It has been 10 years since the upheaval of amalgamation, the cuts, the staffing shifts, the loss of community use of schools and a dozen other items that make up a school system. I think it is time to review what has happened: changes in curriculum, declining enrolment, changes in the understanding of children’s learning and the loss of school accessibility for local groups in our communities.

Some people’s way of dealing with changes and complexities and pressures is to have a ward wide meeting about school closures and school sales and the complexity of being too big and call it “Programme and Facilities Revitalization” My father would have called it “high fallutin” talk and I agree. Change in our system is seldom seen as an opportunity but as a problem or a catastrophe. To me, this is a fabulous chance to review where we are and where we need to go. If we’ve got lemons, let’s make lemonade and not a sour face!!

So our local superintendents and I have come up with a different plan. Our Ward’s enrolment is declining at a very gradual rate and we are not in danger of school closures, so we are setting a series of school based meetings in a process called “My School Review”. A video link will support and explain how the process will work. We need to explore all sides of the issues if we are to make good decisions for the good of our schools and our communities.

Every Elementary school community will spend the next several months deciding what they want their school to look like over the next 10 to 15 years. To aid each community in the process we will be providing a cadre of helpers who are experts in a specific field. There will be a facilitator, a community worker, an outside expert on school issues, a parent advocate and a community advocate in each of the 4 parts of the ward.

The review will look at school programmes - Not Facilities!

There are 4 criteria:

1. We must reach Consensus in the community
2. We must respect the Ontario Curriculum guidelines
3. We must respect all ideas as welcome and worth respect
4. We may not talk about the buildings

For example, some schools may decide to return to a Kindergarten to Grade 8 school, become a music focused school, a green school – inside and out. Every school community will create the kind of school they want. There are provincial curriculum requirements, I’m sure you know – but within those requirements is room for many variations. Whatever happened to manual training, sewing and cooking – all those great shop classes where you learned “Life Skills”?

My School Review is not just for parents, teachers and students. It’s for everyone. That school down the street is yours – you pay for it. Just because you don’t have kids doesn’t mean it isn’t yours and you shouldn’t use it.

Check my web site www.trusteesheila.com for regular up-dates on the progress and for meeting dates and times.