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Parents concerned with fate of local schools

'We’ve got these signs made up that we’ve been plastering all over the province saying local schools matter.'
Felicia Fehey KAS
Felicia Fehey addresses the Accomodation Review Committee which is looking at closing some city's schools.

Over a hundred people turned out to hear concerned parents speak to the Accommodation and Review Committee (ARC) at W. J. Fricker School Tuesday evening about the fate of North Bay’s High Schools.

One parent, also an educator, said students would receive the best resources in a new super school. Other speakers called for the option of refurbishing West Ferris and Chippewa for grades 7-12 in the so-called Alternative Proposal 4.

See: 'The decision you make will impact public education and North Bay for the next 50-60 years'

The first speaker, Nick Green, is concerned with traffic congestion if a mega-school were to be built on the site of Chippewa High School. Green is a Stones Street resident who has trouble travelling Chippewa, High and O’Brien Streets each school day between 2:30-3:30 pm. He says it can take four green lights at the intersection on Cassells Street to get through, and calls for a traffic study on the proposal.

City of North Bay’s Managing Director of Community Services John Severino is on the ARC. Later in the two-hour meeting, Severino pointed out that the municipality would require a traffic study done by the Near North District School Board which would then share costs if any road infrastructure needed fixing.

A parent of students in Alliance French Immersion Public School voiced loyalty to the French Immersion program moving to West Ferris to keep the school running in a two-high school option. The letter was anonymously submitted to ARC with the author writing that she or he is an employee of the board.

One woman rallied the crowd to not accept any proposal, and to say no to any schools closing at all. Felicia Fahey came all the way from Dowling to offer her experience with Sudbury’s threat to close 12 schools. Fahey is an OPSEU member who started a parent’s alliance with the Our Local Schools Matter Campaign after learning that Ontario wanted to close 630 schools.

She started to get involved in September of last year.

“Everything was announced August 30th and we got a final decision on February 7th.  The kids rallied both high schools and it wasn’t anything to do with the parents. Student councils were behind it a 100%. All of the students had spirit wear. They went to all of the communities. They had posters made up. The businesses put in their store fronts that they support our local high schools. It was incredible. It made the community really come together.” The two high schools stayed open.

She was alerted that the Near North District School Board was going through the same thing. Fahey first addressed the ARC committee then turned and spoke in the direction of the seated attendees made up of parents, teachers and retired educators.

“We’ve got these signs made up that we’ve been plastering all over the province saying local schools matter. There is still a chance as there’s been a lot of mobilizing. On Friday I just started the Facebook page. There is about two-hundred people on there now and it’s going to grow over the next few days.

“There is always a chance. The trustees’ final decision isn’t until June 27th. The trustees will decide on what is necessary so the amount of pressure that is put on them from today until June 27 is what’s really crucial.”

Fahey said her husband is from North Bay and her step-daughter attended W. J. Fricker.

ARC meets again today, to discuss concerns and questions raised in Tuesday night’s meeting.

On May 8th, the ARC will convene for a working meeting and then vote. Fourteen out of the 17 ARC members need to vote to receive a consensus of 75%. If a tie-breaker is needed, only the student and parent representatives will vote.

However, the final decision is still up to the trustees.


KA Smith

About the Author: KA Smith

Kelly Anne Smith was born in North Bay but wasn’t a resident until she was thirty. Ms.Smith attended Broadcast Journalism at Canadore College and earned a History degree at Nipissing University.
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