative Candidate for Burlington in the next provincial election. She will be all over this issue locally.
This type of Opposition party bill tends not to get very far.
 By James Burchill
March 3rd, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
Every small business needs to market themselves and part of marketing is advertising. The trouble is most SMB’s don’t quite understand the importance of the elements that make up a good advert. Today I’m going to show you how your prospect reads yours!
It is important to understand your prospect will not simply read your advertisement or letter. At first, they will only scan it. In direct mail or brochures, you have about eleven seconds before being dismissed.
 Does this advertisement follow the rules Burchill sets out? It was run at a time when colour TV was new – this the repeat of the main message. At that time Admiral was a known and respected brand name. The price is prominent – if the reader gets to this point they will read the smaller type. People read your ‘message’ in the following order:
the headline,
the subheads,
any highlighted copy,
captions,
and finally the message
And YES… this order has been tested and measured.
If your prospect likes what they see, they will start over and begin to read your advertisement. They will read about the first 50 words (6 or 7 standard lines – maybe a paragraph or two), and then re-evaluate whether they want to keep reading. If they are interested in the subject, and the information keeps coming, they will read until your message is complete. And yes, an interested prospect will read pages and pages (it’s another of those tested facts.)
With printed advertisements, people will normally read the headline and look at the graphics first. If they are interested, they will read the subheads, captions, and any pricing information, and only then will they go back and read your sales copy. These facts show how incredibly important your headline and your layout design are for getting people to start reading. The structure of your letter or ad is very important.
One more note on why people read advertisements. People read for information. They expect you to educate them about the benefits of purchasing your product or service. They expect you to offer to help solve a problem.
They expect to be, and consent to be, sold to. That is why they are reading your ad. If the phrase “sales copy” makes you uncomfortable, then please reread this paragraph until you are sold on the idea of writing effective advertisements that give people what they want.
REMEMBER: Ignorance is not bliss – it’s dangerous and very bad for your business. Hire a professional – it’s not a cost, it’s an investment and it pays.
 James Burchill is the founder of Social Fusion Network – an organization that helps local business connect and network. He also writes about digital marketing, entrepreneurship and technology and when he’s not consulting, he teaches people to start their own ‘side hustle.’
Burchill also sponsors a trade show for the smaller independent business people. More on what that is all about right here.
 By Ray Rivers
March 3, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
My grandfather used to keep his money under his mattress, which might have made it lumpy and stiff, had he ever accumulated anything resembling a sizeable stash. And what little he didn’t stuff there, he’d re-invest in commodities, mostly vodka. That was a while ago, before the government introduced retirement saving instruments like RRSPs (registered retirement saving plans), which allow tax deferrals, and TFSAs (tax-free saving accounts), which make the interest or capital gains tax-free.
 Hiding your money under a mattress – and it doesn’t have to always be Canadian dollars. An economy needs savings, because that is a disposable pool of capital ripe for investment and growth. The Canada Pension Plan was in part created just for that purpose, a fund for governments to dip into to develop highways and other infrastructure back in the day. And no government claims to be more committed to building more infrastructure, and needs those funds more, than our modern day federal government.
But we are just a day or two beyond the deadline for investing in an RRSP – so the question is why are total RRSP contributions falling and why is there so much unused potential in the TFSAs? It could be blamed on low interest rates which dissuade the lazy investor. After all actively managing your registered investments in the rising share-market demands more time and work, more risk and more cost than a lot of people are willing to expend.
And the promise of a more robust CPP (Canada Pension Plan), thanks to our Ontario premier, may have convinced people that they’ll need less personal savings outside of the CPP. But most likely It has to do with the financial squeeze facing middle-income earners, caught between the pressures of keeping abreast in our consumer society and making ends meet in an ever deteriorating workplace economy. Not much is left over for savings.
 The baby boomers changed the world every decade as they went from cribs to caskets. And perhaps the lure of a tax deferred income savings plan has lost its lustre. Today’s young workforce has to be discouraged listening to their parents’ grumbling over paying more taxes now on RRSP withdrawals than they ever gained in tax relief back when. And maybe RRSPs are not the panacea they were sold to be – to these human guinea pigs, the baby boomers.
Since the CPP gets lumped in with all the other deductions on a pay slip, it also tends to be called a payroll tax. After all, your CPP donation goes off to an agency which holds it until you reach a magic retirement age, or die. In some ways that is like sending one’s income taxes to Ottawa and hoping they’ll come back as old age security payments (OAS) when you retire. So are RRSPs and TFSA’s nothing more than voluntary taxes, since they’re also locked-in under some kind of government plan?
