 By Staff
June 12th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
It was billed as an opportunity for Canadians to re-affirm their oath of allegiance to the Crown while new Canadians were being made citizens.
 It wasn’t a huge crowd – the numbers were a refection of changing times. We had no idea what the turnout would be like.
Hundreds – thousands? It was closer to the latter.
 Burlington’s newest citizens – youngest was 11 the oldest 97  The Oath Within the group of people who were given certificates of citizenship the youngest recipient was 11 years old and the, most senior was 97.
There was a time in this city when most of the population would have attended an opportunity to reaffirm their oath to King and Country – time have changed.
 By Pepper Parr
June 12, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
Last week Burlington MPP Eleanor held her now annual Tea for the city’s seniors. The day happened to also be close to her first anniversary as a Member of the Wynne Cabinet and a member of the Treasury Board.
We wanted to hear what McMahon had to say about the move from being a back bencher to becoming a member of Cabinet and then appointed to Treasury Board – which is the group that looks at where the money is going to come from and how it is going to be spent.
 McMahon with Bill Reid Sr of the year 2016 McMahon explained that as a member of Treasury Board she is in a position where she is at times on one side the Treasury Board table asking questions and on other occasions on the opposite side answering questions. She has to explain and justify the plans her Ministry has and get them past the Treasury Board – and that isn’t always easy.
McMahon is the Minister of Culture, Tourism and Sports for the province. At the federal level each of those three is a separate department.
She has a Deputy Minister that reports to her and three Assistant Deputy Ministers that report to her deputy – the job is as close as one is going to get to heading up three ministries. And these aren’t little ministries. McMahon will tell you that culture contributes as much to the provincial gross domestic product as construction – which was a bit of a surprise to this reporter.
 The Art Gallery of Burlington for funding for a van that lets them take art out into the community. Culture is a big deal that pulls the Minister into the soon to begin renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) – content and intellectual property are now big drivers of an economy. And keeping an economy healthy is the biggest part of the job for every Cabinet member.
McMahon will let you know every chance she gets that Ontario is going to have a balanced budget. While relatively new to provincial politics – her 2014 election win was her first venture as a politician. She was personally recruited by Premier Kathleen Wynne; the fluently bilingual Minister has worked in the private sector with Petro Canada, the Ontario Medical Association, the Chamber of Commerce and the United Way.
It was her United Way experience and contacts that made it possible for her to pick up the phone and convince them to let the 2014 flood relief program to use their web site platform to begin collecting donations.
When McMahon first stepped into the provincial legislature we asked her: “What’s it like?” How did you feel when you first walked in the Legislature and took your seat”?
“There are 13 million people in Ontario” explained McMahon. “And just 107 in the Legislature – that fact just overwhelmed me. I am one of those 107 and the 13 million expect me to make good decisions for them.”
While it seems like a long time ago – the 2014 flood was a baptism by fire for McMahon. She had to convince the province to get on board with a matching dollar program and that was not a simple task. The province initially said no – which had McMahon working the telephones to get that decision changed.
The city raised $905,000 which the province matched on a 2 for 1 basis creating a fund of $2,715,000 that was distributed to people whose homes had been flooded.
 Seniors get top billing with McMahon. It isn’t all drudgery and work – McMahon stood up in the legislature recently and said the province needed to have some fun – the rubber duck was coming to Ontario.
A lot of her colleagues on the opposition side of the legislature hammered her for spending tax dollars foolishly – McMahon explained that the rubber duck was going to visit communities that asked to be destinations. “They got it” said McMahon who added that thousands of people will show up to do selfies with the 161 foot tall rubber duck.
The Ontario 150 Tour in celebration of Canada’s 150th anniversary features a summer of entertainment in waterfront cities and towns. It launches on Canada Day weekend in Toronto and then travels to Owen Sound, Sault Ste. Marie, Midland, Amherstburg and finishes in Brockville on August 13th.
McMahon couldn’t say if the duck was coming to Burlington – each destination works out its own arrangement with the festival organizers.
What a draw that duck would be as it slid by the Pier and moved on into Hamilton harbour.
That wasn’t something the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport was going to get into. She is now in early election mode – pounding the pavement with the provincial Liberal organization getting the word out on the job she has been doing.
 McMahon moved her office out of a dreary high rise and into a new building with much better exposure. As she works the election trail there will be some explaining to do – the sale of part of Hydro One has a lot of people upset – they don’t think Crown Jewels should be sold.
The huge sums of money being put into infrastructure are a plus and the eventual electrification of the GO train service along with 15 minute service are welcome.
A government heading into its 15th year of leading the province raises some eyebrows. McMahon sees it all a little differently – she saw her win in 2014 as putting a Liberal in the Legislature to represent Burlington for the first time in 70 years.
By Staff
June 11th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
At 4:00am this morning the Halton Regional Police Service and Burlington Fire Department responded to a fire in Lansdown Park at 3448 Hannibal Road in Burlington.
 The first responders found the playground structure fully engulfed in flames. The fire was quickly brought under control and extinguished. The playground structure sustained significant damage.
Investigators are think this fire might be related to two similar incidents that have occurred within the last week in Burlington.
On Saturday June 10th 2017 at 3:00 am, a fire was reported at the playground outside St Anne Elementary School at 4675 Doug Wright Drive. That fire, too, resulted in significant damage to the children’s playground structure.
Prior to that, on Saturday June 3rd there was a fire at Emerson Park – 2390 Sutton Drive in Burlington. A smouldering fire causing heavy smoke inside a children’s play tube that was extinguished before more extensive damage could be caused.
These fires are being treated as arson.
Anyone with information pertaining to these fires is asked to contact the Burlington Criminal Investigations Bureau at 905-825 4747 ext. 2316, or Crime Stoppers (See Something, Hear Something, Say Something) at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS), or through the web at www.haltoncrimestoppers.ca or by texting “Tip201″with your message to 274637 (crimes).
 By Pepper Parr
June 11, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
It was billed as her annual BBQ – which she called a Chat and Chew – held at the Lions Park in the downtown core where most of her strength exists.
