On Air Now

World's Best Music

1:00am - 5:30am

Now Playing

TAYLOR SWIFT

IS IT OVER NOW (TAYLOR'S VERSION)

Download

Opposition to School Closures

Member of North-West Oxford Elementary ARC says there's growing opposition in Ontario, particularly among TVDSB municipalities, to planned school closures.

ZORRA TOWNSHIP -- Despite a near 100,000 student enrolment drop provincially over the past decade, one local township has decided to back another's request for a resolution to put a moratorium on school closures in Ontario.

Recently, the Township of Penetanguishene asked other Ontario municipalities to support their resolution opposing rural school closures.  Oxford's Zorra Township was one such municipality who passed a motion of support, something which Marcus Ryan, a member of the Thames Valley District School Board's North West Oxford Accommodation Review Committee, hopes will catch on in other municipalities.

"This one came up independently from the municipality of Penetanguishene along the same lines and I think it reflects a growing sense throughout mainly rural Ontario, but the process is not really working as is, it's not really serving communities and children the way it was supposed to. "

Zorra Township Council decision to endorse the resolution supports a call for a review of funding for small town Ontario schools by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Rural Affairs.  Zorra's own A.J. Baker Public School is one such school which many parents are hoping to avoid closing.

Ryan, who's children also attend A.J. Baker, feels the idea of declining enrolment justifying rural school closures isn't telling the whole story.  Ryan says schools with an Accommodation Review Committee in place, (similar to A.J. Baker) end up losing out on adding prospective students despite being at or above capacity.  He says parents simply hearing a school may close and having an ARC in place will end up deciding to send their kids elsewhere.

"If you threaten to close a school for long enough, people will make housing choices based on that, and then the board turns around and says, 'Hey there's not as many people going there, we have to close it.'  Luckily for us, and the case at A.J. Baker, even though we know of people avoiding it -- our attendance is still going up."

Ryan believes any school closures decided today will lead to higher building costs tomorrow.

"Not only would they have to build new schools, but they'd have to acquire property again in those areas which is now more expensive and not just in the cities, but farm land is also more expensive.  They've got to go back now and acquire land and build new school in areas where there were schools to begin with -- and in the meantime untold damage is has been done to communities."

Ryan says many other municipalities have passed similar resolutions in addition to one passed late last year by other local municipalities within Oxford County.

Ontario has lost more than 100,000 students over the last decade, which has led to hundreds of school closings and mergers province wide.

Parents are concerned a very large section of Zorra Township would be left unserviced by a public school if A.J. Baker were to close, forcing students to longer bus commutes to as many as three different outlying schools.

Last year, TVDSB Administration proposed closing A.J. Baker Public School which, arguing it could cost at least $500,000 a year in operational costs to keep the school open.

A.J. Baker has a large play area, state-of-the-art playground equipment, wheelchair accessibility, smartboards in every classroom and a resource-rich library.

The fight to save A.J. Baker from closing enters a new phase next month when ARC Chair and local Trustee Graham Hart is scheduled to present recommendations to the Thames Valley District School Board.

More from Local News

Comments

Add a comment

Log in to the club or enter your details below.
Rating *

Weather

Recently Played