There is a lot of talk about taxes from the candidates vying to be the next leader of the Conservative Party these days. Everyone of them is promising to cut income taxes, and Mr. Chong is claiming the biggest income tax cut of all. But then this pinkish Tory explains he’s doing that because he’s planning to keep Mr. Trudeau’s carbon tax, and making it revenue neutral – reminiscent of robbing Peter to pay Paul. Except Paul already has lots of cash, thank you, and Peter is the guy filling his car’s gas tank.
 Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney leads the chorus in singing an Irish song on stage with his wife (Mila) and U.S. President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan at the conclusion of a gala performance in Quebec City March 17, 1985. Listening to the debates one can’t help but get a warm nostalgic feeling – like back in the days when old Irish-eyed singers Ronnie and Brian first introduced their versions of trickle-down economics between their verses. They reasoned that by giving more money to the rich, the poor would prosper because, as Newton said, everything that goes up eventually trickles down.
The conservative think-tanks and their disciples love, and have never given up on, this zany bit of oxymoronic nonsense. So, not to attract disfavour from their spiritual core sources, the Conservative Tory leadership wannabes are goose-stepping to the beat of our southern neighbour, the Donald, who is promising his billionaire buddies even more.
They say It’s about putting more money in peoples’ pockets. Though why the top 10% of income earning Canadians need that much more cash, or what they would do with it, is a good question. I guess they’ll just let it trickle down to those most in need, like we’ve seen them do in the good old days, right?
Thanks to an economic theory called the ‘marginal propensity to consume’, we know that economic growth comes from putting money into the hands of the lower income masses, not the wealthy. Perhaps some of these candidates are hoping to extend Mr. Trudeau’s modest tax cuts, by shifting tax brackets in favour of the middle class, as he did. Though the not-a-snow-ball’s-chance-in-hell Mr. Chong seems intent on playing the role of a reverse Robin Hood.
 It is the tax deductions from the pay cheques of the working Janes and Joes that keeps the government alive. As Mr. Trudeau found out there is a lot of income tax revenue coming in from the common person, the working Joe/Jane, and shifting tax brackets to favour the middle class is costly to the public purse. So it’ll be easier for your next Tory government to follow the model set by Mr. Trump, which inadvertently stretches the wealth gap even more. And that would add very little real loonie change into the pockets of those in the middle, making it just as hard for them to save for that next RRSP or TFSA.
So, so much for that new 4K TV, a vacation or new car. And so much for securing those golden years with sound financial retirement planning. Who can blame them for not sticking more money into RRSPs and TFSAs.
Despite all the talk of helping the middle class there is not going to be enough left over, unless you just want to pad your bedding as my grandpa did. And if that interrupts your sleep too much, you could always use a little of that modest stash to get a good bottle of vodka.
 Ray Rivers writes weekly on both federal and provincial politics, applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was a candidate for provincial office in Burlington in 1995. He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject. Tweet @rayzrivers
Background links:
Pensions – Taxes – More Taxes –
Interest Rates – Marginal Propensity to Consume – Chong –
By Pepper Parr
March 2, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
The Board of Education felt it was important that they collect the views of as many parents as possible on the possible closing of high schools in Burlington.
They did a survey of people who attended a public meeting in December using hand held devices for people to respond to questions put up on a large screen.
 Parents at a December meeting were asked to give their views on a number of questions – the results were heavily skewed. That one didn’t go all that well for a couple of reasons. The audience was heavily skewed towards parents from Central high school. People from that school showed up. Most people thought the questions were poorly thought through. The people who put the survey together did admit that it wasn’t their finest hour.
The details of that survey can be found at LINK
The Board decided that they really needed input and feedback and set up a second survey that is being done on line and is taking place now.
To complete the current Board of Education on-line survey CLICK here.
 Students doing the on-line survey at the public meeting earlier this week. The original intention of this on-line survey was to set it up so that every household with high school students in Burlington would get a dedicated link to the survey. This would have given the response some validity.
Turns out that somewhere between firm doing the survey and the technical people at the board there was a failure to communicate or someone didn’t know what they were doing.
The survey is on an open link – which means anyone can respond and do so as often as they wish.
 Given the level of feelings on the issue of closing a high school in Burlington you can just see families sitting at their keyboards and responding to the survey for as long as they can stay awake.
We received a graphic that will add a little humour to a situation that isn’t funny anymore.
 By Staff
March 2, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
There are a lot of unhappy people who are commenting on how poorly they feel the Halton District School Board is handling the flow of information on the recommendation that was given to the Program Accommodation Review Committee (PARC) to close Central and Pearson high schools.
 Parents scan details and specifics on each of the six school closing options that the PARC is currently considering for the report they will give the Director of Education. The PARC is made up of two parents from each of the seven high schools. Their job is to give the Director of Education a recommendation. The Director of Education does not have to accept or adhere to the recommendation.
The Director then writes his report to the trustees and those trustees make the final decision.
