By Pepper Parr
December 9th, 2106
BURLINGTON, ON
There were 263 people clicking little hand held devices that looked like a television remote – the majority of them were in the hands of people from Central high school which sort of skews the information that is now in the hands of the Program Accommodation Review Committee (PARC) that met with the public Thursday evening.
The meeting got a little raucous –partly because the parents didn’t fully appreciate what the PARC was doing.
Parents basically filled the auditorium at the Gary Alan school Thursday evening. Few went home with a nice warm fuzzy felling in the tummies.
The parents wanted answers to questions.
The Board of Education people were there to gather data that would be used by the PARC in the advice they will pass along to the Director of Education.
The parents need to listen a little more closely and the Board of Education needs to be clearer in explaining the process.
The questions put to the audience were grouped into four themes:
- Theme 1: Programming and Enrollment
- Theme 2: Physical state of existing schools
- Theme 3: Geographical and transportation issues
- Theme 4: Fiscal responsibility and future planning
The parents are emotionally rooted in this issue – the closing of Central high school will change forever the kind of community that exists in the downtown core of the city.
While Central dominated the room – and they were noisy – they want to be heard. What isn’t yet fully appreciated is that all the PARC is going to be able to do is turn in a report that Director of Education Stuart Miller will use when he writes his report to the trustees.
The people parents of Central high school students need to focus on is the trustees.
The trustees that were elected will make the decision on which, if any, high schools are closed. Three of the four Burlington trustees sat at the back of the room and listened to the discussion. From the left: Richel Papin, Leah Reynolds, Tracey Ehl Harrison (Oakville) and Andrea Grebenc
No matter what the PARC committee produces or what the Director of Education sends to the trustees – it is the trustees that are going to call the shot on this issue.
This is democracy at its very best: you elected these people.
The Gazette doesn’t yet have a copy of the presentation that was used last night – we expect to get a copy of that document later today and then sometime next week have the data that was collected.
One of the questions asked – and was rather telling, was: How did people feel about finding ways to cover the cost of those 1800 plus seats in classrooms that are empty.
The Board of Education is doing everything they can to listen. An email address has been created that lets parents communicate with the members of the PARC. A single address will get the message to the two representatives from each school. How those representatives are going to manage what might be a torrent of email was not addressed.
School boards get funding from the province based on the number of students in a school. They get funds for just the seats that have a student’s siting in that seat. The board has to cover the cost of that empty seat. One way of doing that is to eliminate the seat – which is what the board staff have recommended.
The Board also get your tax dollars but they don’t cover everything.
There was a lot of very useful data collected. We will provide that data to you just as soon as we get it – our comment section is where part of the debate can take place.
Many people in the audience felt the questions that were asked were designed to get the response the board wants. Scott Podrebarac did admit that some of the questions were not as clear as they could have been. There will be another round of questions for the next public meeting.
Scott Podrebarac, the Superintendent of Education chosen to chair the PARC. His regular board responsibilities are not within the Burlington community. He lives in the Kitchener Waterloo part of the province and commutes.
This is community building and based on what we have seen from the Director of Education so far – he is genuinely interested in what the community has to say and both wants and needs community input. What the community has to do is be intelligent and responsible as they play their part in this process – and make sure they convey to their trustees what they want.
Realize that every trustee will be voting on this issue – not just the four from Burlington. Have the parents from Central begun to reach out to the trustees from Oakville and Milton – and Halton Hills as well?
I find it interesting you bring up the trustees. I have now spent a month trying to meet with trustees and nearly all of them will either not respond or are unwilling to meet to answer simple questions or discuss the PAR.
The majority seem to not want to discuss anything with the public. I have continually been directred to only speak with my local trustee.
Where were the trustees for this public meeting? Where are the trustees when the parc is meetings? What sign have the trustees shown they are doing any sort of due diligence? This article is correct in that the trustees make the decision. Why are the trustees not showing they are interested in getting as much information as possible?
You could write an entire story just in the silent absence of the trustees so far in the process.
I am sure many of us in the public who have reached out to the trustees can provide you with e-mails, etc showing an unwillingness to talk with the public.
I hate to say people but the decision has already been made. It’s simply a matter of money. All the protests, meetings and signs will have no bearing on the end result, unless someone comes forward with a cheque book to cover the cost of the empty seats.
Understand the process? At this point in time, I am fed up to my ears with hearing about this PAR process. Every Board meeting so far has included an inordinate amount of time re-explaining the process. Enough already with the process. We got it. And if someone doesn’t, then hand out a flyer describing the process at the beginning of a meeting and let the dialogue move on to the next level. The Board is relying on their repeated description of the process to eat up time in these ‘tick that box’ meetings that the Ministry requires them to hold.
We are now literally weeks away from the Director writing his report in March, which interestingly enough, is written before the only time the public can delegate or speak out, which is in April. Some process.