By Pepper Parr
April 16th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
The weather could have been better but that didn’t matter all that much for Stuart Miller, Halton District School Board, Director of Education – the top position in a school board; he was busy thinking through the report that will be made public Friday April 21st on which, if any, high schools in Burlington should be closed.
Millers report to the Board of Trustees last October was that both Central High school and Lester B. Pearson high school need to be closed because the board has 1800 seats that do not have students in them.
When the report was released to the Trustees they had to make a decision, which they did – that was to create a Program Accommodation Review which called for the creation of a committee.
The 14 members of the PARC and their advisors.
That committee was created and met on seven different occasions to look at the facts and serve as a communication channel between the Board and the community.
The flow and quality of the information from the Board of Education became suspect quite early in the game – and it didn’t get any better. The quality of the members of the Program Accommodation Review Committee (PARC) surprised the Board of Education staff. These 14 people (two from each high school) were not going to go quietly into the night. The Board Staff came up with 19 options. That climbed to close to 40 which the PARC people whittled down to five.
They were:
Do not close any of the high school – re-work the existing boundaries to balance the high school students more evenly.
or
Close Robert Bateman in June 2018.
or
Close Nelson in June 2018
or
Close Central and Pearson in June 2018
or
Close Lester B. Pearson in June 2018
There are a lot of provisions and conditions attached to each of these closure options. The Gazette published a detailed list of the options CLICK HERE
Donna Danielli asked – pleaded – with the PARC members to come up ways to keep all the Burlington high schools open.
Donna Danielli, a Milton based Board of Education trustee, sat on the PARC as an advisor. During the last meeting of the PARC she asked, it was really more of a plea, for the PARC members to come up with a way for the Trustees to keep all the schools open.
The process and procedure schedule is as follows:
Wednesday April 26, 2017 – Director’s Final Report will be presented to the Board of Trustees at the Committee of the Whole meeting.
Monday May 8, 2017 (6 pm) – Public Delegation Night.
Thursday May 11 (6 pm) – Public Delegation Night.
Wednesday May 17, 2017 (7 pm) – Board meeting. Final Report to Board of Trustees for “information”.
Wednesday June 7, 2017 (7 pm) – Board meeting. Final Report to Board of Trustees for “decision”.
The eleven members of the Halton District school Board will decide how many, if any, of the high schools in Burlington are to be closed in 2018
However, anything that happens from this point forward is in the hands of the trustees – they can do whatever they wish. If they don’t like what they are given they can instruct the staff to take the work they have done so far and rework some of the options.
Chair of the Halton District School Board Kelly Amos
Halton unfortunately does not have much in the way of leadership at the trustee level. Eight of the 11 woman on the Board have just over two years’ experience. Kelly Amos, an Oakville based trustee, has been close to mute while the PARC meeting were taking place. Many argue that this is what she should have done.
One is pressed to recall a situation where the Chair actually guided her Board. It is a one vote per trustee operation and Burlington has just four of the 11 votes; six are needed for Burlington to keep all its high schools open.
It all comes down to the content of the report Stuart Miller submits.
Will it be a mish-mash of all the data that has come in; will it be based on his core belief that the academic offering is the most important issue or will he consider the role of community in the placement of high schools?
Miller has already said it is not a money issue and he has also said that the Board does not have to close any of the high schools. It was the level of the utilization rates that triggered the Program Accommodation Review. Miller is on record as having said this process should have been done a number of years ago.
Stuart Miller on the right at a Robotics information session that attracted more than 400 students.
Stuart Miller is a passionate defender of the quality of the academic offering his Board offers the students. He wants every school to allow every students to study want they want to study, which is what drives his preference for large schools with student populations of well over 1000.
Miller has been Director of Education for more than a year; he was appointed in September of 2015.
He is a relatively young man who does not appear to have career aspirations that would take him to the Ministry of Education at some point in his career. He is at heart a high school teacher who can recall the first name of most of his past students. It is not unusual to see him out at a student event on a Saturday morning. He is proud of what his Board offers and while Halton doesn’t get the level of funding other boards get Halton has always ranked well on how its students fare in academic standings.
The challenge before Miller this weekend is the biggest he has faced as a senior Board staff member. He has another challenge that will follow right behind the school closing issue and that is the matter of French Immersion classes.
Joey Edwardh, president of Community Development Halton and Stuart Miller
Miller is a practical man – he also has a sense of humour. At a recent Board of Education meeting he gave his report entirely in Gaelic – to the astonishment of the Chair. He didn’t give an interpretation of the Gaelic either. So he has a sense of history, heritage and community values.
Is he capable of realizing and understanding that even the very best academic offering is not of much use if it is delivered in an environment that is devoid of the community it takes place in?
Miller does not live in the Region; his home is in the High Park part of Toronto but the bulk of his academic career has been with the Halton Board.
He has listened too many in the community, however there are those that argue he does not hear what they are saying. He is one of the most accessible bureaucrats this reporter has encountered.
For the sake of the people of Burlington one hopes that Stuart Miller took several long walks during the weekend and began to get close to deciding what kind of a Director is he going to be.
From the left, Ward 6 Councillor Blair Lancaster signing the 20 year $1.3 million naming rights deal with Chris Haber in the Centre. Chris Glenn on the right is pleased with that much cash. The Haber Recreational centre id part of the Hayden high school complex.
One hopes that he proves to be better than the past Directors of Education who let things slide so badly that we now face the mess we are dealing with.
Both past trustees and past Directors have a lot to be ashamed about. The creation of Hayden high school, the newest in the city, which is now over crowded – at a 150% plus utilization, may be a decision that kills the downtown core of the city.
If Haydon had not been built, students living in the now Haydon catchment would be going to Robert Bateman and MMR. They wouldn’t have known any different and those schools would have been the school in their community.
The creation of Hayden is not the decision that kills the downtown core of the city. A simple case of demand and supply. With the construction of new homes in the northern part of the city, a demand was created to supply an additional school.even now, the demand is greater than the supply. Additional bussing could be a solution,but do we not want kids to attend schools in their neighbourhoods?