The first public meeting to look at specifics and details was held earlier this week with a very large turnout.
The second public meeting is to take place next Tuesday, March 7th at the New Street Educational centre.
 Robert Bateman high school is going to get a group hug on Saturday. This Saturday the parents at Bateman high school are going to gather and collectively give their school a “hug”.
Bateman is a pretty big school – it is going to take a large crowd of people to circle that building on Saturday.
The group hug takes place at 1:00 pm.
One Gazette reader wrote in and said “your story about the Mayor’s response show how heated it’s gotten and also how poorly the board is handling it all.”
The PARC has now whittled down the 30 options that it was given to six. Under these different options Central, Pearson, Bateman and Nelson could be closed.
There is an option that says – don’t close any of the schools – but change the school boundaries so that the existing high school population is spread more evenly between the high schools.
 Halton District School Board trustees – there are 11 of them; four representing Burlington – all the trustees will vote on school closings Whatever the school board trustees decide, and it is those trustees that are going to make the final decision on May 17th, the concerns should be addressed to the final decision makers – these are the people you elected to oversee the operation of the school in the Halton Region.
There are 11 trustees, four from Burlington that will decide what the board should do.
When the process of determining how to manage the problem of 1800+ empty classroom seats in the high school was put before the public there was very little public interest.
 There were less than ten people at the first “information session” given by the school board staff at Bateman high school. One of them was the school principal. At the first information meeting, there was one held at every high school, there were just five people at the event held at Bateman.
The school board had large banners nailed to the front of six of the high schools to alert parents to the situation.
The focus is currently on the work the PARC is doing. That will shift to the report the Director of Education, Stuart Miller has to write and present to the trustees on March 29th.
The critical dates are set out below.
Public Meeting #2 (South Burlington schools)
March 7, 2017 at 7:00 pm
New date New Street Education Centre
3250 New Street
PARC Working Meeting #5
March 23, 2017 at 7:00 pm J.W. Singleton Education Centre
2050 Guelph Line
Director’s Report (with compiled feedback) to Committee of the Whole March 29, 2017 at 7:00 pm J.W. Singleton Education Centre
2050 Guelph Line
Public Delegation Night
April 18, 2017 at 6:00 pm J.W. Singleton Education Centre
2050 Guelph Line
Final Report to Board of Trustees for decision May 17, 2017 at 7:00 pm J.W. Singleton Education Centre
2050 Guelph Line
 Protesters have stood outside the Board of Education offices on Guelph Line any time there is a PARC meeting.
By Pepper Parr
March 1, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
As a city we are going to do ourselves in unless we do better than we are doing.
With the Halton District School Board going through the difficult process of deciding which, if any, high schools to close, the mayor has declared that he “represent the interests of all the people of Burlington. As such, I will not choose to promote one school over another during this review process.”
In a statement published on his blog yesterday, the Mayor said:
“In a perfect world with unlimited financial resources, we would not have to see any schools closed in Burlington.
“Every school in Burlington matters to its neighbourhood, its students and their families, its staff and its alumni.”
“As Mayor, I represent the interests of all the people of Burlington. As such, I will not choose to promote one school over another during this review process. This is a decision of the Halton District School Board, and because of that, it is important that Burlington City Council not use its influence to favour specific schools.
Burlington City Council purposely chose City Manager James Ridge to serve as an objective representative of the City of Burlington on the Halton District School Board’s Program and Accommodation Review Committee.”
That is not how Mr. Ridge got chosen to represent the city on the Program Accommodation Review Committee (PARC). At a city council meeting the Mayor read out an email he had received from a resident asking that he, the Mayor, sit on the PARC.
 Burlington city manager, on the right with Scott Podrebarac on the left at a PARC meeting. The Mayor said at that meeting that Mr. Ridge had volunteered to sit on the PARC. There was no debate or discussion. The Mayor just made the statement and that was it.
One resident wrote the Gazette and said of the Mayor: “What he doesn’t understand is most residents get that he can’t favour one school over another. But they also don’t expect him to stay on the sidelines. They expect him to speak up on the importance of community schools, and how the city’s strategic plan calls for walkable, complete communities.
“They expect him to represent the public’s interest and encourage the school board to elevate their perspective beyond operating cost reductions.
“The school board has created a process that is pitting one neighbourhood against another. It’s disappointing but not surprising the mayor has declared what he is NOT prepared to do. What resident’s want to do know, is what he WILL do.
 Mayor Rick Goldring at a city council meeting. “If he understood his role and had the fortitude, he would not duck responsibility; rather he would use his office to assist the effort to find the best possible outcome for Burlington, and serve in whatever way he can to bring neighbourhoods together.
“He chose the easy way out.”
