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Near North District School Board hears final pleas from public in high school closure issue

“In the last two years we have lost $7-million from provincial grants because of the declining numbers. We can know longer afford to wait on this.”

A decision that will have an effect on the city for 40 years or more.

That’s how one presenter described the situation facing the Near North District School Board on Tuesday evening as parents, teachers, and students from both Chippewa and Widdifield spent the night listening to passionate presentations pleading for the trustees and directors of the Board to keep one of the two high schools open.  

There were speakers providing arguments and opinions from both sides, but a recurring theme from the presenters to the Board was, “Don’t make this decision based on emotion, base it on fact.”

Chair of the Near North Board Jay Aspin says that’s what they intend to do as the facts are clear, this process has been a messy one.

“This current Board has been at it for nine months currently reviewing everything,” he says.

“In the last two years, we have lost $7-million from provincial grants because of the declining numbers. We can no longer afford to wait on this.”

“We are more than ready to make a decision,” he added.

The meeting was held to gather more input from the public as the Board nears a firm decision on September 24 regarding the fate of one of these high schools. The original decision was to close Widdifield and keep Chippewa open, while an Accommodations Review Committee suggested the opposite.

The Board made it clear this process was not meant to be the beginning of a brand new ARC, but just a step to be more transparent.

However,  presenter Rebecca Geauvreau says she doesn’t feel that transparency has always been at the forefront. She says, “I understand a school needs to close, I honestly don’t care which one, I just want to make sure it’s the fiscally responsible one and it’s the one that’s right for all of the kids now and into the future.”

Glen Paleczny presented as a concerned parent and his message hit home about the decisions families have had to make due to the indecisiveness of the process. He says, “Both my kids have great peer groups at the schools they're currently at, but those groups will and have been split up based on no decisions being made by the Board.”

“What they have is a great thing here in the city, and if there is some way they can keep the programming and keep it going, then I’m all for it. I understand one school will have to close and I just hope they can take the one facility and not burden the taxpayers by building a large central school.”

Some presentations went back and forth suggesting Widdifield was a better place to expand on upwards, while Chippewa is better because it can be expanded outwards.

Former Trustee Michelina Beam said in her presentation that another part of what made this whole process messy was the opinions of some that were being presented as facts by the general public. She says, “It happened here tonight where people would get up, read their presentation, make statements and now people in the room listening think, ‘'oh that’s the truth’' when in fact it is not.

“When we went through this process, we had three public meetings and information was presented that wasn’t correct and they suddenly became the basis for public opinion.”

Almost every presenter would say something along the lines of “I hope the Board has all the information to make this decision,” while offering different degrees of their own information, but they all brought forth great materials, references which showed they had done background research.

That brings into question how influential a meeting like this can be on the board's decision. Aspin says, “Generally speaking I was pleased that the presenters showed so much passion and enthusiasm toward the board, that’s always nice to see within the community. But really, the name of the game here is, we are re-voting, we are not re-ARCing. So we are not establishing different scenarios or different possibilities. Our mandate has been set to review the decision of the last board.”

Once all the presentations had been made, Director of Education Geoff Botting seemed to say what everyone on the board has been thinking for the past nine months and that is, “I don’t care which school stays open, all we seem to do is ARC and SPARK, it’s time to get back to education. We need to move forward and build a better system.”

Aspin closed the portion of the meeting by stating, “We’ll be making a decision on September 24th come hell or high water, and we’ve lost too much money because of this indecisiveness.”


Matt Sookram

About the Author: Matt Sookram

Matthew Sookram is a Canadore College graduate. He has lived and worked in North Bay since 2009 covering different beats; everything from City Council to North Bay Battalion.
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