By Staff
August 10th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
The City is ready to start two engagement opportunities related to the former Robert Bateman High School building.
One is engagement on the facility name.
The second is engagement on the vision for the indoor recreational and cultural services offered at our newest community centre.
These opportunities for engagement and input are only for the use of the inside of the building, and not about greenspace or parking. Input on greenspace and parking will come at a later date.
All of these opportunities and any updates will be posted on getinvolvedburlington.ca/bateman-highschool.
Indoor visioning engagement opportunities
• Aug. 22, 7 to 9 p.m. Appleby Ice Centre, 1201 Appleby Line. Registration required.
• Aug. 23, 1 to 3 p.m. LaSalle Park, 50 North Shore Blvd. Registration required.
• Sept. 16, noon to 4 p.m. Food for Feedback. Central Park, 2299 New St. No registration needed.
• Sept. 24, 1 to 5 p.m. Appleby Street Festival, Appleby Line between New Street and Fairview Street. No registration needed.
• Oct. 18, 7 to 9 p.m. Tansley Woods Community Centre, 1996 Itabashi Way. Registration required.
• Oct. 19, 7 to 9 p.m. Online engagement session. Link to join is at getinvolvedburlington.ca/bateman-highschool. Registration required.
To register, email getinvolved@burlington.ca or call 905-335-7777, ext. 7965. Please include the date of the session you’d like to attend.
Name our new community centre
Help us name our new community centre at the former Robert Bateman High School site.
Residents are invited to submit names and any supporting reasoning at getinvolvedburlington.ca/bateman-highschool.
City Hall asking the public to submit names for the new community centre.
The names will be reviewed to ensure they meet the City of Burlington naming standards and a short-list will be created. Residents will have another opportunity to vote on their favourite name from the short-list later this year. Once residents have voted on the short-list of names, the top names will be brought to City Council for final decision in late 2023.
This opportunity is open now. Names will be collected until Sept. 18, 2023.
Reminder: Opportunity for Community Service Providers
We are also still looking for anyone interested in providing community programming with a long-term rental agreement for the exclusive use of space at the former Robert Bateman High School site. There is no commitment or expectation at this point. Tell us what services you can provide at getinvolvedburlington.ca/bateman-highschool by Sept. 30, 2023.
Background
The City has purchased the former Robert Bateman High School building and greenspace.
With sustainability and community-building in mind, the City of Burlington is repurposing the existing Robert Bateman High School into a City-owned multi-purpose community-focused asset that will align with the City’s objective of being net-zero carbon by 2040. The reuse and conversion of the former secondary school will have interior renovations, exterior building changes and minor site plan modifications as part of Phase 1.
When the renovation is complete, tenants such as Brock University, Burlington Public Library, Halton District School Board, Tech Place and City of Burlington will move into the building and begin offering services.
Burlington is a city where people, nature and businesses thrive. Sign up to learn more about Burlington at burlington.ca/subscribe and follow @CityBurlington on social media.
Emilie Cote, Director, Recreation, Community and Culture explains
“Each of the registered sessions will be the same format, presentation and visioning workshop. The opportunities at Appleby Street Festival and Food for Feedback are a bit different but just as important.
No matter which session you attend, we will be gathering input for what kinds of recreation and cultural programming residents would like to see at the new community centre. This is a significant step in the creation of this community centre.
Naming our new community centre is important. It should reflect the values of the city and the residents and will be carried forward for generations.”
Wow we get to give input through a survey on a small portion of the whole project and they call this engagement. Can we pick which colour of white the baseboards will be painted? And we can submit names which they will vet to ones they like or ones they submit, for all we know, and they’ll then do a much-touted “vote on your favourite name of these ones which we picked” thing and tick off the engagement box. I guarantee my name suggestion won’t get picked.
Why change the name. We should be proud ro remind all that Bateman a renowned artist is from Burlington. His art work has brought pleasure to millions and a piece could be hung where all users could see it. Let’s not forget the people like Bateman, and others who we are proud of because of those who have lost public respect.
Best idea I’ve heard! There should be no other choice necessary.