I recently had the opportunity to tour a high school in another part of the board that I first visited about fourteen years ago. At that time, it had a number of portable classrooms and was brimming with student vitality. What a contrast to now. The portables are long gone and I was told there were twenty empty classrooms in the school. Gone are the instrumental music and dance programmes which had been so active. The student population is insufficient to be able to support these and other options that were once taken for granted.
This same scene is playing out, not only across Bluewater, but in most of the province. School boards everywhere are closing and amalgamating schools to cope with the inescapable fact that there are far fewer students now than there were even five years ago. In Bluewater, we have a total of about 16,000 students of all ages and about 7000 empty spaces. Since the Ontario government funds education largely on a per pupil basis, resources generated by our student body must go to keep these unused spaces open. This is not fair to our students or staff and is financially unsustainable. Thus the necessity for accommodation reviews to reduce the number of unused spaces to an acceptable level. Trustees must consider how best to meet the needs of not only our present students, but also those that will be in our classrooms in the future.
During the six month long Owen Sound accommodation review, it became evident that there was a desire for the Bluewater Board to consider the one high school option. Such a suggestion made good sense. By combining all the students from the existing two high schools under one roof, it creates the critical mass needed to offer a rich selection of optional courses to meet the needs of a wide range of students. The two school, Grade 7-12 model, would have done nothing to support or enhance the high school curriculum in either school. Continued declining enrolment would have caused further course erosion.
Repurposing the OSCVI for use as an elementary school allows the board to maintain the standard JK-8 model in Owen Sound by creating space to accommodate all the students from Sydenham and Bayview, including French Immersion and a Special Education section for elementary school aged pupils starting in September 2017. Since there will be more space in the repurposed school than required for these students, it creates the opportunity for partnerships with other community organizations. Of course, the auditorium will still be available for community use as it is now.
I am disappointed, but not surprised by the vitriolic outcry from some people as a result of the amalgamation of the two Owen Sound high schools. It was exactly the same reaction seventeen years ago when the Grey Board of Education proposed replacing the original OSCVI building, which was on the cusp of being condemned for structural issues, with a new school. Perhaps all the effort expended in opposing the repurposing of the OSCVI building AFTER the conclusion of the accommodation review would have been better spent in assisting concerned students in seeing the advantages of the change.
I will paraphrase the Honourable Liz Sandals, Minister of Education, who spoke when she was in Meaford last week to announce funding for a new school that will replace the three existing schools in the town. She said it wasn't the building that was important. What was important was the quality of instruction and the breadth of program that could be offered to our students.
The decision reached on April 19 to create a single high school in Owen Sound is the best way to ensure that the students of Owen Sound have the best possible educational opportunities now and in the future.
Ron Motz
Trustee for Hanover and West Grey
