The latest meeting in the Huron East-North Perth Accommodation Review brought more group discussion to the table, but no resolution as the deadline for a recommendation quickly approaches.
Held at Listowel Central Public School on Feb. 24, the meeting opened with comments from North Perth deputy mayor Julie Behrns, who said that the closure of any school within the municipality would hurt the chances of future development and the potential to attract new businesses to the area. One of the more passionate speakers was a local resident who saw a problem with having the same representatives at every meeting, when the people who have the final say aren’t in the discussion.
“If the Ministry of Education is potentially closing these schools, they should be standing here to say why it is,” he said.
He went on to say that the ARC committee needs to face the fact that the debate has always been about the money, and always will be about the money.
“Let’s get on the money track and see who made the mistakes and find out why we can’t pay our bills,” he said. “If the bills weren’t paid properly, someone needs to take responsibility.”
For the first time, ARC committee members were able to look at the Renewal Capital Asset Planning Process (ReCapp) data for each school under review. Avon Maitland District School Board information and reporting analyst Hugh Cox explained the Facility Condition Index (FCI) gives a percentage to each school that determines when the building would be too expensive to repair, with a lower percentage being favoured.
“Being close to 30 per cent within our board is a pretty good number,” Cox said.
Cox said the benchmark within the AMDSB is a 60 per cent FCI to decide that it’s cheaper to build a new building than repair the existing one.
Within the six schools under review, Listowel Central shows the highest FCI rating of 40.28 per cent, while Wallace Public School’s FCI is 26.31 per cent at the opposite end. The waters are muddied somewhat by the renewal costs for each school, which are updated differently than the FCI. Using that data, Wallace is estimated at costing $1,179,000 in the next 10 years, compared to $267,349 in the same time for Eastdale Public School. Further, Elma Township Public School tops the category for replacement cost at $7,142,480.
“It’s not a simple matter of what something is worth versus what’s needed to replace the building,” Cox said.
It was decided that those in attendance would be broken into smaller discussion groups at that point in hopes of generating more public input. Chairperson Mike Ash said the groups met for 30 minutes and came back with some good comments, plus  an overall understanding that something would eventually have to be done.
“There were differences of opinion over which individual schools would be considered for closure, but also understanding that the status quo is not an option,” Ash said.
With the final ARC meeting scheduled for March 3 at Elma Public School, the time for the committee to make a recommendation to the trustees is running out. Ash said he feels there’s a general agreement between the North Perth and Huron East members, but that’s where it ends.
“I think there’s a difference of opinion between North Perth and Huron East, and both sides of the issue will be heard by the trustees,” he said. “I don’t think there will be a single recommendation that will satisfy all the members of the ARC.”