By Pepper Parr
March 1, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
It was hard to get a real fix on the size of the crowd – but it was a crowd of people who wanted to know more about what the Halton District School Board meant when they talked about possibly closing two of the city’s seven high schools.
 It was a large fully engaged crowd – who will wonder for the next while if they are getting all their questions answered. The Board has had a PARC in place for more than three months. This group of 14 people – two from each high school – had been tasked with coming up with a recommendation on which, if any, of the high schools should be closed.
The issue was that Burlington has 1800 + empty high school seats which it does not expect to fill for some time.
The problem is compounded by the fact that the city’s newest high school is filled to overcapacity and that other high schools might need portable units.
The problem is to some degree one of changes in the boundaries that were created that determined which high school a student would have to attend.
When the PARC process started in December the focus was on the recommendation that Central and Pearson high school be closed.
 Large posters with maps showing possible high school boundaries were set up for public viewing. During the PARC process there were recommendations that Bateman and Nelson high schools be closed – and that brought a lot more people into the discussion which resulted in the very high turnout Tuesday evening.
People were engaged and asking a lot of questions. The data that was put in front of them was not as clear as it could have been.
Tuesday evening the public saw people from Nelson and Bateman wearing their school sweaters; one parent paraded around wearing a graduation cap.
The discussion and explanations at the six different information stations was directed by senior board staff who touted the board line.
The members of the PARC were present and many of the trustees attended as well.
 Which high school will these two attend? Director of Education Stuart Miller was not at the meeting. He is away for a short period of time on personal matters. The last thing that can be said is he is ducking the issue. He is in this up to his eyebrows and he knows how serious a problem his board faces.
There are decisions that were made six to seven years ago that created the problem he faces; he however has to deal with the reality that today there are 1800 empty seats and the province will not give the Halton Board the funding it needs to keep them empty. Miller points out frequently that the Halton Board is pretty close to the bottom of the list on the amount of funding per capita that it gets from the province.
 Three city Councillors in this picture – two others were floating around as well. Many people wanted to see city council involved in this process; just as many felt it was a school board matter and none of th city’s business. And up until now city council members said very little. That has changed. Every member of council could be seen walking around chatting people up; the exceptions were the Mayor and ward 1 Councillor Rick Craven.
School board trustees for Burlington have been almost glued to this process; the other seven were seldom seen. Last night there were four or five from other communities.
 Scott Podrebarac, chair of the Program Accommodation Review Committee explaining some detail to a parent. There were no introductory remarks. People just walked in, were given a four page flyer that explained what the information on the walls was all about and people were left to walk around and ask questions.
Part of what is taking place is each high school arguing why they should not be closed – there was no higher level look at what Burlington will look like should some high schools be closed.
Burlington is in a state of transition. The city’s population is ageing and the cost of housing is mushrooming.
There will be a lot of discussions taking place in thousands of households across the city in the weeks ahead.
 Ward 1 Councillor Marianne Meed Ward, on the left, is also the PARC representative for the Central high school parents, listens while a Board o Education staffer explains some of the information on the posters. The second public meeting, with an agenda that is identical to what took place Tuesday evening at Hayden high school will be held at the New Street Education Centre on Tuesday March 7th.
If there were 400 people at Hayden last night look for an even higher turn out next week
By Staff
February 28th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
For those of you north of the QEW – tonight is the night to get a close up look at the six options that are now being considered by the PARC that is in place to give the Halton District School Board Director of Education a recommendation on which, if any of the high schools should be closed.
 Two representatives from each of the seven high schools in the city meeting to recommend an option to the Director of Education. PARC is the Program Accommodation Review Committee that has two representatives each from the six high schools that have now met on four occasions to look at data the board has provided them and make a recommendation.
Details of each of the six options will be set out on different “information” stations” with school board staff on hand to answer questions.
The event takes place at the Hayden high school on Tim Dobbie Drive. The event begins at 7:00 pm. The Board of Education is not making a presentation to an audience – there is no start time. People will be able to move from “information station” to “information station” and look at the maps and accompanying information and ask questions of senior board staff.
The event will be repeated on March 7th at the New Street Education Centre on New Street.
The following are the meetings to take place before a decision date:
| |
|
|
| Public Meeting #2 (South Burlington schools) |
March 7, 2017 at 7:00 pm
|
New Street Education Centre
3250 New Street |
| PARC Working Meeting #5 |
March 23, 2017 at 7:00 pm |
J.W. Singleton Education Centre
2050 Guelph Line |
| Director’s Report (with compiled feedback) to Committee of the Whole |
March 29, 2017 at 7:00 pm |
J.W. Singleton Education Centre
2050 Guelph Line |
| Public Delegation Night |
April 18, 2017 at 6:00 pm |
J.W. Singleton Education Centre
2050 Guelph Line |
| Final Report to Board of Trustees for decision |
May 17, 2017 at 7:00 pm |
J.W. Singleton Education Centre
2050 Guelph Line |
 Parents from both Central and Pearson high schools have been demonstrating before school board meetings. Burlington Central High school parents have been demonstrating pretty consistently since this process began back in October. They would like to see more involvement from city hall even though the final decision will be made by the school board trustees in May.
