THUNDER BAY – The public school board is giving members of the community an opportunity to respond to its plan to close a number of schools within the next two years, though many feel the decision has already been made.
Fewer than 100 people attended the Lakehead Public School Board’s first accommodation review committee public information session on their south-side renewal plan, which was held Thursday evening at Westgate Collegiate and Vocational Institute.
The plan, which was publicly revealed in February, would amalgamate the existing south-side public high schools with the closure of Sir Winston Churchill Collegiate and Vocational Institute resulting in all students attending Westgate Collegiate and Vocational Institute starting in September 2017.
In addition, the board would shutter Agnew H. Johnston Public School and Edgewater Park School with a new elementary school built on the Churchill site that would open in September 2018. Kingsway Park Public School and Hyde Park Public School would be consolidated.
The board projects the plan to save more than $12 million in school renewal costs as well as $500,000 in annual operating deficits that would be a result of the provincial government eliminating top-up funding for schools running at less than capacity.
Ken Ranta, the father of a recent Churchill graduate as well as a current Grade 10 Churchill student, said he hopes the opinion of community members will factor into the process. He said he has heard from his daughters and a few of her peers that many students believe their school’s closure is inevitable.
“I would hope that the administration’s proposal as we’ve seen it tonight isn’t presented to the trustees with the statement ‘and we received public input, here’s our report,’” Ranta said. “We’d like to see public input incorporated, a number of those options flushed out and trustees have choices to make in where they’re going to take their decision.”
Board superintendent of education Sherri-Lynne Pharand said the feedback received by the accommodation review committee, which is comprised of administrators, teachers, support staff and students from the affect schools and will be considered going forward.
“This is the first of a process of input sessions and absolutely the decision has not been made and will be made by trustees in October,” she said.
Heather Lewis, a Grade 9 student at Churchill, was the lone student to address the meeting. In an interview after the meeting, she said her family members are proud Churchill graduates and she made the choice to attend that school and does not want to have to relocate halfway through high school.
“I feel quite accepted at my school. The idea of moving to a school where there are several hundred new people I’d have to get used to being around and knowing, I think that would also cause complications because I wouldn’t people and I wouldn’t feel comfortable with everyone I would be around,” she said.
Ranta is also concerned that under the proposal his daughter would be spending her Grade 12 year in a brand new school with new teachers and a new student body and the change could have an adverse impact on her academic performance.
“The atmosphere, the camaraderie and the environment are going to be very different and for a person finishing their final year where marks are ultimately important and you have to have all your focus on finishing your school year I’m going to suggest that’s an unnecessary burden we don’t want to put on our students,” Ranta said.
Other concerns included ensuring students receive the same athletic opportunities as there are with both schools, the relocation of the International Baccalaureate program and the continuation of the French immersion program in the new elementary school.
The north side meeting will be held next Monday at Superior Collegiate and Vocational Institute, beginning at 6:30 p.m.
