Four Oakville schools to close, one to open

It had all the emotional edge of an election campaign. Lawn signs. Rallies. Petitions. Letter-writing blitz. Newspaper ads – and claims of dirty tricks.
But this was no battle for political power; it was a fight for school survival.

In an unanimous vote before a standing-room crowd of about 100 parents, the Halton District School Board's 11 trustees voted last night to close four elementary schools with declining enrolment, but open a new school in the Clearview neighbourhood of east Oakville, ending a process that has pitted neighbourhoods against each other for nearly two decades.

"I'm in tears, I'm so happy – my toddler will be part of the first junior kindergarten class in the new Clearview school," said Denise O'Connell, whose Grade 1 daughter is now bused to Maple Grove Public School.

Facing a 200-child drop in enrolment in this corner of Oakville over the next seven years, the board voted to close Brantwood, Linbrook, Chisholm and New Central School by September 2010 and open an English-language school from junior kindergarten to Grade 8 in Clearview, on a plot of land that has been set aside for a new school since the development opened nearly 20 years ago.

As well, the board voted to keep open E.J. James School for English-language students from junior kindergarten to Grade 8, and have Maple Grove School become French immersion from grades 1 to 8.

Other parents were like Lesley Hillis, whose daughter attends Chisholm, who said she was "disappointed and confused about how the board can justify spending money to open a new school when enrolment is declining."

Fuelled both by declining enrolment and parental passion, the debate about which schools to close in Oakville became so charged the director of education chastised parents for "misguided lobbying."

Parent Robert Kulik agreed with that description.
"When parents stuck signs on school property saying, `Say no to big-box schools!' and `This school slated to close!' where kids could see them and get worried, the whole thing went too far," said Kulik, one of the hundreds who supported the new Clearview school.

The battle isn't unique to Oakville. With 63,000 fewer students across most of Ontario than five years ago – and 72,000 more expected to vanish from the rolls by 2013 – such neighbourhood dramas loom in almost every school board.

In Clearview, parents wanted a 500-student school built next to a large park, soccer fields and baseball diamond.

But to open it meant closing four others, where parents also launched email and phone campaigns on trustees and politicians, and bought an ad in the Oakville Beaver newspaper, decrying a possible "mass public school closure" in favour of "big box" schools.

Parents on both sides were surprised trustees rejected the recommendation of a 41-member community group that had consulted on the issue for 10 months. But board chair Gillian Tuck Kutarna said trustees were not bound by those recommendations. The decision was made in part because schools of 500 are said to be an ideal size for providing a full range of programs.

The new plan is expected to yield a surplus of $1.9 million and generate three schools of about 500 students each. They will each qualify for a principal, vice-principal and special education teachers.

Education and Learning, for a Bright Future