 By Staff
February 27, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
 Ward 1 and 2 School Board trustee Leah Reynolds. Ward 1 and 2 School Board trustee Leah Reynolds tells her constituents that she expects the board ratify changes to the Delegation By-law to make it easier for the public to submit a request to speak on an issue that is important to them in front of the elected board of trustees. Some of the proposed improvements are:
* The public will now have the ability to review the meeting agenda and board reports prior to submitting a delegation request.
* The deadline to submit a Delegation Request Form is extended up to two business days (at noon) prior to the board meeting.
* Prepared written transcripts are no longer required. This allows presenters the freedom to express themselves without adhering strictly to written materials that previously required Chair review.
* Each delegation will be allowed an additional five minutes for trustee questions and comments to allow for further clarification.
* Delegations can be made at Trustee Committee of the Whole Meetings. These meetings are open to the public, less formal with more opportunity for a question and answer dialogue rather than speeches and statements typically made at board meetings.
A positive change that will have an impact on the Public Delegation Night that has been set aside to hear delegations on the proposed high school closing scheduled for April 18, 2017 at 6:00 pm at the J.W. Singleton Education Centre, 2050 Guelph Line
By Staff
February 27, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
Parents throughout Burlington will have gotten a survey asking them what they think of the six options that are before the Program Accommodation Review Committee.
It is a reasonably fair and balanced survey at first glance.
There is one small problem and that is the detail behind each option is viewed in a separate screen and the type is so small it really cannot be read.
The Board would like your feedback on the remaining six options through the online survey. Click here to get to the survey.
The survey is available Monday February 27 – Monday March 13 (until 4:30 pm).
The order in which Options appear in the online survey is random.
All responses will be anonymous.
The survey can only be completed by using a desktop or laptop computer. It cannot be completed on a tablet or mobile device.
A public meeting is scheduled for North Burlington schools on Tuesday, February 28, 2017 at Dr. Frank J. Hayden Secondary School. The meeting for South Burlington schools is scheduled for Tuesday, March 7, 2017.
We urge you to attend the public meeting – it doesn’t have a start time – you can drop in at any time and get more detail on any one of the six options. There will be Board of Education staff members on hand to answer questions.
For those who aren’t going to be able to get to either of the two public meetings set out below are details on each of the options. The details were released at one of the PARC meeting.
The six options are as follows:
Option 23d ‐ Robert Bateman HS, Lester B Pearson HS closes, Dr. Frank J Hayden SS program change
No change to Aldershot HS boundary
Burlington Central HS catchment expands to include Tecumseh PS catchment
IB program added to Burlington Central HS from Robert Bateman
Nelson HS boundary expands east. SC‐SPED & Essential programming redirected to Nelson HS from Robert Bateman
MM Robinson HS ENG catchment expands to include Lester B Pearson HS
Frank J Hayden SS FI program redirected to M.M. Robinson HS. No change to the English catchment.
Option 19b – Burlington Central HS, Lester B Pearson closes HS, Dr Frank J Hayden SS & Robert Bateman HS program change
Aldershot HS catchment expands east to Brant St, ESL program relocated to Aldershot HS from Burlington Central HS. 10 rooms available from the Aldershot elementary facility to accommodate additional
Nelson HS expands west to Brant
Robert Bateman HS catchment include John William Boich PS catchment south of Upper Middle Rd, and the entire Frontenac PS catchment
FI program added to Robert Bateman HS with same boundaries as the English program
MM Robinson HS English boundary expands to include Lester B Pearson HS. FI boundary include Dr. Frank J Hayden SS with the exception of John William Boich PS catchment south of Upper Middle
Frank J Hayden becomes English only school, with a reduced English catchment area
Option 4b – Robert Bateman HS closes
No change to Aldershot HS
Burlington Central HS expands to include the entire Tecumseh PS
Nelson HS expands east to include Robert Bateman HS. Nelson HS receives the SC‐SPED and Essential programming from Robert Bateman
MM Robinson HS catchment expands to include Kilbride PS catchment
Lester B Pearson HS catchment expands to include Florence Meares PS catchment. IB program and Gifted Secondary Placement added to Lester B. Pearson HS from Robert Bateman HS and Nelson HS
Frank J Hayden SS English catchment area is reduced.
