Parents wanting to keep Central high school open are gong to take their protest to city council. This should be fun.

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.