Guelph-Eramosa Mayor Chris White is urging the Minister of Education to act as soon as possible to prevent – or at least delay – the closure of up to 246 Ontario schools.
White is one of ten executive board members of the Community School Alliance (CSA), which is calling on minister Kathleen Wynne to implement a “smart moratorium” on 146 Ontario schools that may close this year, and another 100 currently undergoing accommodation reviews.
“This is a huge issue,” White told the Advertiser recently. “It’s going to play a big role in the next election.”
Indeed, over 200 municipal leaders attended the first meeting of the CSA during the annual Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference last month in Ottawa.
The alliance met with Wynne on Aug. 18 to discuss the “urgent need” for the moratorium” for disputed school closures.
Executive committee members expressed concern with the closure of 16 Ontario schools last year, and called the entire process flawed because the concerns of the public and municipalities are ignored and school boards have absolute power, with no opportunity for anyone to appeal their decisions. White explained the CSA feels schools are far more than just bricks and mortar used during school hours only 10 months of the year.
In most places, particularly rural areas, schools represent “valuable public infrastructure” and green spaces and often serve as the social and recreational hub of a local community, White said.
As an example, he cited the recent closure of the public school in Marden as a major blow to that community.
In response to the issues raised by the CSA, Wynne discussed her newly drafted policy entitled Encouraging Facility Partnerships, which aims to “encourage school boards to work with their community partner in order to maximize opportunities to share facilities.”
Doug Reycraft, Mayor of Southwest Middlesex, and chairman of the CSA, replied, “While the draft policy is an important step forward, it falls short of recognizing the urgency of finding a solution to the current schools crisis.”
After the meeting, White said, “We made some progress during our meeting with minister Wynne, but we have a long way to go and we will continue to build the momentum of our alliance until the minister implements a smart moratorium on disputed school closures in Ontario.”
The goal of the smart moratorium, he explained, is to provide time for the ministry, school boards, and municipalities to work together to develop the following:
– policies addressing issues such as planning for declining enrollments;
– a mutually agreed upon accommodation review committee process;
– a review of funding to rural and small community schools; and
– a working relationship between municipalities and school boards that provides transparency and accountability.
A copy of the full presentation to Wynne is available at the CSA website at www.communityschoolsalliance.ca.