Option 7b – No changes to schools south of the QEW
Frank J Hayden SS Boundary change
Lester B Pearson HS catchment expands to include Kilbride PS catchment area, John William Boich PS catchment area south of Upper Middle Road, and Alexander’s PS catchment
Frank J Hayden HS catchment reduced.
Option 28d – Burlington Central HS and Lester B Pearson HS closes, Program change for Dr Frank J Hayden SS
Aldershot HS catchment area expands easterly to railway tracks, ESL program added to Aldershot from Burlington Central
Nelson HS catchment area expands west to the railway
Robert Bateman HS catchment area expands to include John William Boich PS catchment area and Frontenac PS catchment
MM Robinson HS catchment area expands to include Lester B Pearson HS catchment area.
FI is removed from Dr. Frank J Hayden SS and redirected to MM Robinson HS
CH Norton PS area that is currently directed to Lester B Pearson HS, to be redirected to Dr Frank J Hayden
Option 3b – Nelson HS closes, Dr Frank J Hayden SS and Burlington Central HS have a program change
Aldershot FI expands to include Burlington Central HS FI catchment
Burlington Central HS English catchment area expands to Walkers Line
Robert Bateman HS expands west to Walkers
FI program added to Robert Bateman HS
Lester B Pearson HS catchment area expands to include John William Boich PS catchment area and Kilbride PS catchment area. The Secondary Gifted placement added to Lester B Pearson HS from Nelson
Frank J Hayden SS FI program redirected to M.M. Robinson HS.
Frank J Hayden HS catchment reduced.
By Staff
February 26th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
Central Strong, that Merry Band of “die hards” that are fighting the good fight to keep their school open, have another task that they need help with.
 They are going to walk to city hall and perhaps march into the council chamber. They want you to meet at Burlington Central at 5:15 pm tomorrow, Monday, February 27th. They will be walking along Brant St to raise awareness and bring attention to their cause and will end at City Hall where they will greet City Councillors and Mayor prior to the city council meeting.
They want everyone to bring their Save Central signs or the signs that reflect your thoughts on what City Council should be doing.
Part 2 of this initiative is some canvassing of downtown streets, so that they can gather data on what they know to be the changing demographics of the core.
They have seen numerous infill developments all around the core of the city and believe they are seeing a lot of housing turn over with many new families moving in when empty-nesters and retired homeowners move out (some of them moving to the new downtown condos).
 However, maintains Central Strong, the Halton District School Board doesn’t seem to have heard of this phenomenon.
The Board is about to do an on-line survey of parents relating to the options on the table at the Program Accommodation Review. Central Strong makes reference to a comment made by Kirk Perris that this is a “non-scientific survey”. That isn’t completely true.
Those parents responding to the survey sent to them by the board will produce results that are “scientific” in that the only people who can respond to the survey sent to the household will be people from that household.
There will be a second survey, identical to the one being sent to the households, that anyone can respond to – that version of the survey will not be scientific – anyone from Pakistan will be able to respond was the way Kirk Perris put it.
The Gazette expects to have the link to the public survey late Monday afternoon and will publish that as soon as it is received.
Households will get their link directly from the board.
The door to door survey work the Central Strong people want to do might reveal data that has not been known up until now. And getting all the data possible is well worth the effort.
Central Strong is asking that “as many of you as possible to pick a street, perhaps your own street or another nearby street, and do a simple checklist for us and send it in to us. If we can get a good number of streets done, that would be great.”
 The first public meeting on the closing of Burlington high schools didn’t go all that well. Specifically, include:
Street Name
Number of Homes Canvassed
How many homes have changed from seniors/retirees to families with children in last year, 3 years, 5 years.
How many have been family homes for more than 5 years
How many are empty nesters/retirees
Of the empty nesters/retirees, how many plan on selling within 1-5 years; 5-10 years
You might know the answers for some of the homes on your street without needing to ask.
It would also be helpful if some people could canvass an apartment or condo building floor or two so that we can see how many children are living there now and extrapolate that to the number in the total building.
Central Strong wants to be able to show that the downtown core is expanding as we know it is, that the development coming to the core will bring families and children, but also that the houses that are here are turning over to more and more families.
Important Dates
Public Meeting #2 (North Burlington schools) February 28, 2017 at 7:00 pm at Dr. Frank J. Hayden Secondary School, 3040 Tim Dobbie Drive
Public Meeting #2 (South Burlington schools) March 7, 2017 at 7:00 pm at New Street Education Centre, 3250 New Street
PARC Working Meeting #4 March 23, 2017 at 7:00 pm. J.W. Singleton Education Centre, 2050 Guelph Line
Members of the PARC will be given the data from the surveys taking place between February 27th and March 13th
Director’s Report (with compiled feedback) to Committee of the Whole March 29, 2017 at 7:00 pm at J.W. Singleton Education Centre, 2050 Guelph Line
Public Delegation Night April 18, 2017 at 6:00 pm at J.W. Singleton Education Centre, 2050 Guelph Line
Final Report to Board of Trustees for decision May 17, 2017 at 7:00 pm at J.W. Singleton Education Centre, 2050 Guelph Line.
