Response to Miranda Miller's letter from Ron Motz, Chair, Bluewater District School Board
Good morning Miranda:
It is indeed a busy time, and so I will try and keep my response brief.
Tomorrow night, the trustees will have an opportunity to decide whether or not to proceed with the accommodation review process in the Owen Sound and Meaford area schools.
If the trustees decide to proceed, according to our policy it triggers the following consultations:
1) A pre-public consultation process that will be at least 30 days in length, during which the following will happen - a consultation meeting with both levels of municipal government and other interested community partners; establishment of an ARC; hosting a meeting with the ARC members to clarify their role.
2) Following the above, there will be a minimum of 40 days of public consultation during which there will be at least two public meetings. In addition, there will be working meetings of the ARC where they will be able to gather information from the affected schools through the school representatives on the committee as well as analyze data supplied from the school board. The ARC is expected to comment on the recommendation made by senior administration and can also recommend another alternative if the committee feels there is a better option than the one presented.
Note that the policy has no requirement for public consultation prior to the time when the initial staff report on a potential accommodation review is presented to the trustees and the trustees vote to continue the accommodation review process.
Senior Administration has followed the the policy, Accommodation Review - School Program and Facility Efficiency BP-3101-D to this point and if trustees vote tomorrow to proceed, I have every confidence they will continue to do so through the rest of the
process. The above is only a rough summary of the consultation portion. I would highly recommend that all involved familiarize themselves with the full process as described in the policy.
The Director of Education will be outlining the actions that senior administration have taken to engage potential partners under BP- 2360-D, Community Planning and Partnerships at the appropriate time during the Board meeting tomorrow night.
See you tomorrow.
Best regards,
Ron Motz
