The first public input meeting will be held Wednesday October 02, 2013 between 7:30 and 9:00 p.m. at Spencer Valley Elementary School (441 Old Brock Rd., Greensville)
A preparatory working group meeting will immediately precede the public meeting. It will be held from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at the school.
This is the first of four public input meetings the closure committee will hold.
Five schools under review
The West Flamborough Committee will review the boundaries and futures of five elementary schools:
- Beverly Central
- Greensville
- Dr. John Seaton
- Millgrove
- Spencer Valley
Small Schools or a Larger School
The West Flamborough review is the largest by geographical area, and one of the smallest by number of students.
The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board has too few students for the number of elementary schools in the area, and expected in ten years to have 400 excess student spaces with a projection of 636 elementary students between the five schools.
This presents a dilemma: does the school board close a school and maintain four small schools or build a new school for the 600 students in line with the optimum elementary size of between 500 to 600 students.
Provincial policy does not allow the School Board to have excess space and there are penalties for Boards that fail to close school.
To meet provincial policy, the Board must change the school mix in the area by either closing or consolidating.
School Closure Committees
Instead of using the word closure to describe the process, the HWDSB uses an euphemism and called the process an “Accommodation Review” and forms “Accommodation Review Committees” or ARCs to decide which schools are closed.
The size of the West Flamborough committee is 25 people – five from each school. Each school gets a two parent council representatives, a non-parent council representative, a teaching representative and a non-teaching representative.
Report due between January 27 and February 24, decision this Spring
The closure committee will present its recommendation to the School Board’s Director of Education between January 27 and February 24 with the Board’s decision to follow closely thereafter.
West Flamborough HWDSB website
The HWDSB provides background on the schools and closure process for West Flamborough. The Board will post all documents on this webpage as well.
Bookmark it: http://www.hwdsb.on.ca/elementaryarc/west-flamborough/
Coverage of Closure Process
I’ve committed to you that I will cover the process, including livestreaming the final public meetings.
For more on this committment, please read “Coverage of HWDSB School Closures Process: My Committment to You“.
Feature Photo: 1920 Class Photo at the old Greensville School (HWDSB Archives)