Held on a Friday evening – seemed like a good time. The weather was as good as it gets.
 Figuring it out. It was a large site and there was plenty for the kids to do including a pony ride.
There were information booths galore.
There was free food courtesy of Turtle Jacks.
There were pieces from what we call the Gazebo willows available for those who wanted a keepsake.
There was a fire truck and a police car.
But there was no buzz – no sense that anyone was having fun.
It was certainly a political event – that’s what these things are and held where her political strength exists but ward 2 city Councillor the Marianne Meed Ward’s event seemed to be missing something.
 There were information booths galore – just didn’t seem to be a lot of people walking around. The Gazette didn’t make use of the event to engage the Councillor in conversation – we were there to observe.
Was there any political fallout from the school closure decision the Halton Board of Education made to close two high schools earlier in the week?
 Ward 2 city Councillor Marianne Meed Ward at her Chat and Chew community event. Meed Ward will get credit for ensuring that the high school in her ward didn’t get the chop; she is also getting some blowback for what some described as a conflict of interest in serving on the Program Accommodation Review Committee (PARC ) that was involved in whittling a 40+ school closing recommendation down to five – one of which was Central high school.
When the Director of Education submitted his original school closing recommendation his top choice of the 19 options he and his staff came up with had the closing of Lester B. Pearson and Central high school at the top of the list.
 Terry Ruff former Central high school principal speaks to the first meeting of parents telling them how he two previous attempts to close the school failed. That announcement mobilized the Central parents who left no stone unturned in their drive to get their school off that list.
Once the Director’s recommendations were public the PARC was formed and Central high school chose Meed Ward to represent them. There were howls of protest about a conflict of interst. Meed Ward had a son at the school and she was asked to take on the task.
She brought formidable political skills to the work she did.
The Gazette attended every meeting of the PARC and found Meed Ward to be much less effective at the PARC than she was at city Council meetings.
There were times at city council when Meed Ward was close to brazen, which we see as a plus. She was focused and direct and asked more questions than any other three members of city council.
The rest of council often roll their eyeballs when she asked for yet another recorded vote.
We didn’t see the same kind of energy during the PARC meetings.
 Marianne Meed Ward at one of the seven PARC meetings. The Director of Education, Stuart Miller did change his recommendation from closing Central high school and Pearson high school to closing Bateman high school and Pearson.
Many howled at that change and argued that it was influence from Meed Ward, a member of city council and the Burlington MPP Eleanor McMahon that swayed Miller.
Stuart Miller changed his mind when he saw all the evidence that was collected and put forward by the Central high school parents. Meed Ward didn’t have any undue influence – she was part of a team with formidable skills that they put to excellent use.
They were creating teams and assigning tasks days after the school closing announcement was made. The held a silent auction fund raiser and pulled in $14,000 which allowed them to print up signs that were on almost every lawn in the ward.
They demonstrated and they did their homework. They figured out that it was going to cost $400,000 every year for the foreseeable future to transport the Central high school students to either Aldershot high school or Nelson high school.
$400,000 a year – every year was a stunning number – that was only going to go higher as transportation costs rose.
 The distance Central high school students would have to travel if Central was closed and they were transferred to either Nelson or Aldershot high schools is 6.4 km; the distance between Bateman and Nelson high schools is 1.9 km. The disruption to student extra-curricular life for the students would be immense.
If Central high school was closed their students would have had a 6.4 km trip to either Aldershot high school or Nelson high school. If either Bateman or Nelson were closed those students would have a 1.9 km trip – many would be able to walk to school.
The map and the rationale Central parents provided was one of the most compelling arguments for not closing that high school. The Burlington Downtown Business association put forward a strong argument for keeping the high school open as well.
Most of the points the Central parents made seemed rather obvious when they were looked at closely and on wonders why the Board of Education staff didn’t see what the Central parents discovered.
The Central parents challenged almost every decision the Board staff had made; they missed nothing,
The decision to close Bateman instead of central was made. Central is really in very rough shape physically – mostly as the result of neglect, is going to need a lot of money to be brought up to an acceptable standard. It has an acceptable bit of charm and a lot of history going for it but when compared to what Hayden has got – Central pales in comparison. It is what the Central parents are prepared to accept or have accepted in the past.
 Meed Ward with Mayor Goldring: she is more comfortable with herself as a speaker and she wants his job  There just didn’t seem to be a lot of people. Meed Ward has an almost tribal relationship with her constituents – they don’t all think she walks on water but they see her as the member of council that works hard for them and has a vision for the city that other members of council don’t have – including the Mayor who Meed Ward has always wanted to replace.
When she was running for the city council seat in 2009 she wanted the job of Mayor when Can Jackson had it.
For reasons that are not all that clear she chose not to run against Goldring in 2014.
There was a point at which there was little doubt that she was going to run against him in 2018; there now appears to be some doubt.
Were she to remain a city Councillor she would win the ward hands down in 2018 – is the rest of the city ready for her as Mayor?
There are hundreds of them in ward 5 that will campaign actively against her – with a little help from the sitting council member Jack Dennison who is giving every indication that he will run again in his ward, Meed Ward may not be able to pull off a majority of the vote in that ward.
Is the dis-satisfaction from some over the role she played on the PARC going to hurt her longer term political aspirations?
They well might.
 By Staff
June 10th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
Parents with an interest in what has happened to the two high schools that are going to be closed by the Halton District school Board are beginning to voice their concerns.
 Rory Nisan, on the left, a Lester B. Pearson alumni who credits the small enrollment school with much of his career success. Rory Nisan, a Lester B. Pearson alumni, takes issue with the explanation Burlington Ward 3 and 6 trustee Andrea Grebenc released yesterday.
“She is adamant about 1000 being the necessary number of students” said Nisan. “This is the crux of her argument for closing our school. However, are mega schools optimal, especially when they are way over designed capacity?
“Absolutely not. They are a far worse scenario than having all three schools at 800-plus students, which is easily achievable (we provided her with the data and a clear plan for this).
“Simply giving back the students that were taken away when Hayden opened would fix the problem. Her vote guarantees that MM and Hayden will be well over capacity for many years if not indefinitely.
