The Friends of Hensall Public School proposes that South Huron District High School in Exeter be made over into a Kindergarten-to-Grade 12 facility to house students currently going to Exeter Public School.The willingness to consider a different school structure is an important one. Recently, the board serving the Pembroke area took the same step in a school consolidation. It's not uncommon to see these school structures in Northern Ontario (north of, say Sault Ste. Marie - North Bay - Timmins) and in rural and remote areas in other provinces. It's happening in southern Ontario as well-- Woodstock / Oxford County is about to get a K-12 French Catholic school. I'm sure, given how this review is already questioning its leadership its members will give a thorough vetting to the concept and consider it not just as a means of shifting the spotlight from Hensall.
Group Co-Chair Joan Bradley says it makes more fiscal sense for the Board to close Exeter Public than either of the elementary schools in Hensall or Zurich.
Bradley says Exeter Public School is almost 70 years old and has what she calls a patchwork of additions that have been built onto the facility since it opened in 1942.
She says the elementary schools in Hensall and Zurich -- which are in relatively good shape -- should remain open instead of the one in Exeter that would cost 750 thousand dollars to upgrade.
Bradley says there will be 413 empty student spaces at SDHS next year and there will be 313 students enrolled at Exeter Public.
School structure, I've learned over the last decade, is such a personal and group preference based mostly on tradition and how schools were organized when the parents in question were in school. You had a Grade 8 graduation with the corsets and flowers and dance with the 13-year-old valedictorian, you want your kids to experience those milestones as well. It's easy to understand.
It provides some space to look at one of the more common school organizational changes happening in Ontario in recent years, the move to 7-12 schools. Such a conversation and decision is underway in North Bay. Those with memory of some of earliest posts would remember I'm a supporter of the 7-12 model, with the heavy and fulsome full disclosure that I'm a graduate of a 7-OAC school.
While it can be easier to find efficiencies and avoid the headache of having a hundred different school structures, I strongly believe the accommodation review process is an ideal setting for a community to have its say on whether and how it wants to consider alternate school organization for its children. If it makes sense to the largest amount of impacted students, that committee needs to give it serious consideration and then advocate for it among trustees.
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8 comments:
I agree with much that you have said, but the reality is that many solutions proposed by communities are more self-serving than they are educational. In the example you have cited in AMDSB, how do the Exeter parents feel about the proposed "solution" - it solves the issue for Hensall and Zurich, but creates an entirely new one for Exeter. In my previous board similar arguments were frequently made, and they were rarely disinterested ones.
ER - there's also been word that the Huron County Council will be making a presentation to the board in the very near future. You'll recall that the Huron County Council voted unanimously to support the Community School Alliance a few months ago.
Also, the Accommodation Reviews in South Huron have become heated at times, and RetDir. is right in suggesting that the Exeter hasn't responded to the Hensall & Zurich community idea of a K-12 school.There was also a vote passed by that ARC to replace the chair, which was rejected by the board, as well as access to the same legal council the board has - haven't heard about that as yet.
I find that we get varied reporting though. Different reporters select different parts of meetings to report on. It's like a puzzle trying to fit the whole picture together.
CC
Contary to some people's belief a Ministry's Review of a Board's Accommodation Review decision can not change the outcome. Even with knowing this the CENHARC, particularly Blyth PS, of the AMDSB petitioned the Minisrty for a review. The Review report came down in December and as all have sided with the Board.
Anon 17 Jan. 22:40
Yes, you're right and I have pointed that out in the past. I should have been clearer in the original post and will amend to do so. Administrative reviews are just that-- reviews of policy and process.
A judicial review is a different animal.
Hugo
While it is true that a judicial review is a different matter, it still hinges on whether the board offered fair and due process to the parties, and that everyone had a chance to have their opinions aired. The chances of a judicial review succeeding in a case in which an administrative review found that the board had a fair policy and procedure and followed it would be extremely slim - I am not aware of any having been pursued (let alone successfully) since the new process was put in place. Which may be why the municipality in Niagara is reverting to the OMB.
Prior to jumping on the K-12 bandwagon I would encourage those involved in this discussion to closely examine educational research. The decisions being made around the province about school structure should be made with "Educational Best Practices" at the forefront of the decision and the facilities taking a back seat. The Regina District School Board rightly commissioned robust research on "Good Schooling Principals" to be completed prior to undertaking a series of accommodation reviews. One research project was completed by Ken Leithwood of OISE who addressed factors that promote "good schooling". In addition to small class sizes it was determined that elementary schools with less than 500-600 pupils and highschools with between 600-1200 students provide optimal learning environments for their students. The Kitchener Waterloo Board also explored issues of school structure by commissioning research by Wayne Seller of OISE and they concluded that they should move towards eliminating middle schools and moving towards JK-8 schools as providing optimal learning environments. JK-12 schools are prolific in extremely rural areas (particularly south of the border - i'm not sure we should move to emulate the States given their educational record) and have an average total population of 300 students. The people of Avon Maitland should ask themselves is a Jk-12 school providing the best educational opportunities for their children or are the facilites driving the decision????
I would further add that the population of Exeter elementary school of approximately 313 falls well within the recommended school size (according to Leithwood) which will provide the elementary students with the best educational and social learning environments possible. Playing a shell game with elementary students and Uploading elementary students to high schools does not change the funding for the high schools and thus will not impact the programming offered at the high school level. The best programming and hence the best educational opportunities for high school students were found to be in high schools of 600-1200 students. I do not understand why communities are willing to considering sacrificing educational best practices for the saving of bricks and mortar...
Anon from the last two comments:
Thanks for the thoughts— I agree program rationale should not be neglected when considering school structure. There are program and curricular benefits to having elementary (particularly intermediate grades) and secondary students sharing some of the same spaces.
However, facility is driving this consideration— an elementary school in crappy physical condition kept that way because no one is willing to consider the K-12 model doesn't benefit anyone.
Ultimately, it's the people in the building that make the biggest impact, regardless of school size or organization. That has been clear to me throughout my reporting career and the EWA seminar back in the fall.
Hugo
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