IMPORTANT, INFO ~Michele McDonald

Hello All,

Just wanted to fill you in on last night's meeting regarding the CENARC and what was being said.

Mike Ash addressed certain points of the delegations from the previous meeting and here are some highlights:

1. EQAO results: unfair picture, the board is doing well. If 2 students are sick on the day the test is administered, it can throw off the entire result by 13%. One of the trustees commented (I believe it was Tina Traschel) said "it's one day with a child sitting at their desk." It's not really a measure of how they are doing. Other trustees nodded, which leads me to believe EQAO results good or bad will have no bearing on their decision.

2. The fact that Madill was not named in the review: He says by their guidelines they don't have to be. They are a receiving school and less than 50% of their population is unaffected. So this concern is unfounded. Mr. Doherty referred to the Mitchell Accommodation Review where the highschool was named because it was a receiving school and not meant for closure and it caused "confusion" and people were defending it when there was no need to because it wasn't going to close. So from there they learned and decided to keep the receiving school out of it.

3. The fact that, even in the earliest of meetings the possibility of 7&8's in high school was brought up and discussed so the ARC was aware this was a possibility. (That's when the board staff put in their ear plugs when the public stood up and said"No!")Ernest Dow wrote and I concure:"At tonight's AMDSB meeting an interesting document was released - the "PTR (Prohibitive To Repair, now known as Local Priorities) Template" for NE & NW Huron Area - see pp.4-6 of attached PDF file. AMDSB staff submitted this by October 31/08 (Halloween!) with subsequent revisions.

So back then, nearly 2 weeks before our first official ARC meeting at Hullett Nov.13/08, staff were applying to the Ministry for funding for a "North West Huron Elementary School" involving closure of Blyth, E Wawanosh, and Turnberry, to build a new JK-6 school on the Turnberry site, with Gr 7-8s going to FE Madill. Phase 1 of the new school would have 341 pupil places, 16 classrooms, cost $5.6M. Phase 2 would add Brussels JK-6, add 222 pupil places, for a total of 563 pupil places, 25 classrooms, cost $9.2M overall.Results in terms of funding approved by the Ministry are expected about June 12. If funding is approved, my understanding is it would have to be spent substantially according to the proposal submitted - AMDSB's hands are tied. For a scenario that digressed from the submission (eg NMECE), the Board would probably not get any of the $9M - and have to come up with the money elsewhere.

"So where do we go from here? I am asking all the members to write to the MPP for starters. Let's flood their office with our concerns. One being the closure of Blyth for no fiscally or morally sound reason. Another being the ARC process and the board's disregard for public opinion. (all 3 recommendations included 7&8's in high school when we said NO from day 1). Also, their premature application for funding which shows their premeditation and intent to do their own thing anyway. It should be noted to our MPP that parents feel that age 11 and 12 is too young for high school regardless of this proceeding.

Here is Carol Mitchell's email address:cmitchell.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org

I will also post a link to the Legislative Assembly where the office address and phone # are listed.

PLEASE write to her and let her know your concerns!

Lastly, I was trying to think about how to solve the high school's issue of declining enrolment without using our little kids. It isn't that I (we) don't care about the high school students. My kids will be there. So lets be productive. At the May 12 meeting it was questioned why the Adult education was in a building downtown and not at the high school. So why is that? So what could we put in the high school to appropriately fill it? A specialized program, such as a chef school? I will be opening up a discussion on the main page of Save Blyth Public School so you can help find solutions.

Thanks to you all for your support,

Michele