The North Perth- Huron East Accommodation Review Committee was left without a clear direction on how to proceed following their recent meeting in Wallace.
Concerned parents and residents packed the Wallace Public School gymnasium for the third official ARC meeting Wednesday night. Committee chair and Avon Maitland District School Board superintendent Mike Ash opened the meeting with a report back on the date extension by the trustees to March 3, which Ash said is the latest possible date to complete the review process.
Josh Alexander was part of a presentation to highlight what Wallace Public School offers to the community of North Perth. Alexander pointed out that Wallace has one of the lowest operating costs of all the schools being reviewed, with increased kindergarten enrolment projected for next year, and Education Quality and Accountability Office standards for Wallace are in most cases better than the board in all categories.
The group of presenters included other Wallace parents like Melissa Craig, who said that the school shares a special relationship with the rest of the community, and the area is attracting a number of young families who want to see their children attend Wallace Public School.
“I feel very strong that this quality of education and community services could not be duplicated anywhere else,” Craig said.
The presentation was wrapped up by Pastor Kurt Reinhart, who likened the rise of big box stores to big box schools as smaller community schools face closure. With each school fighting to stay open, Reinhart said it’s tearing the community apart in competition.
“What little insight I have had into this whole ARC process has distressed me to no end,” he said. “It saddens me to see one community pitted against another in a survival of the fittest mentality.”
Although speaking in support of Wallace, Reinhart said that he was not in favour of any other schools closing due to their great value to each of the communities affected.
“Perhaps, what we all need to do is the next time that we are in that big box store reaching out for that great deal on the shelf, we need to think about this issue and ask ourselves if it really is such a great deal after all,” he said to applause from the crowd.
North Perth councilor Paul Horn also spoke, comparing the community to a table with four legs, and by removing one of those legs and closing a school, the rest falls.
Options for the ARC’s consideration were brought forward from the committee, including North Perth councilor Jeff Bannerman. Bannerman stated that his is a two-fold option that would maintain Brussels Public School and close Grey Central, sending additional students to Brussels and Elma Public School. By putting Elma over capacity, Bannerman said the balance of the students could be sent to Wallace Public.
“There’s no sense in adding students to Listowel when there’s enough capacity here in Wallace,” he said.
Bannerman’s suggestion would also review the borders between LDSS and F.E. Madill in Wingham to alleviate the full classes at Listowel’s high school. Grey community representative Armand Roth objected to the idea of closing Grey, suggesting that moving Grade 7 and 8 from Brussels to Grey would not only free up space for all-day Kindergarten at Brussels, but bring Grey to capacity.
“I think that would achieve something for Brussels and something for Grey,” he said.
Brussels rep Jim Prior said he was opposed to any option that would involve 7 and 8 students moving from Brussels, and Charlie Hoy, also of Brussels, noted that each community is going to putting forth ideas to save their school.
“For us to come to a compromise on something is, I think, unrealistic,” Hoy said.
Grey representative Pam McLellan said that Huron East has already lost four schools in the last 10 years and it was time to look at other options, leading into an option from Prior. Prior recommended closing Wallace school and dividing the students among the other schools under review, as well as Howick. Wallace committee member Bernice Weber-Passchier responded that there’s not enough room in the community to take all of the students from Wallace, and that it will likely leave them in the same situation.
“All of us will be going through the review process again in the next two to three years, and I won’t be on that committee after this,” she said.
Bannerman also commented that extending the borders to Teviotdale would mean students riding the bus longer than the hour or less mandate of the school board to get to the nearest school.
Weber-Passchier’s proposed option from Wallace was to not close any schools, and instead change the borders between Listowel and Wallace. With room for over 330 students at Wallace, Weber-Passchier said the school could handle the overflow of students from Listowel’s schools. When asked if the option was realistic, Ash said it would still be up to the trustees to make a decision.
“If the committee comes forward with a status quo option, it would fall on the trustees and the board to rely on the information they’ve heard at these meetings,” Ash said.
McLellan brought forward several options that she had received from residents, two of which involved closing Wallace Public School and another closing Brussels school. McLellan commented that Wallace remains a candidate for closure due to its low enrollment and it would eliminate the most number of vacant seats.
The next meeting for the ARC will be held at Eastdale Public School on Feb. 3 at 7 p.m.