“She knew this when she made her decision.”
Nissan adds that Grebenc says there “seemed to be more course conflicts than students”. These are empty words. They don’t take into account that the student experience would have been greatly enhanced with 800 students, a number that is easily achieved by bringing Hayden’s capacity down to appropriate levels.
“She also knew this when she made her decision.”
“She notes” said Nisan that “all of the extracurriculars in which she participated as evidence of how much she loved Pearson. However, with MM and Hayden becoming two mega schools with over 1400 pupils each in 2021, students of those schools will have far fewer opportunities than she did.
“She knew this also.”
 Lester Pearson parents demonstrating at Upper Middle and Headon Nisan, using the material Grebenc provided said that “Again, 1000 students is the minimum, she says. But she voted in favour a dual campus solution for Bateman even though that school only has 747 students (2017).
“Why didn’t she support (or even show any consideration of) a dual campus for MM and Pearson? Why is she more innovative in thinking about Bateman than a school that so many of her constituents have a stake in?
“She knew this was a possibility, in addition to giving Pearson some of Hayden’s students, when she made her decision.”
The 1000 student target that Grebenc appears to see as close to optimum “is not supported by any data that came forth through the entire process. Pearson was never meant to have 1000 students. Several other schools in Burlington will continue to have significantly less than 1000 students after this process is complete. She never mentioned closing any of them” said Nisan.
“She knew this too.”
“She notes that there were 1000 students when she was there because she went through her yearbook and “counted every face”. She fails to mention that there was OAC (grade 13) when she was a student.
“I went through my yearbook (1998)” said Grebenc in her statement. “Pearson was a bustling school that year. The porto-pac was packed. Our sports teams were solid, and I don’t remember ever having a course conflict.”
 The high school will have emptied parents cast ballots in the October 2018 municipal election. Guess how many grade 9-12 students there were? asks Nisan: 686. Another 151 OAC grads rounded out the student body.
“She had these numbers at her fingertips when she made her decision.”
Trustee Grebenc’s short intervention used the word “I” 34 times.
Trustee Grebenc’s statement, filled with rhetoric and hyperbole, and devoid of any data or arguments that passes even superficial scrutiny, was a failure” said Nisan.
“Our students will have to pay the price.”
Related article:
Why Grebenc voted against keeping Lester B. Pearson high school open
 By Ray Rivers
June 10th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
Rivers and his wife are on a volunteer teaching course in Ukraine. As part of this trip he will be visiting a Canadian Armed Forces Base and reporting on part of Canada’s role in that part of the world.
He will return at the end of June and give Gazette readers his take on all the changes that are taking place in this country at both the federal and provincial levels.
It’s why treating your children to French Immersion will not make them bi-lingual. They need to sleep with the other language, as a former Canadian bi-lingual commissioner once mused. You need to be able to live it, to experience it. So that is what I’m doing over here in Ukraine – helping Ukrainian children to live extemporaneously in our culture. And I’m not alone. There are over 600 volunteer teachers from 140 countries, including a former Russian, all participating in an initiative called GoCamps.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukraine declared its independence, along with all the other Soviet republics. But 70 years of communism had created a culture of passive dependency such that the new nation was reluctant to embrace the changes needed for it to become a fully independent state. That would require abandoning the Russian symbols of authority, its language and religion in particular.
From the Tzars to today’s Vlad Putin, Russia’s leaders have tried to eliminate the traditional language and culture in the lands they occupied. And Ukraine was no stranger to that policy. Ukrainian is a slavic language similar to Russian in that it is based on the almost cryptic Cyrillic alphabet, where the B is a V and the N is a P and the P is an R and the number 3 is a letter. It is very confusing and difficult for we English speakers, and I’m sure the opposite is true.
 Public art in the city of Cherkassy where Rivers is teaching Engish I’m teaching in the industrial city of Cherkasy, some 120 kms south of Kyiv on the expansive Dnieper River. Of the 300,000 people living here it is difficult to find anyone on the street who can speak more than a few words of English, which was likely learned from a TV show or western pop song. Most street signs and restaurant menus, though presumably once in Russian, are almost exclusively in Ukrainian script now, making getting around the city a challenge. Even getting a taxi is difficult since I’ve yet to find a dispatcher who understands either English or my feeble Ukrainian.
Despite that, I am impressed with the high level of English usage among the students at the school I’ve been attending, and their desire to better understand the language and culture that I bring with me. Ukraine’s goal is to eventually replace Russian with English as a second language. I have noticed, in the year since I was last here, how the government has removed Russian language timetables in railway stations – a step in that direction.
There is a segment of the population which would be just as happy to keep Russian but they are becoming a smaller proportion every year and with every new survey taken. It has taken Ukrainians a quarter century to finally decide that they would be better off with memberships in the EU and NATO, something that has held them back from joining previously. It is the youth, the new generation, who more than any others are now making that claim. And for those in doubt about the critical need to improve national security they only need consider what happened to Crimea.
Protection of the Russian language became the official raison d’être for the annexation of Crimea and the invasion of Dunbas, in south-eastern Ukraine. Yet despite an active war, ongoing in the east of the country, which has killed over 10,000 people, it was hard to sense animosity towards Moscow. In part that may be due to the long fraternal and historical association between the nations. It might also reflect embarrassment at having failed to defend themselves from the people they once believed were supposed to be their friends, even family.
 Ukraine is a politically sensitive part of the world. Russian navy ships moored in the bay of the Crimean city of Sevastopol, Ukraine. Assault teams in speedboats and helicopters have captured a Ukrainian ship in Crimea and moved it to Russian military port  Sevastopol is not that far away from where Rivers is teaching English to Ukrainians. There are five million ex-pat Ukrainians living in Russia and for those who can still recall living in the USSR, the border is an inconvenience. Despite the murderous aggression of Mr. Putin’s crowd, Ukraine still buys some goods from Russia, like uranium for its Soviet built nuclear power plants. And given the degree of Russian espionage and attempted sabotage in Ukraine it is bizarre that ordinary Russians still have visa-free access.
