Concerns aired and ideas conveyed at school meeting

school meeting

Northport parents Colin Rideout (standing) and Alison Dickson help facilitate questions and concerns during a meeting regarding proposed changes to elementary school education in Saugeen Shores during an October 10 meeting at the Plex.

Hub Staff

On October 10 at the Plex, parents and caregivers of two K-8 schools in Port Elgin, Northport Elementary School and École Port Elgin-Saugeen Central School (ÉPESCS), and Saugeen District Secondary School (SDSS) voiced their concerns surrounding Bluewater District School Board's (BWDSB) recent proposal to move Grade 7 and 8 students from the two elementary schools to SDSS beginning September 2019.

The elementary schools are currently sitting at 107% capacity while the high school faces 63% capacity and 10 unused classrooms. The Board feels the extra space could accommodate the Grade 7 and 8 students from Northport and ÉPESCS over a possible six years, until a new education infrastructure is planned and subsequently built.

The current plan for SDSS will see updates to the west wing of the school.

“The art rooms there, the drama room and there are two science labs and those would have to be moved somewhere else in the high school,” said current Saugeen Shores and Arran-Elderslie Board Trustee David Mason, later adding, “according to those programs they would have to reconstruct somehow to make those programs function.”

Some raised concerns of the effects the move of the art and drama rooms would have on students enrolled in the High Skills Major at SDSS, while others worried that construction would not be done in time and would therefore have an impact on thriving programs at the high school.

Mason noted that one of the rooms is a Chemistry Lab, which would have to be rebuilt to certain specifications in another part of the school. He also clarified that the French immersion program would still take place for Grades 7 and 8 students.

Attendees also expressed concern that the meshing of the two schools would take away leadership opportunities the Grade 7 and 8 students would have had as senior students in their respective schools as well as the diminishment of team sport opportunities with an increase in the number of students vying so few spots.

Caregivers also wondered if combining students together from only two of the feeder schools and not including students from GC Huston, Arran-Tara and St Joseph’s would cause added stress when they all come together in Grade 9.

From concerns came ideas with one mother asking if it was possible to move Grades 7 and 8 students to one school while another school takes Kindergarten to Grade 6.

Some wondered about the validity of parent councils working together as one voice, working with the school board during the ongoing planning process. This became a plan of action that ended the meeting of approximately 35 people.

“Any time that you’ve got concerned parents who want to get together and work positively and professionally to make things even better for children, I think that’s just great," said Mason. "That’s exactly what this meeting was tonight," he added.

"People were very on cue, they had great ideas, some solutions and I think if they put that together," said Mason adding that senior administration want what's best for the kids and for these transitions to be as seamless as posisble.

Following the meeting, Parent Council member and mother of three ÉPESCS students Tara Somerville said she believes the move of students could be done well but she would like to see plans in place. “Not just for the physical structure of where people are going to be placed in classrooms but how are they going to maintain the amazing programming that we have that adds to all of our students' education,” she said.

Somerville added that it is a short-term solution to a middle-term problem. “What we need to figure out is where all these kids are going to be sent to school and that another school will probably have to be built in the not-to-distant future," she said, wondering if this was a bandaid solution that will have a six year "very significant" impact on students.