By Pepper Parr
February 27th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
Central Strong got a bit of a surprise when they learned that city Council was not going to meet on Monday, evening, which was when they had planned on marching into city hall to voice their complaints about the way the city was handling the meetings over the possible closing of two of the seven high schools in the city.
Central strong is the group that represents the parents at Central high school who do not want to see their high school closed.
The city has a schedule for regular Standing Committee meetings and then meetings of the city council. The Standing Committee is siting in the afternoon but not in the evening.
Central Strong might like to think that city council decided not to meet because they were afraid of a demonstration in the Council Chamber- the reality was that there apparently wasn’t enough in the way of matters that needed attention so the meeting was cancelled.
There was an occasion several months ago when citizen delegated before city council to keep the ten minute time allocation they had or delegations.
Council appears to have found a way around the problem of those pesky delegations – just don’t bother to meet at all.
David, as much as I like your rhyme and a comment about 2018 being just around the corner, I am afraid it will be too late for Central at that point. The decision will be made this spring and as of 2018, if the board goes through with their recommendation, Central’ students will be bussed to 2 different schools and our city will no longer have a school in downtown core. This is why we can’t wait till next election!
Josie, whatever decision is made it will be made by HDSB won’t it? It’s the elected Trustees that obviously have an eye firmly on 2018. As I understand it COB council will have no say in it -I suppose Marianne Meed-Ward can speak out against the proposed closure of BCHS as it is in her ward but I doubt the councillors for other wards will jump in and risk antagonizing their constituents. As council leader the Mayor could speak out but as far as I can tell the silence from his office has been deafening and by all accounts City Manager James Ridge has been about as much use as a chocolate teapot at any meeting he’s been involved in. I wish you good luck but I wouldn’t count on any help from City Hall.
The King was in his counting house counting out his money. The Queen was in the parlour eating bread & honey, The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes, when down came a black bird & pecked off her nose.
2018 is just around the corner!.
Awesome response which sums up this mess in a nutshell. Council should not be involved in this matter at all as it is a school issue whereas we have elected trustees to make responsible and economical solutions
Still confused by this March. Is it just symbolic as I thought the Mayor and Council had no vote on the decision thta it was only the school trustees who get to vote and I thought they worked out of J.W. Singleton Education Centre on Guelph Line. If symbolic protest matters not who is in council chambers as those officials don’t have a vote in school closure or am I missing something here?
You are right that the Mayor and council have no vote on the decision. The current PAR Committee also has no vote and can’t make a recommendation. So yes, it is the Director and the Trustees at JW Singleton to whom we are making our points. This rally is meant to get our message out again, for any and all ears and eyes.
However, we also are dismayed at the City’s lack of concern for potentially losing their downtown school since we feel that it is particularly detrimental to a city to lose that. There is only one school in the core. We know the City cannot control the decision. But certainly they can do more than act like they’re willing to just take the chance without saying anything at all, as if they don’t care. There are plenty of mayors and city councils across Ontario who have been very vocal when their own communities were involved in similar PAR processes. The City should be able to voice an opinion on something that will have such a huge impact … it is a fact that a strong downtown benefits the health of the city, and losing the only downtown high school will irreparably hurt the downtown, as will eliminating a walkable school in an area that the city is actively promoting as wanting to be a walkable community. There are many studies and articles that support this point. Imagine the downtown with 900 students being bussed and driven by their parents every day to schools in the east and the west! Good grief, we will need to widen New Street, not reduce it!
wow 900 students at Central I thought it was 500.
900 is huge one of the biggest High Schools in Burlington aside from Hayden.
I think its 500 secondary students.Maybe added the elementary for numbers?
Actually Central has 603 Secondary Students and 260 Grade 7/8 Students, for a total 863 Students in the building.
What is being proposed for the 7 and 8’s at Central under the 2 close central options?
To answer Craig – quite frankly nothing. The Board said they could not execute an Elementary PAR concurrent with a Secondary PAR because (and I quote from record) “it would be too much work”.