I met a young woman from Cherkasy who was completing her master’s degree at an oil and gas technical college in Moscow. For her the future was about working and living there, given the dim economic opportunities she sees in her home town at the moment. She was having to take the train back to Moscow since the airlines have mostly stopped flights there on account of the war.
For her it’s like that war is with somebody else as she continues business as usual in Russia, a nation where half the people consider Ukraine enemy number one and who are responsible for the death of thousands of Ukrainians. It is hard to fathom how her desire for a good education has overtaken what I’d consider her patriotism. It is odd that there seems to be no concern by her family or friends over her personal security in a Russia that regularly imprisons Ukrainian nationals for crimes called extremism, as it did recently with the chief librarian of the Ukraine Library in Moscow.
I met a family displaced by the conflict in Donetsk and forced to move personal and presumably business interests to the nation’s capital in Kyiv, leaving home and property behind. I would have expected outright anger and outrage, but none of that was apparent in our discussions. And even when the discussion came up there was a puzzling reluctance to blame the Russians.
 Political demonstrations are a lot more robust in Ukraine than anything we see in Canada Ukraine’s history as a nation predates much of Europe, and by centuries Russia, its ungrateful birth child. Its fertile productive valleys and plains have made it the object of conquest. Once a powerful monarchy Ukraine’s invasions, first by the Mongols, then by various other nations, including Austria, Germany, Turkey, Poland and Russia. And given its endowment, agriculture is still the life blood of the nation, generating the greatest export revenue.
Unlike Russia which is geographically more Asian, Ukraine has always been a European nation. And Ukrainians are slowly, too slowly for many now, coming to a consensus that their future, national security and pathway to prosperity, like that of neighbouring Poland, lies in the EU. And for that, in addition to retaining their own rich language and culture, they need to communicate and share the languages of with their new western partners and English above all.
…….to be continued.
 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:
GoCamps – Russia and Ukraine – Russian Speakers – Ukrainian Language –
 By Pepper Parr
June 10th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
Burlington Ward 3 and 6 Halton District school Board trustee Andrea Grebenc released a statement on her Facebook page setting out why she voted the way she chose to vote at the Board of Education meeting on Wednesday when trustees decided to approve the recommendation to close two of Burlington’s seven high schools.
 Andrea Grebenc in conversation with Director of Education Stuart Miller “It has been a tough few months” she said “and I know many of you are upset with the outcome of the Program Accommodation Review (PAR). I wanted to let you know that I explored a number of options myself and I was willing to go down the road with respect to a dual campus/one school concept and getting community partners to help fill space in the school.
“I could see the Bateman campus as a truly vibrant community hub. I believe in community hubs and schools should be an integral part of them. I think in this day and age, few people even know their neighbours, therefore providing gathering spaces to provide a true sense of community is important.
“The special education students at Bateman would have had the opportunity to integrate even more with a broader community setting. The north has three community centres. South East Burlington has one community room along with scattered amenities (pools, ice rinks, stadium and park). I believe community hubs should be cradle-to-grave types of places with programming for pre-natal and pre-school, through school ages, youth, adult and seniors programming.
“I took information provided to me from your community and spoke directly with administrators at two dual campus schools in the west. Both schools had similarities and differences to the Nelson/Bateman situation. The administrators were frank about the experience. It wasn’t a perfect solution, it took extra work, but both schools were successful.
“Unfortunately, my colleagues could not see this happening. Community partners were not forthcoming which was the linchpin to make this work. They would take up the On the Ground capacity to make financial sense. I was hoping the city would have stepped up during the final weeks with some possibilities as they are a natural partner and have partnered with us in the past(Hayden/Haber/Alton Library and Kilbride/Public library and community room).
 Bateman high school parents demonstrate to save their high school – it wasn’t enough to change six minds. “When Trustee Collard’s substitute motion about exploring dual campuses failed, I had to support a closure. As I mentioned during statements later in the meeting with regards to Pearson, my research informed me that schools need 1000 students to provide students decent course choices and extracurricular experiences. Without putting Nelson into the same lower enrollment state, Bateman needed to close.
“I care about the students in special education placements residing at Bateman. I promise to hold the Director accountable in his statements that situation at Nelson will be better for those students than what they have now at Bateman and that special care is take with each student transition. It is my duty to make it so and my commitment to the community.”
Bateman high school is scheduled to close in September of 2020.
 By Staff
June 10th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
Temporary lane restrictions will be in effect on New Street between Guelph Line and Cumberland Ave June 13 to June 16 due to paving work.
 Markings identifying portions of the street intended for cyclists. This is not New Street – but it is what is expected to appear on New Street once the paving is completed. And that paving work means road markings will follow setting out bike lanes which will rev up the comments on pilot bike lanes on New Street. The roll out of that project has been in the works for well over a year.
 By Staff
June 10th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
While there are still some that argue the merits of climate change the rest of us need to pay attention to the weather warnings issued by the Region
For the balance of the weekend we are into the Region has issued an extreme heat and humidity warning that came from Environment Canada.
 Starting Sunday, June 11 forecast temperatures are expected to reach at least 31 degrees Celsius with overnight temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius for two days, or when a humidex of 40 or higher is expected for two days.
Especially at risk:
• Older adults (over the age of 65), infants and young children, people who work and exercise in the heat, people without adequate housing and those without air conditioning.
• People who have breathing difficulties, heart problems, kidney problems or take heat-sensitive medications.
Prevention tips:
• stay cool;
• avoid strenuous outdoor activities;
• seek shade from the sun;
• spend time in air-conditioned places, such as shopping malls and community centres; and
• drink plenty of cool liquids, especially water.
• Visit friends and neighbours who may be at risk and never leave people or pets in your care unattended in a car.
If you or someone in your care experiences rapid breathing, headache, confusion, weakness or fainting, please seek medical attention right away.
 By Pepper Parr
June 9th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
Andrea Grebenc is one of the first term trustees on the Halton District School Board representing wards three and six. M.M. Robinson high school, which has been designated as a “composite” high school that is going to take on the French Immersion students who are currently at Hayden high school.
