Director of Education, Mandy Savery-Whiteway (left) and Chair of the Student Enrolment/School Capacity Committee Mary Hall. (Photo: Quinte News).
Perception is reality. That cliche ruled the day at a meeting of the Student Enrolment/School Capacity Committee of the Hastings Prince Edward School Board yesterday (Monday).
Most of the trustees on the committee agreed with Dave Patterson who suggested postponing any decision on a draft staff report that includes school closures and consolidation ideas in an effort to deal with declining enrolment and aging buildings.
Patterson said the public believes they’re being shortchanged and that even some trustees hadn’t had the time to digest the 126 page draft report.
The issue will not come back to the committee until the end of September.
Most of the committee supported some members of the public’s perception that people only had three days to comment on the draft report, believing it was posted a few days ago, on June 7. The deadline for public comment was June 10.
Director of Education Mandy Savery-Whiteway made it clear that the staff report was actually first posted May 20, but could have been buried as new school board news made its way to the top of the board’s website.
Savery-Whiteway went on to say that the board did not have to get the public involved until a plan was actually passed, which it has not been, and that an in-depth public consultation would take place, including with municipalities and the Department of National Defence, after that occurred.
Two members of the public spoke at the committee meeting. Wendy Riley, representing the interests of Bayside Public School said the public wasn’t well informed about the draft report, suggesting a press release should have been issued warning that the report was out back in May.
Brad Beale, Chair of the Bayside Secondary School Council agreed with Riley that making the public aware of the report could have been done much better. He also provided figures showing that past enrolment projections given to the Board proved to be wildly inaccurate.
Beale finished by saying Bayside Secondary School consistently outperformed other schools in the area academically, and was a “very, very good school”.
The draft staff report suggests a plethora of options, all leading to less buildings to handle fewer students in the years ahead, both at the secondary and elementary school levels, in all areas served by the Hastings Prince Edward
School Board.
It’s predicted that in the next decade, if all of the schools now open stayed open, there would be 2,700 surplus spaces at the elementary level, and 3,400 vacant spaces at secondary schools.
Most of the board’s schools are over 45 years old.
To read the draft report click below.
http://www.hpedsb.on.ca/newsroom/wp-content/uploads/image/draft-LTCAP-May2016-KH.pdf
