-by Anne Finlay-Stewart

In 1858, the first Owen Sound high school was built on the site of the former Strathcona School. Grey-Bruce was blossoming and high schools soon began to open in Meaford, Walkerton, Hanover and Kincardine.

The Owen Sound Collegiate gained a reputation for academic excellence, and expanded in 1907 and again in 1924 when a vocational wing was added. After the war, the City Council refused three times to consider the request to build a new bigger school at Victoria Park. After a fire destroyed the old part of the school in 1952, it was rebuilt on the same property on 5th Avenue East and 10th Street. The "salmon can" addition was subsequently built, but time took its toll and by the late 90s the building was deemed "prohibitive to repair."

For generations, the decisions about opening, closing, building and expanding schools in Owen Sound were

made locally by the men of the Owen Sound Council, then the Owen Sound School Board, and ultimately the men and women of the Grey County School Board. As importantly, the decisions were made with the full understanding that local taxes would have to be levied to pay for these capital expenditures.

In 1959, when the children of the post-war baby boom had reached puberty, another decision was required. Enrollment at the OSCVI (Owen Sound Collegiate and Vocational School), with a capacity of 1300, had grown from 965 students in 1951 to 1303, and the enrolment in local elementary schools was expected to bring 1785 students to the high school by 1964.
The Board expropriated 18 acres of land below the west rocks, and proposed a second 56,875 sq. ft. high school complete with playing fields, gym/auditorium, laboratories and vocational workshops.

By May of that year, the estimated cost of the school had risen to almost $800,000, but because a new granting policy by the Department of Education was going to provide 70% of that, the cost to local taxpayers was not expected to increase over the original $600,000 plan. The headline could have read "Local politicians dodge taxpayer wrath", but at the time every family had kids and education was considered an investment in their future.

While it must have been difficult for students to be separated by the Sydenham River from old classmates and the school of their siblings, mothers and grandfathers, when the first 304 gathered at West Hill for the opening assembly on September 6, 1960, the principal's assistant reminded them that "it is people who make a school."

By 1997, Ontario was deep in its "common sense revolution". School boards were amalgamated under the Fewer School Boards Act, and the Bruce County and Grey County Boards had to deal with each other's local priorities – school maintenance, kindergarten, French Immersion, among others. The highly protested Bill 160, the Education Quality Improvement Act, also passed in that year, transferring the control of much of the most important aspects of education from locally elected trustees to the provincial Ministry of Education.

The change that may be most germane to our current situation in Owen Sound was the removal of any local powers of taxation for education. The rationale was that the province could most fairly distribute education funding, based on a per student formula that would assure that no school in an affluent municipality would be favoured, nor schools in poorer communities be shortchanged. Funding began to be given out in "envelopes" for transportation, maintenance, salaries, etcetera.

The latest OSCVI was built in the early days of the Harris funding formula. Every square foot per student mattered, and the Ministry was reminding the Board that the "double cohort" (grade 12 and 13 in the building) was very time limited and they must build for the future – that is, for lower enrolment. The "V" in OSCVI was seriously restricted under the funding rules, and vocational workshops were dropped from the plans. Hallways were narrowed, and a useful auditorium would have been impossible without the support of the Alumni Association, to whom the Bluewater Board continues to express its thanks at every opportunity. That auditorium also explains the outsize parking lot that cannot be included in any expansion plan because it is needed for symphony and other show nights.

The funding formula has been tweaked and altered under the Liberals, but as school enrolments decline, the Ministry expects School Boards to make the necessary adjustments so that the taypayers across the province are not buying portables in Peel while they pay for heating, insurance and maintenance of half-empty schools in rural Ontario. The Ministry punishes School Boards with empty classrooms by reducing the discretionary funds – no more than 4 % of the total budget - over which local trustees still have control. The small amount the Board can use to top up the special education budget, or contribute to the Outdoor Education Centre, will be gone if the trustees do not act to dramatically reduce the number of surplus spaces in 2016-17.

On the positive side, since 2003 over 750 new schools have been built in Ontario including several in Bluewater, replacing aging buildings with modern, energy-efficient facilities. The investment in replacing schools built before computers and present building codes means better learning and working environments for students and staff. Several significant health, safety and efficiency improvements have resulted in more productive use of technology and reduction in maintenance, renewal, insurance and energy costs.

The history of education in Owen Sound has been one of change that has followed the demographics of the city and politics both local and provincial. This year the Bluewater Board has followed a process laid out by the Ministry of Education and their own policy, and elected trustees will make their decision based on what they believe to be the best interests of all 17,000 students in their 52 schools in 17 municipalities. Whatever the decision, the staff will immediately start the work of transition, and we as a community will have our own work to do.

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