An Open Letter to the Bluewater District School Board and Members of the Owen Sound Community Regarding ARC Recommendations and Further Reading for Best Practices.

7 March 2016

Dear BDSB,

It's been almost ten years since I was a student at OSCVI and since then I've moved almost 700 km away but having been a part of a school with such a rich culture and history remains incredibly important.

It seems to me a bit short-sighted to combine two high schools into one in a building that is probably close to 60 years old when there is a comparatively new high school – less than 20 years old – that would have to be redone and repurposed. In this case, it's a lose-lose situation. Switching from a high school to an elementary school would include many considerations: washrooms, locker removal, changing the parking lot for a school bus loop, retrofitting the classrooms, removing the specialized high school elements and adding elementary-specific amenities such as a playground. OSCVI has the facilities for technical education and also has a veryhighly-regarded theatre arts and music program. That would all have to be either lost or repurposed if we were to shuffle everyone over to the other side of town. I don't understand incurring the cost of ripping out the very things that make OSCVI a great school so that they can just spend more money to turn a high school – built and intended as a high school – into an elementary school.

Also, I question whether some potential safety concerns have been considered – in the same way that you wouldn't send a kindergarten student to high school on their own, you wouldn't put elementary students into a high school for similar reasons: the school sits on the corner of two very busy roads. Also, creating a super-sized elementary school of over 1000 students may make some parents of younger children uneasy. Some school boards have protocols in place for keeping their elementary schools locked or for monitoring who is going in and out of the school but OSCVI has a public-use auditorium and foot traffic between the college and the hospital. It would be more difficult to provide the same level of security that should be expected at an elementary school.

I know the 7-12 option was floated and there was some resistance but I've also heard there wasn't a large-scale public consultation. I really believe that the evidence is available that would support this kind of initiative. I currently live in Sault Ste. Marie and all three high schools here follow the model, however it's also implemented in the Ottawa Catholic School Board, the Upper Canada District Board, Near North board in North Bay/Parry Sound published a literature review on this. As well, this gels nicely with initiatives from the province such as the Pathways Program which tries to promote transitions for students and help at-risk students. Please see references. Not only is this model encouraged, it is a logical component to the pathways program which follows what the rest of the province wants to do.
What the Algoma board here in Sault Ste. Marie found is that kids loved it. Instead of entering grade 7-8 in a school they'd gone to since kindergarten, they had the chance to "step up" into high school. The students found themselves reinvigorated and the specialized intermediate program helped them make that transition to high school. When I went to school in Owen Sound we had Strathcona to help students make the transition to high school – and instead of integrating the 7 & 8 students they've pushed them back to elementary school.

I think Owen Sound is at a critical point where they can make a decision that will very heavily impact the future but also many students in the outlying communities and municipalities. With the issues related to an aging population and enrolment down we not only have to make the most efficient decision, we need to decide how we're going to configure the future for our students. Why not swing for the fences? Why not offer people an opportunity to step up instead of pigeonholing elementary students into a school that wasn't built for that purpose and cramming the rest into a 60 year old building?

I think this is a critical opportunity for Owen Sound to get out in front of this. 20 years ago when they built the new high school they'd asked for the proper funding from the province and got less than what they asked for and now they're hurting for options, and we're faced with a situation where it would even be conceivable to move students into a 60-year old building instead of a 20-year old one. Let's use the resources we have to good effect, let's give our kids a chance to step up and show us what they can do and let's lay the groundwork for a streamlined, educated community that follows pathways to the world of work and postsecondary education.

The educator Ken Robinson says that naturally people want to raise standards in education, but then says "well of course you want to raise standards, why would you lower them?"
What you decide now determines not only where our students will go but what we'll be able to expect of them. Aim for higher standards, get better results.

Thank you for your consideration, I urge you to read the attached resources.

Ian Heft, MA

OSCVI Alumnus

Note: Some of these resources don't explicitly mention the 7-12 configuration however they do show what other school boards are doing for their grade 7-12 students and the types of initiatives which could be well-served by a 7-12 format to ensure good transitions.

Professionally Speaking: The Algoma Approach (Official Ontario College of Teachers Magazine) - http://professionallyspeaking.oct.ca/december_2012/features/algoma.aspx

Algoma District School Board – 7-12 Intermediate Program - http://eaket.adsb.on.ca/content/school_within/

Literature review on Configuration of Gr 7-12 schools - http://www.nearnorthschools.ca/.../17%20School%20Grade%20Conf...

Ottawa Carleton ARC – Transformational Recommendations - http://www.ocdsb.ca/.../2%20Transformational%20Recommendation...

Ottawa-Carleton DSB – School Configurations - http://www.ocdsb.ca/.../09a%20Report%2015-127%20Secondary%20S...

Upper Canada District School Board – 7-12 Schools : http://www.ucdsb.on.ca/.../commu.../faq/Pages/allgradesfaqs.aspx

Ontario Government – Building Pathways to Success - https://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/reports/pathways.pdf

"Sootoday.com" (Sault Ste. Marie) – ADSB Grade 7-12 Program a Huge Success - https://www.sootoday.com/.../adsb-grade-7-12-program-a-huge-s...

Toronto District School Board – Pathways Program - http://www.tdsb.on.ca/.../School.../FrenchPrograms/Pathways.aspx
Uppergrand District Schoolboard – Pathways to Success report - https://www.ugdsb.on.ca/.../pr.../2014_UGDSB_Student_Success.pdf

Learning to 18 Strategy- Ottawa Catholic District School Board - https://www.wcdsb.ca/.../p.../Student-Success-Learning-to-18.pdf