The councillors support trustee Lynn Campbell's move to extend the enrolment-increasing deadline to 2014. It would be an extension to the board's original vote to give the community until this coming school year to increase population (which it hasn't been successful in doing).
The board is slated to shut down the Virgil school by the end of the next school year if its enrolment doesn’t climb to at least 350 students by Oct. 31, 2009. Current enrolment is about 100 shy of that mark.Grr... I dislike in-camera meetings, period. However, supporters of the school may be able to take some comfort that council can only meet in-camera to discuss personnel, legal or property issues. You guess which one is a likely reason for a meeting with trustees about NDSS.
“That’s the one motion we are supporting wholeheartedly,” Niagara-on-the-Lake acting Lord Mayor Terry Flynn said Tuesday, referring to Campbell’s proposal.
“Based on what we think is a very strong business plan, we think we have something that would work.”
Town officials met with several trustees behind closed doors for two hours Monday to discuss the school’s future.
The meeting was organized at the request of the town, which is fighting to keep the school from closing its doors.
Officials are keeping details of what was discussed in the session to themselves, maintaining it was in camera.
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4 comments:
ER -- There are definitely two sides to this story. I live about a mile from NDSS. Don't you believe the hype. The school should be closed. They have no program to speak of, which is why students are not signing up. My granddaughter is going into Grade 12 and would NEVER go there.
And re Eden, I used to teach there. Twenty odd years ago when Eden was taken over by the public system, they "asked" to be a part of NDSS and the locals didn't want any part of it.
So, as I said, while its sad there is no high school left in the community, there is a very reason that is so -- local students have a right to a quality education and with the lack of options at NDSS, they have no choice but to go elsewhere.
And, elsewhere around here is not very far -- in fact no further than many northern students are bussed.
So, kudos to the board members who have had the guts to say "enough is enough."
by the Declining Enrollment Report that was released in March
"The average elementary school has 318 students"
"The average secondary school has 819"
I wonder what statistics school boards are working with and are funded for based on that new information?
Or, should it make a difference?
Should an elementary school of less than 300 close?
The biggest issue is that boards and the Ministry of Education are both doing a poor job of explaining why running elementary schools with fewer than 400 students in southern Ontario is a challenge. For educators and policy wonks, the reasons are legitimate. They just aren't taking the time to explain it properly.
Similarly for high schools.
NDSS is a facility built for over 1,000 students that has a quarter of that attending. The board provides no-cost busing to other schools, which shoots NDSS in the foot and slits its throat at the same time. Until that busing disappears and the 700 high school-aged children in the town are forced to choose free transportation to their community school or out-of-pocket transportation to other schools, efforts by the community will always fail.
I would like to know, why wouldn't she want to go to Niagara District?
As far as I am concerned it seems like it has a better program in which i am looking for than most of the high schools in my choosing.
If it is because of a drug problem or anything, all high schools have drugs.
All im trying to say is, i don't understand how NDSS is a problem for students.
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