This is Revitalization? No. This is About Closing Schools
By: Craig Hermanson
Earl Kitchener School Council Parent
27 May 2003: Revitalize us, don't victimize us
say urban school parents.
The Hamilton Wentworth District School Board is forcing established
neighbourhoods across Hamilton and Dundas through an ‘Areas
Accommodation Review’. This review is nothing more than a
re-branded School Closure Process, window dressed to give the appearance
of an open and consultative process by undemocratic and provincially
appointed leadership.
The mandate of the review committees is incredibly narrow: consolidate,
close and remove schools from the system. Any out of the box thinking
is dismissed, ignored and belittled. The Board’s plan is to
create a deficit of student space so the board can qualify for Provincial
New Pupil Place (NPP) Grants and build new schools in other areas.
The only way to create a deficit of space is to close existing
schools and put children into non-permanent, portable classrooms.
The concept is to cram kids into portables and portapack units to
finance new school construction.
What’s more, even after a new school is built, a space deficit
has to be maintained in order for the board to continue to qualify
for those NPP grants that pay the mortgage. This means that the
portables that are here today--and those that arrive tomorrow--will
need to be here for the next 25 years. Generations of kids will
use these portables!
Is this fair? No. It is unjust to finance a new school in one area
by placing kids from another area into portables at overcrowded
and poorly maintained schools.
Though the Provincially appointed Supervisor speaks of Revitalization,
the scenarios presented by the board do nothing to address the physical
state of surviving schools in neighbourhoods affected. The Board
Revitalization Strategy states that schools receiving students would
receive upgrades financed with funds from the disposition of closed
schools. However, the board’s record is not good in this area.
Promises made over two years ago during the Allenby school closure
process in West Hamilton have never been met.
Additional upgrades and renovations are promised for surviving
schools. These would be financed through savings on maintenance
of the closed schools. However, one has to question what kind of
renovations they could possibly afford when the board is spending
so little on maintenance in the first place. Not enough to make
a significant difference.
The school closures and consolidations have one purpose, to reduce
the number of pupil places so that new schools can be built. This
unfairly burdens existing neighbourhoods without providing any revitalization
to the affected school communities.
The Accommodation Review Process
The process is not about revitalizing our schools: It is about
creating a deficit of space for students in order to qualify for
grants to build new schools already promised elsewhere. Students
and parents affected by closure and consolidation will be left with
deteriorating schools and crowded portables.
We signed up for this task because we are serious and committed
to Quality Public Education. We have no confidence that our voices
will matter, but we know the board will push ahead and close schools
with or without us. We are convinced closing schools is the wrong
thing to do, but feel we have no option but to seriously participate
and argue for options that revitalize our schools an communities
provide the best possible learning environments for our kids.
Our only real hope is a change in provincial funding that properly
funds urban schools and recognizes that without urban schools, urban
renewal is impossible.
We need quality schools for sustainable communities. Without schools,
communities will die.
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