 Andrea Grebenc, did her high school years at Pearson and found herself voting to close the school after looking at all the options. Grebenc did her high school education at Lester B. Pearson and in her comments at the Board meeting this week that decided that school should be closed she waxed both eloquently and emotionally with a solid dose of hard common sense.
In the comments she made Grebenc said she knew “families are upset with my decision to vote with the Director’s recommendation to close Pearson.
“To watch my school, at which I basically lived for 5 years, being proposed to close, put me in a unique position when considering the Director’s recommendation.
 Grebenc went to all the public meetings and listened to anyone who wanted to talk to her. Hear she is with Halton Hills trustee Jeane Gray. “I know that school. I was there when the portapack went in. I played the oboe in the huge band and sang in the choir directed under the late Peter Purvis and I sang and danced on stage in three school musicals. I played midget volleyball. Our boys Basketball team was the team to be beat in the area and I remember most of the school going to regionals to cheer them on.
“I had a passion for photography, so I was one of the head photographers for the yearbook. I was in Student Auxiliary, I was on the Lighting and tech crew, I was on the Student Technology Assistance Committee. I was in the stage make-up and Tai Chi clubs. There was something for everyone and I never had a course conflict.
“I was there when the school had about 1000 students in it. I know this because I went through my yearbook and counted every face. At its current enrollment of 380 students, I can’t imagine the students’ experience.
 Grebenc sat in one every one of the PARC meetings. Her she gets some writing done along with Leah Reynolds, a fellow Burlington trustee. “There seems to more course scheduling conflicts than students in the school. Without alternative learning opportunities like online courses, summer and night school and travelling over to MMR, some of these kids would have a hard time exploring any passions or interests outside of the typical curriculum. School Information Profiles show that football, hockey, band and choir are all shared with MM Robinson.
“When I went on tour at the school, I didn’t feel the buzz that you would expect in a high school. We could walk into many empty classrooms without a problem. The locker bay is basically gone.
“So, I sat down and played with the numbers to fill the school. I figured that there should be a way to make it work. I pulled this feeder school and that into Pearson. I pulled from both Hayden and from MM Robinson. I tried shifting programs and even grades, but I still could not get the numbers high enough.
“I’ve talked to former administrators and retired administrators whose job it was to timetable classes and oversee the health of the extracurricular student experience. The conclusion I have reached and the opinion that I have formed is that a school needs more than 1000 students to give decent academic and extracurricular choices and to reduce course conflicts.
 Trustee Grebenc confers with Director of Education Stuart Miller during one of the seven PARC meetings. “I apologize if this sounds melodramatic, but a small part of my heart died when I came to the conclusion that I agreed with the recommendation that Pearson should close.
“Now I sit grieving, feeling like I was a pallbearer at an old friend’s funeral. I know many will be grieving as well. I am sorry for this pain, especially for those students that will bear the burden of transitioning, some in their last year of high school, but in my heart and in my gut, I feel that it was the right decision for future students.”
 By Staff
June 9th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
 Bill Reid, Ontario Citizen of the year for 2016 He is heard at the Appleby Go station each Remembrance Day – singing.
For Bill Reid this is a duty he feels he has to those who fought in the World Wars.
Earlier this week, the province recognized Bill as the Senior of the Year for 2016 and, as expected Bill not only sang but did a rendition of “In Flanders Fields” before a decent audience at the annual tea that Burlington MPP Eleanor McMahon held at the Centennial Library.
Bill, born in Halifax, served in the Army during the second world war in Belgium. “I never fired a shot in anger” he told his audience.
During the golf season Bill makes it a point to get in 9 holes as often as he can – he made no mention of what his par is.
 Bill Reid with his three daughters, a granddaughter, his wife and a son in law. Bill was there with his wife of 60 years and his three daughters along with one of his granddaughters. When MPP McMahon announced that the day was also the sixtieth wedding anniversary Bill’s wife said she wanted a recount.
It was that kind of event – an occasion to honour and recognize someone who had served his country and continues to serve his community.
 By Staff
June 9th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
This Sunday in Spencer Smith Park, on the Sound of Music TD stage there will be a ceremony at which Canadians will have the opportunity to stand and re-affirm their Oath of Citizenship.
The event will be led by the Mayor and the event will be short. It takes place at 2:00 pm at the Sound of Music TD stage
The oath goes like this:
I affirm
That I will be faithful
And bear true allegiance
To her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second
Queen of Canada
Her Heirs and Successors
And that I will faithfully observe
The laws of Canada
And fulfill my duties as a Canadian citizen.
 Americans hold their hand over their heart when they make statements like this – we Canadians just stand.
Most of us will be holding a piece of paper reading the words because most of us have probably never said them even once in our lives.
Canada is a Constitutional Monarchy, something most Canadians don’t realize either. We are quick to say that we live in one of the best countries in the world – and that would be true.
 During the Quebec referendum tens of thousands of Canadians took part in moving a huge Canadian flag through the crowds. They want the country to remain united as one. Keeping it that way for the future is going to be a challenge which we are certainly up to.
As I read the Oath I wondered what other people will think about that “bear true allegiance” phrase – and I wonder as well how many people will be out on Sunday in Spencer Smith Park following the Mayor as we re-affirm our duties as Canadian citizens.
By Pepper Parr
June 8th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
There were no happy faces at the Halton District School Board offices this morning.
 The Director of Education had to look away during part of our interview with him this morning – the last nine months have been hard and “there were decisions to be made that were necessary” said Miller.
Stuart Miller wasn’t having all that good a day. He said he didn’t sleep all that well when he got home. The Board staff met for a short period of time after the marathon meeting; they knew what had to be done and for them the hard work had just begun.
Miller was appointed the Director of Education in October of 2015. At the time he was the Associate Director of Education and had been with the HDSB for all of his career except for a period of time when her served as a volunteer overseas
He started as a classroom teacher and worked his way up the ladder. He was at one point the vice principal of a school that he came to realize had to be closed – Lester B. Pearson high school which had more than 1000 students when he was there.
