By Karen Matthews, North Bay
Parents, students, staff, and community members have enjoyed some degree of relief since the Board meeting on March 27th, during which the Near North District School Board [NNDSB] tasked Director of Education Jackie Young with the costing of two secondary school consolidation scenarios in an attempt to justify the altered Accommodation Review Committee’s [ARC]’s recommendation. While the ARC recommended - in June of 2017 - keeping West Ferris Secondary School [WFSS] and Widdifield Secondary School [WSS] open, in September the Board of Trustees instead voted to keep WFSS and Chippewa Intermediate and Secondary School [CISS] open.
As some of the data that supports the Board’s altered CISS/WFSS decision has been incorrectly collected, transferred, and/or utilized, the decision to contract independent sources to provide accurate and up-to-date figures - so that the community and the Ministry can rest assured they are making informed and fiscally responsible choices and recommendations - is a refreshing and positive step towards transparency.
While the NNDSB employs a Prime Consultant (Architect), a Project Manager of Capital Builds, a Superintendent of Business, and a Principal of Capital Planning - each of whom has a portfolio consisting of a wide range of skills and experience - costing such as is required in this situation should rightfully be prepared by non-Board employees (or family members of them) so that there is no conflict of interest. The aforementioned Board employees already have deliverables and expecting them to provide detailed - and accurate - costings in one month’s time is an unreasonable request.
The task of costing the moving of programs in their entirety, complete with top-grade facilities, and not piecemeal over five or six years - as the public has been assured will happen - is a job in and of itself; it’s no easy task to transport programs to CSS or WFSS exactly as they exist at WSS, or to WSS and WFSS exactly as they exist (or don’t) exist at CSS by September of 2019, after all. The details of the independent costing (ie. dollar value of finishes/facilities/amenities) vs a lump-sum total will help us to understand the apples to apples comparison of each scenario and will be greatly appreciated by those of us anxiously awaiting a reconciliation towards public accountability.
This was an opportunity for the NNDSB to get it right and constituents who voted the Trustees in, taxpayers and families, along with the Municipality and the Ministry , appreciate that they have been pro-active in making an attempt to prove their altered decision is indeed the best bang for their buck by outsourcing the job to experienced independent consultants. Bravo!
Wait...they have, haven’t they? Outsourced?
