By Staff
December 5th, 2016
BURLINGTON, ON
This is the first time the public gets to have a say on what the Board of Education has to decide next May – which is: Do high schools get closed and if yes –which high schools get closed.
Burlington’s Central high school has been targeted for possible closure. A very strong community push is taking place to keep it open – they are up against a structure that is dated and needs a lot of help to be brought up to standard.
The Halton District School Board is hosting the first of several meetings at which the public gets an opportunity to speak
The meetings are a part of the Burlington Secondary School Program and Accommodation Review (PAR) which will take place on Thursday, December 8, 2016. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at the New Street Education Centre, 3250 New Street, Burlington.
Gary Allan school located on New Street just west of Cumberland. Watch for the entrance to the parking – easy to miss.
The meeting is open to the public; they would appreciate your pre-registering so they can plan for this meeting.
The Pre-registration Form is posted on the Halton District School Board website: https://bit.ly/2gFUT5Z
The focus of this public meeting will be to gather individual input on the framework, which is organized around the following four themes:
Theme 1: Programming and Enrolment
Theme 2: Physical state of existing schools
Theme 3: Geographical and transportation issues
Theme 4: Fiscal responsibility and future planning
Very little is being hard from parents at Pearson high school. It’s almost as if they have thrown in the towel. The loss to the community is a day care centre that is second to one in the city.
The meeting will be interactive. A presentation from the Board will be followed by a questionnaire divided into four 20-minute segments focusing on a distinct topic. Each attendee may offer input through use of an electronic ‘clicker’. Each segment will conclude with a discussion.
The 25+ members of the PARC met as a group last Thursday. That meeting was closed to the people. The objective of the meeting was for the participants to get to know one another – most of these people had never met each other. They were introduced to the Chair Scott Podrebarac and met the person who is going to facilitate the meetings.
While Central and Pearson high schools were recommended for closure by Board of Education staff there are other schools that are at risk. Those not at risk are Aldershot, Hayden, Nelson.
The Board of Education hired people from Ipsos Reid, a leading market research firm to do the facilitation – and market research is really what these meetings are about. A tough decision has to be made – there are more than 1800 empty seats in the high school classrooms in Burlington. That is not sustainable – the Director of Education has to prepare a report which he will submit to the trustees and they will decide what gets done.
Between now and that decision date next May 2017, there is a lot of work to be done and the Board of Education staff – and the trustees, want to know what the public has to say.
Meeting agenda:
6:45-7:00 p.m.- Arrival and check in
7:00 p.m.- Opening remarks and explanation of the event
7:05 p.m.- A Presentation by Chair of the PAR Committee (Scott Podrebarac)
7:15 – 8:15 p.m..- Electronic questions, and discussion based on themes.
8:35 p.m.- Further discussion led by attendees
8:50 p.m.- Summary
9:00 p.m.- Event concludes
