It's been a while since I've posted on the continuing Niagara District Secondary School / Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake developments-- but not because there haven't been any.
Two things from the Niagara Advance (that, as is its prerogative, has remained solidly pro-NDSS) this week, a council meeting-based article and an opinion piece, both penned by Penny Coles. Both are based on town council giving its approval to a revised draft of a brief for the Ministry of Education, specifically for Minister Leona Dombrowsky. The linked version here shows the revisions with strikeouts and underlines.
I don't see too many changes of substance since it was first tabled earlier this year. The committee still wants the province to force the school board to reverse a decision set to take effect in September (for which students have already made course selections) so a new school (still called a "Centre of Excellence in Education," a name that makes me giggle since it sounds like the "award for outstanding achievement in the field of excellence," a la Simpsons) can be built in the town. I posted about the first draft here.
The coverage notes the committee has softened some of the language with respect to this proposal being dependent on students of both Eden and the Catholic board in order to get the bums in seats for the school to be full.
This brief should have been written in June 2008. But at the time the koolaid in the water left everyone thinking the school would be so popular it would reach the enrolment threshold. Throwing it on the minister's desk tomorrow is regrettably late for her to give it any serious consideration given the building in question closes in just under three months. If she would even consider it-- which, unless I'm way off on how the government has handled school accommodation, she won't.
- Education Reporter
- Cornwall, Ontario, Canada
- I am the managing editor of a small newsroom in Cornwall, Ont., responsible for all our local content online and in print. I have won a Canadian Community Newspaper Award for retelling the story of Winterbourne School, opened in the 19th century and closed in 2003. In addition, I have placed second in the U.S.-based National Education Writers' Association awards for "The ABCs of the EQAO," a five-part series on standardized testing. During the 2010-11 academic year, I was the Gordon N. Fisher Canadian Journalism Fellow at Massey College / University of Toronto, where I had the opportunity to audit several courses at OISE and visit schools in Germany and Finland. I still aspire to be among the best education reporters in Canada.
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The Education Reporter by Hugo Rodrigues is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at blog.educationreporter.ca.
4 comments:
Hugo...what did you think of the Christina Blizzard Article this week in the Sun about Eden and Ndss and Faith based school funding?
cheers
Paolo
dsbn needs to close more high schools, it has 5 in st.catharines. School boards need to eliminate their empty/under utilized space. Declining enrollment is a reality in this region and schools need to close NOW.
NOTL has more principal/secretaries per pupil than most other areas.
High Schools can't operate with 250 kids, the high school aged families parents have made their choice.
if Eden only had 250 kids in NOTL would it be okay?
Public education is not "more taxes, more education" the whole idea years ago was to educate everyone, just because NOTL pays high property tax, it does not give their children the right to ridiculous ratios for principals/secretaries and maintenance on grossly underutilized space. The Minister will have to make a statement, force boards to close small schools (except in true remote locations). Friends Of NDSS would have everyone believe that travelling out of NOTL is ridiculous, but meanwhile parents in this community have pushed for multiple travel teams in all its minor sports, we have a higher number of travel level atheletes in town? we have a bunch of parents who will run their kids all over the golden horseshoe for sports, but criticize a 20 minute bus ride for a quality education. Give me a break.
Eden High School is funded by the Minister of Education and The DSBN
our tax dollars can not fund religion at any Public non Catholic schools.
Our tax dollars pay for Eden Early bus to get kids to morning Church.
Our Tax dollars pay a percentage of the Administrations salaries..Principals,secretaries Etc.
How much time and money is calculated for the caretaker to clean the church at Eden? our public tax dollars are funding Church At Eden High School.
Let every school within the DSBN portfolio offer the same for all religions not just Mennonite Brethren religion.
Jews,Muslims,Bahia,Buddhist,what ever religion should have the same coutesy of tax dollars!
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