 During his interview for the job he was asked by the trustees that hired him what the really pressing issues were and “I told them at the time that there were serious problems with the way French Immersion was being handled and that a Program Accommodation Review was necessary because at the time there were more than 1500 empty classroom seats in the seven Burlington high schools.
Miller’s job was to solve those problems. He produced a staff report with a recommendation that called for the closing of Central high school and Lester B. Pearson high school. That report called for a Secondary school Program Accommodation Review (PAR).
 The recommendation was accepted and the PAR began in October of 2016. The decision to hold the PAR was made by the trustees and it was evident to the trustees then that school closures were a very real possibility – but the general public was not forewarned.
The creation of a PAR means the creation of a PARC a committee that looks into all the options and serves as the official channel between the Board and the parents. Each school nominated one parent and the Board staff selected an additional parent from those who expressed an interest in serving. Those 14 people had no idea what they had gotten themselves into.
The met on seven different occasions for meetings that went well into the night. As a group they were not able to arrive at a consensus on any one recommendation. They sent five back to staff and said these were worth additional thinking.
Central, Pearson and Bateman were now on the recommended list. Not closing any of the schools was also on the list.
With Central and Bateman recommended for closure it was clear that there was a serious battle shaping up – both schools would not be closed – it was one or the other.
After hours of debate the trustees decided on closing Bateman and Pearson – but moving the Bateman closing to 2020.
With the decisions made the work of healing the hurt that parents were feeling and assuring them that the promises made were real and would be delivered had to begin.
Board staff did not visit the schools this morning. “It was time for the school principals to begin working with their staff and prepare for the changes that were going to take place” said Miller.
Miller knows people are hurting “this isn’t what I got into education to do” he said. And he adds that while right now the attention is on the school closings there were some very positive decisions made. There are now going to be two composite school in the city – one in the North –M.M. Robinson and Nelson high in the south.
Composite high schools are by their very nature big enrollment schools. They are there to offer every program available in the Halton system. “We wanted every student to attend a high school in their part of the city” they won’t necessarily be walkable to schools but they won’t be on the other side of the city either.
Composite high school will offer every possible program – for those in the Community Pathway programs to those in the International Baccalaureate Program.
When the PAR process began we weren’t thinking about the creation of composite schools – they will become a very strong part of the high school set up in Burlington, said Miller
 There will also be a “magnet” school, an awkward word for a school with a specific purpose that the Gazette will report on in more detail later.
There is another change in the wind and that is the change that will take place at Nelson high school. A name change is a distinct possibility; that may be the price the Bateman parents demand for losing their school.
More to the point though is the cultural change at Nelson will undergo.
The students from Bateman are both culturally and socially much different than what Nelson is today. The influx of these students is going to have a huge impact on the current Nelson culture.
The big thinkers on the Board staff think this merging of cultures is a good thing and will result in a stronger more diverse school. They had better be right. It is going to take an exceptional principal to make that happen.
 Our interview was in the forenoon – for Stuart Miller it was going to be a sad, reflective day. A decision that had to be made had been made – his task now was to make sure the healing took place and that the near term result was a parent community that was able to come together and make the best of what was ahead of them.
By Pepper Parr
June 8th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
The decision has been made – the Board of Education will close two of the seven high schools in the city.
 Parents at Bateman high school, where there are hundreds of students who are described as emotionally at risk and are going to need help adjusting to a significant change in their lives, have been told by Board staff that they are prepared to hold one-on-one meetings with parents to craft a transition plan for each student as they prepare to move from a school that is to be closed to a school some of them don’t even know exists.
During the debate leading up to the decision to close the schools many parents made it clear that they did not trust the school to do what was best for their children
Mark Zonneveld, the Superintendent of Education who will oversee the transition process, will have his hands full not only getting the job done but overcoming the fear and distrust that parents have now.
 Mark Zonneveld Most people in Burlington aren’t aware of the student at Bateman who deal with serious and severe disadvantages. The lives of those families are much different than the lives of other families. The focus is on the child and the needs – which are beyond the understanding of most families and are present every minute of every day. That is not to even suggest that other parents do not worry about how their children grow and become productive in the community.
For those special needs students – it is just a lot different.
These are children who are deeply loved and appreciated who have been in a school that fully understands their needs and has found ways to overcome problems.
The lives of those students are going to go through significant disruption – which Bateman parents saw as totally unnecessary – but that decision has been made.
The measure of a society is often determined by how it takes care of its weakest.
Burlington is about to learn just how good it is at taking care of those who need more care than most.
By Pepper Parr
June 8th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
With the decision to close Bateman high school a done deal, albeit a decision that won’t get implemented until 2020, finding a way to make the culture at Nelson at least hospitable to the students arriving from Bateman becomes very relevant.
While less than two km apart the culture of the two schools is significantly different.
 Oakville trustee Joanna Oliver Joanna Oliver, an Oakville trustee asked a question last night that put an uncomfortable issue on the table where it couldn’t be ignored.
“The community has shared with us concerns about transitions and safe and welcoming school environments” said Oliver. “ I would like to reflect on the comments made about the unaccepting culture at Nelson.
“Such comments have been made in various delegations and shared with us by email. They have almost assumed a life of their own and that’s one of a threat and fear” on the part of the students at Bateman who will be transferred to Nelson.
“I feel that staying silent on this matter helps to potentially, though inadvertently protect such a culture and it does a huge disservice to the Nelson students who are inclusive, compassionate and adaptable”, said Oliver.
She added: “Given HDSB’s efforts at anti-bullying and fostering inclusive and safe school environments – I find it hard to believe that staff and other students at Nelson would actively protect a culture of intolerance.
 Nelson high school – sen by many as the premier high school in the city, will now see a $12 million addition to its facilities and an influx of students that will, over time, change the culture of the school. “Unfortunately, there may always be individuals who are not accepting and who do engage in various forms of bullying but they are not the majority.”
While there were many mentions of a rude environment awaiting the students from Bateman at Nelson, with Social Media crawling with comments that would stun many parents, Director of Education Stuart Miller said the Board had not been able to identify the kind of behaviour that was being talked about.