This is where the buck is going to stop. The 11 elected trustees will make the final decision. Will they prove to be independent or will the people that elected them see a decision to go with the staff recommendation.
 By Pepper Parr
February 25th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
It is almost as if the parents who want to keep their local schools open have to do the job with one hand tied behind their backs.
Changes in provincial government legislation has reduced the number of public meetings a school board has to hold and it removes any focus on what happens to the community.
Director Miller has been saying from the get go that the interests of the students is his primary focus – that comes straight out of the provincial government play book.
 Parents from different high schools watch the PARC deliberate; they have held four meetings to date. The Ontario government is speeding up the process for closing schools, as part of a crackdown on publicly funded boards with too many classrooms sitting empty.
Ministry of education guidelines defines schools less than two-thirds full as “underutilized” and are candidates for either closing or changes to their boundaries or programs they offer. The ministry now has new guidelines for community consultations that must take place before a school can be closed. Critics say the guidelines limit public engagement and make it easier to close schools.
A committee reviewing the fate of a school is required to hold two public meetings instead of four under the new regime, and the time frame for conducting a review is cut to five months from seven. Another major change causing considerable angst for municipal officials is a shift in emphasis toward student achievement and away from considering the impact of closing a school on the well-being of a community and the local economy.
The Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), said focusing the review process more narrowly on the interests of students might help school boards solve their fiscal challenges. But it comes at the expense of the longer-term interests of a community, including the impact closing a school could have on residential real estate values.
The new process gives municipal governments a formal role for the first time, providing an opportunity for school boards to collaborate with municipalities in making the best use of school space.
 Mayor Goldring may have thought he was dodging a bullet when he had his city manager sit on the PAR committee. Mayor Golding, who sits on an AMO committee, is treating the closing of high schools like a roaring fire – something he isn’t going to get very close to – he accepted the offer of city manager James Ridge, who apparently volunteered for the task of representing the city on the PARC. Ridge has said very little.
An AMO spokesperson said: “A school is the hub of a community. When you close a school, that community has lost a draw for anybody to ever come back.” It is self-evident that property values in the community that loses a school will fall.
Then Minister of Education Elizabeth Sandals said that she wants the school boards and the municipalities to have an ongoing relationship where they are sharing their planning data so that the municipalities are aware of where there are clusters of underutilized schools.
The reality many school boards are facing is that there are too many empty seat and they are under pressure to address the financial drain.
The Halton Board seems to have decided it will follow the provincial guidelines and almost bulldoze the PARC parents into accepting the option the board put on the table; close two of the seven high schools.
We now have a situation where the Program Accommodation Review Committee currently looking for options it can give Director Miller is facing a board administration that fudges data and doesn’t work in a collaborative way with the PARC. It amounts to a lost opportunity for everyone.
 Aldershot High school PARC member Steve Cussons and Central high school representative Ian Farwell on the left. Miller is quite right when he speaks of the significant time and effort the 14 PAR committee members are putting in. They have had to climb a very steep learning curve and have found on too many occasions that some of the data is incorrect.
Miller seems to have lost the opportunity to harness the energy and creativity of the PAR committee. Is it too late for him and his team to make a mid-course correction and put some substance into the words, “collaborative” and collectively?
This is a shared problem and there is an opportunity to work as a community that understands and respects each other.
Michael Barrett, president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, said in many heavily contested cases in the past, it was often a municipality that was fighting to prevent a school from closing.
That certainly isn’t the case in Burlington.
By Staff
February 24th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
 Gary Scobie Burlington resident Gary Scobie wants the school closing process now asking place in Burlington halted. Here is what he had to say the provincial Minister of Education.
Dear Minister Hunter,
On February 16th I sent an email to Mr. Stuart Miller, Director of Education for the Halton District School Board (HDSB), on which you and other officials were copied. I discussed the how the PAR process happening in Burlington for our high schools has been mismanaged by the Board, leading to a probable conclusion to close our oldest school, Central High, in the downtown core while leaving our newest school, Hayden High, north of the QEW over-filled into portables and over-bussed.
Other schools are still in the mix for closure and catchment alterations. I have no vested interest in the outcome (our daughters were well-educated in Burlington and now live elsewhere as adults). I do not live in the downtown core, but see the possible loss of our oldest school, Central High, as damaging to the future prospects of our downtown residential, commercial and cultural livability.
