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Open Letter To Our Earl Kitchener School Community
30 April 2003: As Earl Kitchener School Council
representatives on the City West Accommodation Review Committee
(ARC), we would like to update our School community on the proceedings
of the first meeting (held on Tuesday April 29th 2003). The primary
agenda of this Hamilton Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB)
committee is to eliminate 350 pupil positions in
the Hamilton West district. The following is a summary of the only
scenario presented by the HWDSB to the committee, which does not
reflect well for Earl Kitchener School, nor the City West District.
It was obvious from the Review Committee meeting, that the Board
has already committed to this scenario, and the goal of the Board
leaders is to direct, and steer the committee to approve this plan.
The Hamilton Wentworth District School Board proposes to close
both Strathcona and Central Schools.
- Students residing south of King St. that currently attend Strathcona
School would be directed to Earl Kitchener School. The balance
would go to Hess St. School.
- All the students of Central School would be transferred to Earl
Kitchener.
- This will result in a total reduction of 376 Seats in the City
West district.
- Although both Westdale and the Kirkendall/Durand neighbourhoods
were identified as areas with excess capacity, Prince Philip,
Dalewood and GR Allan schools remain untouched.
- Hess Street would increase to approximately 490 students and
EK would increase to approximately 600 students
even though the inflated Ministry Rated Capacity of Earl Kitchener
is 500 students. The reality is that EK is basically already at
physical capacity at about 370 full time students.
- Ryerson school would be under-subscribed by 55 students and
Earl Kitchener overs-ubscribed by 100 students. This can only
mean portable classrooms for EK on our already small playground,
while the west side of Highway 403 will continue to have student
space available.
This is not a good scenario for Earl Kitchener School, and the
residents of our school community.
We believe that it is necessary to mobilize as a school community,
or the Board (Supervisor Jim Murray) will arbitrarily implement
this solution with negative implications to our community. As EK
parents, we must come up with alternate scenarios for presentation
to the Committee. We would like to invite our parent community to
be more aware of this process. Anyone interested in learning more
about this proposal, and contributing to possible solutions, please
attend the next Earl Kitchener School Council meeting on
Tuesday May 13th 2003 at 7:00 P.M. in the EK Library. We
also would like to invite parents to attend the Accommodation Review
Committee meetings, which are also open to the public. The
next ARC meeting is on Tuesday May 20th 2003 from 5:30 – 8:30
P.M, and subsequently Tuesday June 3rd 2003 from 5:30-8:30 P.M.
at the Board of Education on Main St. in Hamilton.
Dean Alex, Craig Hermanson, Ruth Rashid
Earl Kitchener Representatives on the ARC Committee
More on School Closure Issues:
For more news please visit the News Index.
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