It is a concern – how it gets handled is what bothers parents who have students in the Community Pathways Program.
 By Pepper Parr
June 8th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
In a meeting that went to past midnight the Halton District School Board decided to go along with the recommendation made earlier in the year by Director of Education Stuart Miller, to close two of the city’s seven high schools.
 Intended to be a small school that served the community, Pearson went from a one time enrollment of more than 1000 to just several hundred. Lester B. Pearson will see its last student in June of 2018, Bateman high school will close much later – in 2020, with their students going in a number of different directions.
The lengthy meeting got seriously tangled up with one procedural motion bumping into another as trustee Amy Collard did everything she could to get her motion to keep Bateman high school open on the table.
The Board had both their legal counsel and a parliamentarian taking part to explain to the trustees what they could do and not do based on their bylaw.
Trustee Reynolds seem as determined to keep a motion to merge Bateman with Nelson off the table as trustee Collard was to keep it on.
Bateman parents did everything they could to save their school; what they could not change was the declining enrollment in high school south of the QEW. The Board decision, after hours of wrangling, was to end the life of Bateman high school and send its students in a number of different directions.
Throughout the debate, the major issue the board faced, that of declining enrollment, just didn’t find a solution. There are far too many empty seats in the classrooms south of the QEW.
Bateman parents fought very hard to keep their school open and were served very well by their trustee – but the hard fact of declining enrollment just could not be overcome.
There is considerable distrust amongst the Bateman parents that the interests of their children will not be as well served when they get to Nelson high school where many of them will move to eventually.
 By Pepper Parr
June 7th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
They will convene at 7:00 pm this evening and begin the debate on what they as trustees think is best for the citizens of Burlington.
The 11 Halton District School Board trustees have been working through a process that began last October.
They decided then that they should create a Program Accommodation committee to consider the recommendation from the Director of Education that some of the Burlington high schools be closed. Which schools was the issue.
Each high school in Burlington nominated a parent to serve on the Program Accommodation Review Committee and the Board selected one person from a list of people who expressed an interest in serving on that committee.
The PARC met on seven occasion to review the 19 possible options Board staff had prepared. The Director of Education felt that the best option was to close Central high school of the Lester B. Pearson high school.
The PARC was not able to arrive at a consensus but they did narrow down the 30+ options they had in front of them down to five.
One was to close Central and Pearson; another to close Bateman and Pearson, another to not close any schools.
For reasons that will take some time to determine, the PARC members chose to fight with each other to ensure their school was not closed rather than work as a collective and ask the Board to provide more information.
The information given to the PARC members kept changing – enrollment numbers were suspect from the beginning and the source of some of the information was never all that clear.
For the most part every school was well represented at the PARC level. The PARC members were not served very well by Board staff or by the firm brought in to do research and facilitation.
The public that took part in the process grumbled throughout. The Central high school parents were able to organize very effectively from the moment the initial recommendation was on the table.
The second recommendation took Central off the table and replaced it with Bateman high school who then had to scramble to get their story out.
Parents were livid when they learned that the views of the classroom teachers would not be available and that any response from the high school students was going to be very limited.
With the PARC disbanded – it was time for public delegations. There were 51 of those – which Bateman used very effectively to get their story out.
The delegations were followed by an ”information” meeting during which the trustees had ample opportunity to ask questions – there were few questions that could be seen as digging very deeply.
The interesting part was that it took two meetings to get through all the question asking. Of note – there was just the one trustee who came forward with alternatives.
That is all water under the bridge. Even though there has been some last m8inute data that is very relevant – it will be up to the trustees to put forward motions, debate them, revise them and then vote on them.
Will we know Thursday morning what is going to be done? We will know something.
Will the trustees take up the motion that trustee Collard is certainly going to put forward which is to merge Bateman and Nelson. Should that happen – and it isn’t a bad idea – what would the new two campus school be named? Is the Nelson community ready to give up their name? Don’t bet on that one.
Will the parents accept whatever decision is made or will they seek a Ministerial Review?
Given the serious problems with much of the data and the pace at which the community was forced to march to the beat of a drum beaten by Board staff, the best solution the Gazette arrives at it to not close any schools and to create a task force made up of parents for the most part who would put together a solution that meets the needs of every student current and future in the city.
Steve Smith and Tom Muir served the city very well with their consistent contributions to the process. Armstrong said “it’s amazing how many ideas are coming at the last minute …this process is flawed if for no other reason than there isn’t time to build a cohesive plan”
The Board of trustees have more than enough information to agree with that assessment – they should vote for option # 7 – don’t close any of the schools – and defer a decision for at least two years until there is better data available.
In the immediate future the trustees should direct Board staff to give Pearson high school the feeder schools they used to have and lessen the capacity overload at Hayden.
 By Steve Armstrong
June 7th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
Throughout the PARC process there was a continued refrain that larger schools enable more opportunities.
 Steve Armstrong What has been lacking is any concise quantification of this. I’ll share what I have been able to piece together from the data available.
One discussion point surrounded the issue of timetable conflicts. The premise being smaller schools have fewer sections available in combination with fewer course options.
The graph below represents the data from all high schools in Halton. On first viewing the downward trend as we go to the right indeed confirms the notion that larger schools have fewer timetable conflicts. I’ve indicated the overall conflict rates for each of the 4 municipalities on the left hand side.
 One question I asked, but never received an answer on, concerned the three schools circled at the bottom of the chart set out below.
What is it about those three schools, Blacklock, Oakville Trafalgar and Garth Webb that enables them to have such low conflict rates?
My suggestion is that you might be able to apply that knowledge within the rest of board and achieve dramatic improvements on this metric. Improvements that making schools larger alone will not achieve.
Focusing just on the seven schools in Burlington I’ve added a pair of trend lines to model the data points. The resulting equations create a model for predicting the outcome of various changes in enrollments.
Having such high R squared values (1.0 is perfect) simply means the equations do a very good job of fitting the data, and that enrollment explains most of the effect being modeled.
In use what the model predicts is that when looking at changes to enrollment at any school the outcome will fall on these dashed lines.