In real estate, they say the three most important things are location, location, location. This could not be truer for any other high school in Burlington. Central High is part of the fabric that makes our downtown attractive to families. Having a local school that is walked to by 92% of the students means it is a school that deserves to stay and be refurbished to meet all accessibility and program requirements. The alternative, being promoted by the HDSB is to close it and bus the students to the far reaches of suburban Burlington in the east and the west, thereby gutting our downtown of any future attraction to families.
Our downtown is the key intensification area in the future, as directed by our Provincial Government. There will be more condos and stacked townhouses built as re-development occurs under provincial mandate. I believe we all want families to move into existing housing and these new forms of housing to be built in the downtown core, keeping it vital both commercially and culturally. Removing one distinctive hub (Central High) will do much to defeat this goal. Once it is gone, it will never reappear as land in the downtown will be too expensive to re-assemble by the Board.
There are other alternatives, but they have been given short shrift by the Board in this mismanaged PAR process. I therefore am requesting that you, as Minister of Education, investigate this PAR process as soon as possible and request a halt to it before irreparable damage is done to our student experience in Burlington. This process is, after all, to benefit students. In doing so, it should not damage forever the most important neighbourhood in our City, our downtown core neighbourhood.
Burlington is well-known as one of the best cities in Canada to live and age in. I want to protect that reputation. The changes in the schooling of our students have the power to either damage or promote this reputation going forward. The issue is too important to be decided only by the HDSB in a poorly executed PAR process. I ask that the PAR be halted and the catchment areas be adjusted to distribute students fairly in the neighbourhoods where they live, using all the existing schools for now. Take a break from the PAR, step back and consider if a PAR is actually in the best interest of Burlington students, and if it is, begin again, with all of the data accurate and complete this time and treat every school and every student in a fair manner from the beginning. Thank you for your consideration.
Gary Scobie
Burlington ON
By Pepper Parr
February 23rd, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
REVISED
With the Program Accommodation Review Committee (PARC) having gone through a long and very arduous process that some of them are not suited to they can now rest on their oars for a few weeks and see what the public has to say about the six options they have decided should be looked at seriously.
The vast majority of the members of the PAR committee are doing superb work.
 The 14 members of the Program Accommodation Review Committee are all volunteers who have put in some long hours and exchanged thousands of emails to get to the point where there are six options for the public to review. The disappointing aspect of the PARC process is that we now have parents from different schools battling with other parents to ensure that their school does not get closed. The process that Burlington has had to follow almost guaranteed this outcome – the PARC members find themselves between a rock and an even harder place – they have not had an opportunity to frame the debate and discussion and have not had the benefit of adequate an accurate information.
 The PAR committee members are fully immersed in the process. For several this is going to be a very dis-satisfying experience. They deserved better treatment. These people volunteered – put in hundreds of hours and their work is not finished yet. There are some very talented people on the PAR committee and for the most part the ideas they have put forward are commendable.
They had hoped to have some input on the on-line survey that is going to be done – no such luck. One PARC member expressed some concern with the survey that is being put together. The one done December 8th was described by Kirk Perris, the man who put it together as “not one of his better efforts”. That wasn’t an understatement.
The public meeting plan explained to the PARC members was for an event that is to be as interactive as these things can be.
There are two parts to the public engagement: an online survey and public meetings where people can look at the details and ask questions. There will be one public meeting in the north end of the city and a second, with identical content in the south of the city.
 Kirk Perris, the IPSOS Reid facilitator hired by the board is designing the public meting content and the on-line surveys. He and PARC chair Scott Podrebarac are guiding the process. Perris intends to set up information stations for each of the six options. Board staff will be on hand to explain the details of each option. PARC members will be on hand as well to give their take on how they got to where they are.
The on-line survey will be opened on the 27th of February. It will be sent out to all parents and there will be an on-line version for anyone else who wants to participate.
The first public meeting in the north end of the city is on the 28th – at Hayden high school, the second is on March 7th at the Gary Allan educational centre on New Street. Both start at 7:00 pm
The survey goes off-line on the 131th of March. There will be print versions of the survey available.
It would be advisable for anyone responding to the survey to wait until they have had a chance to attend one of the public meetings.
Perris talked in terms of questions that would be open ended as well as questions that would be closed ended.
He described the meetings as an exercise in public engagement – there are a lot of smart people who are looking very carefully and closely at the process so far and they do not feel engaged.
One PARC member wanted to know how the data collected is going to be used: “is this a popularity contest or are you going after data that is quantitative or qualitative? Why are we doing this?
 Burlington trustees Andrea Grebenc, on the left and Leah Reynolds have attended all the PARC meeting. Trustees Papin and Collard’s antecedence has been more sporadic. There are some serious concerns in the minds of those people who are following this issue as well as members of the PARC.
The trustees who will make the final decision are sitting on the side lines – observing. One cannot envy them for what is coming their way.
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