Students, parents rally to save pair of north-side public schools

THUNDER BAY -- The fight to save a pair of north-side public high schools is on.

Students and parents at both Superior Collegiate Vocational Institute and Hammarskjold High School are rallying the troops, an attempt to clear up misconceptions and misinformation about the closure process, which was sent to the accommodation committee review process earlier this year.

Sue Reppard, chairwoman of the parents’ council at SCVI, has two daughters attending the north-side school and would like both to finish their high school careers the same place they started.

One way or the other, under a plan laid out earlier this year by Lakehead Public Schools, students from the two schools are likely to come together as one.

But where that will be remains up in the air.

One option would see the seven-year-old Superior Collegiate turned into an elementary school; the other would see the 54-year-old Hammarskjold closed and students transferred to an expanded SCVI.

What Reppard doesn’t want to see are students being pitted against each other in a public fight.

“Our kids have enough stress in life. We’ve been trying to protect our children as much as possible from this,” Reppard said on Monday outside the Balsam Street school.

“What it’s become is somewhat of a war where there is a winner and a loser and we do not wish to engage in any kind of war. Hammarskjold is a great school as well. What we would like to focus on is what Superior has to offer our children.”

Opened in 2009 at a cost of $32.8 million, Reppard said SCVI has modern amenities in place and can be expanded to a third floor if necessary.

“It was built with innovative infrastructure to teach children about modern technology and to advance them to be able to compete in a modern world,” Reppard said.

A few kilometres away, Choose Hammarskjold Committee chairwoman Cheri Lappage said education is more than just the age of the building.

It’s a more centralized location, with more room to grow and a larger student body.

Despite an operating budget that’s $700,000 more than provincial funding allows, it’s still a viable facility that its students desperately want to remain open.

Her group, which has collected more than 1,000 signatures on an online petition, plans to hold an open house on Thursday evening at Hammarskjold to clear up misinformation about the accommodation review committee, the next step in the closure process.

“We’re finding there is a lot of confusion in the whole school renewal process, what one option versus another option looks like, where people can have input and how these different information sessions are going on,” said Lappage, whose 14-year-old son transferred to Hammarskjold midway through his Grade 9 year.

The effort is all about ensuring students and parents are aware of the process and how to have their voices heard.

“The students are very involved in the process. They were quite shocked and quite upset to hear that Hammarskjold could possibly be closed and asking us how they can help, what they can do to raise their voices,” Lappage said.

Other schools facing possible closure include Sir Winston Churchill Collegiate and Vocational Institute, Agnew H. Johnston Public School, Edgewater Park School, C.D. Howe Public School, St. James Public School and Vance Chapman Public School.
One option also includes the merger of Kingsway Park Public School and Hyde Park Public School.

Students at both north-side high schools left class on Monday to hold impromptu rallies outside their schools.