We can also clearly see that when enrollment is less than about 800 students the impact of enrollment changes is about 5% per 100 students. Above 800 that rate of improvement drops to 1% per 100 students.
As total enrollment grows the conflict rate is expected to drop from the current 23% down to about 20% without closing any schools.
The current recommendation to close two schools would result in the conflict rate dropping to about 16%. A number that would still be twice as high as observed in Oakville, despite heavily disrupting two communities.
Larger schools are also expected to have a greater number of course offerings, and as the next graph shows this is generally a true statement.
 The data presented was taken from the SIPs (School information profiles) provided to PARC members, and does NOT include online courses.
I’ve drawn in 2 dashed trend lines that are best fits to the data in two overlapping regions.
The blue curve very nicely models the course offerings for schools with under 800 students, and says there is a strong benefit of adding students. The slope tells us that for every 100 students added we would expect 14.9 more course offerings. Since the core courses are already included in the base amount for every school, these would be expanding the options for elective courses.
The orange line provides insight for schools over 600 in size. The effect of adding 100 students is a much smaller 1.78 courses. As an effort to improve on the accuracy I did take a stab at adding data I found for a couple of the other larger schools in Halton. The results did improve the R squared valued (indicating better predicting power), and lowered the benefit to a little over 1 course per 100 students. Since I couldn’t determine if that data was measured in the same way as what was provided by the Board I decided to stick with the known source information.
So, what does this model tell us?
It tells us that for a school to offer a good number of courses we need a critical mass of around 700 students.
For smaller schools, there is significant benefit in increasing the number of students. We would expect 15 new courses per 100 additional students, up to an enrollment of 700. Above critical mass there is a much smaller increase in course options, only 1.78 new courses per 100 new students.
This asymmetry becomes a useful tool when contemplating re balancing enrollments.
For instance: Suppose a boundary change was made between Nelson and Bateman which results in 100 students being relocated to Bateman. Bateman students would be expected to experience an increase of 15 new course offerings. The loss of 100 students at Nelson is predicted to result in loss of only 2 courses. In practice, if the LTAP predicted growth at Nelson of over 100 students by 2020 was instead directed to Bateman then Nelson students wouldn’t likely even see a reduction in course offerings, they just wouldn’t see any increase over what they presently have.
Likewise, suppose 400 students were redirected away from Hayden bringing todays enrolment down to 100% of capacity. Hayden students would see a reduction of only 8 courses, probably less. If Pearson were to receive 250 of those students then its course offering would rise by around 38, and Robinson could also add a number of courses, but given their high course count already may choose instead to lower timetable conflicts. Clearly bringing the overcrowding at Hayden under control by changing boundaries or moving programs would significantly improve all 3 schools.
By combining the perspectives provided by both the timetable conflict data and the course option information much more can be understood about enrollments over a much broader range then a simplistic less than 600 students, greater than 1000 student view of things.
Both perspectives indicate stronger benefits for increasing school enrollments up to around the 700‐800 range.
Below that critical mass the focus is on adding course options, above that point the focus is on adding more sections, which continues to reduce timetable conflict rates. This plateauing on the course options side is inevitable since the Ministry of education has a finite number of courses that can be offered.
With further work this modeling could be improved.
Related article:
Another example of where parent involvement made the difference.
Editor’s note: Steve Armstrong is an engineer. He was a PAR Committee member representing students from Lester B. Pearson high school. One wonders what the Board o Education Planning staff will do with this data.
By Staff
June 6th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
Stephen and Jennifer Beleck have lived in Burlington for 31 years. Of their three grown children, two graduated from Nelson and the third from Lord Elgin.
During their delegation to the Board of Education trustees recently they told the story of what happened to the high school one of their children was attending.
“In 2001-2002 the Lord Elgin high school parent council was faced with school closures in Halton. It was apparent that a number of High Schools below the QEW were being considered for closure.
“After meetings with Lord Elgin High School (LEHS) Parents & students the LEHS parent council decided to meet with the General Brock High School (GBHS) parent council. After a review of options both parent councils agreed to explore the concept of a Composite school. After investigation into the Composite high school option both councils agreed it could work for the students of both schools.
“A Composite High School could expose academic and general (applied) stream students to vocational opportunities.
“A Composite highschool could also address the issue of many Burlington students not considering the vocational stream as many students and parents had a negative and false opinion GBHS.
“When considering the Composite high school option the Elgin/Brock councils met to discuss the meshing of the two school populations and the possible problems.
“After discussion and feedback from students, parents, teachers and consultation with HDSB staff it was agreed that we could proceed with this Composite high school option.
 General Brock was merged with Lord Elgin – the new school was re-named the Robert Bateman high school – which the Director of Education has recommended be closed. The ward trustee has recommended merging Bateman high school with Nelson high school. That merger in 2004 resulted in the Robert Bateman High School we have today.
What is interesting about this story is that it was the school councils that led the process. They came up with a solution and took it to the Board and the Board bought into it.
Has public involvement gotten to the point where parents are limited to meetings where they are expected to sit and listen to bureaucrats lead them through an exercise in which they have no input?
What happened during the PARC process? Why were they not able to arrive at a consensus and just tell the Board staff and by extension the school board trustees that none of the options really served the community – and therefore they would collectively agree that option 7 – closing no schools – was their choice and then insist that the trustees bow to the will of the parent representatives?
Instead the PAR committee allowed themselves to battle with each other and everyone lost.
There is a lesson in that early 2000 experience that saw Lord Elgin and Brock work out the problems at the parent level.
The Beleck’s put it rather well when they said: “By working together we created a new concept Composite high school. A closure issue turned into a positive result for all of Burlington/Halton!!!
By Staff
June 6, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
The Waterfront Trail along Beachway Park will be closed to pedestrians and cyclists on Wednesday, June 7 through Friday, June 9, 2017 for shoreline protection work and construction.
Please use the sidewalk on Lakeshore Road during this time.
 City wants you to use the brand new sidewalk on June 7th to the 9th.  This part of the Waterfront Trail is closed June 7th to 9th.
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By Staff
