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Central’s fate back on docket

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In Barrie
Dec 5th, 2010
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Barrie Examiner November 30 2010
A second public meeting to discuss the fate of Barrie’s only downtown high school will be held tonight.
Simcoe County District School Board planners would like to close Barrie Central Collegiate in June 2012 due to deteriorating infrastructure and accessibility issues.
In October 2008, the board identified Central as a top priority. Last February, board trustees passed a motion to strike an accommodation review committee (ARC) to discuss the city’s five high schools: Central, Barrie North, Innisdale, Bear Creek and Eastview.
Tonight’s meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the gymnasium at Barrie North Collegiate, located at 110 Grove St. E.
Delegations include Barrie mayor-elect Jeff Lehman, Jack Garner, Eleanor Alexander, Gail White, Alison MacDougall and Lynn Therien.
Members of the public can also ask questions and make comments during an open panel format.
The board wants to open a new high school in 2015 in the southeast part of Barrie, where the population is exploding, although there is no funding. Enrolment is declining downtown, so there’s no plan to build a new school there.
ARC members had their first meeting Sept. 21. A final report is due to the board by March 2.
According to the board, it would cost $6.5 million to fix up Central, plus another $22 million to $26 million for other projects over the next decade. It would cost approximately $27.5 million to demolish Central and build a new school on the same property.
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Upcoming Dates
Second public meeting — Tuesday
Working sessions — Dec. 7 and Jan. 4
Third public meeting — Jan. 25
Working sessions — Feb. 1 and Feb. 15
Fourth public meeting — Feb. 22
Working session — March 1
Deadline for ARC report — March 2

Passionate plea
By IAN MCINROY BARRIE EXAMINER December 1 2010
Barrie Central Collegiate students past and present were vehement about finding ways to save the downtown school during an accommodation review committee (ARC) meeting Tuesday night at Barrie North Collegiate.
It was the second of four public meetings planned.
While the ARC is looking at all five Barrie public high schools — Barrie Central, Barrie North, Innisdale, Bear Creek and Eastview — much of the meeting’s attention was focused on the future of Central Collegiate.
Barrie Central Grade 12 student Lynn Therien told ARC members she doesn’t want to go through the same agony with her high school that she went through with her elementary school.
“I was a student at Prince of Wales Public School from Grade 5 to Grade 8. I tried to show as much support as I could to keep the school open,” she said, after she and fellow Grade 12 student Alison Mac-Dougall played a spirited video in support of their school for the ARC committee. “I was absolutely heartbroken when I found out all my efforts went towards nothing. I would be devastated if I had to go through the same disappointment again.
“There is so much positive energy in the hallways (of Central). Taking apart a community like this would be like destroying a family,” Therien said.
MacDougall said if students could come up with some ideas during their own brainstorming sessions, hopefully the ARC can too.
“For example, looking to the government to provide funding for new environmentally friendly furnaces, asking for accessibility grants, turning Central into a specialization school, partnerships with local businesses, a kindergarten to Grade 12 school. The list goes on,” she said.
Mayor-elect Jeff Lehman asked ARC members to keep their minds open to options, alternatives and possible partnerships that would allow Barrie Central to remain on the same downtown site.
After the Simcoe County Board of Education passed a motion in February 2010 to look at partnerships as an alternative to closure, the city submitted a letter of intent indicating its interest in discussing partnerships to keep the facility open.
“This could include a role in Fisher auditorium or the sports facilities,” he said, including Red Storey Field, Central’s football field, which is owned by the city. “There are a number of great possible ways to rebuild or renovate Central that could keep the high school open while benefitting the community.”
Board staff were requested to give ARC members one option to consider at the beginning of the process earlier this year prior to them coming up with other recommendations. The staff option involves closing Barrie Central in June 2012 and redistributing students to the remaining four high schools. Prior to the conclusion of the ARC, the board will be asking for funding for a new secondary school in the south end.
That is not in the best interests of students or the city, Lehman said.
“What makes this a city-wide issue is that the closure option would mean displacing the 1,000 Central students into the other four Barrie high schools, all of which are overcrowded. That is of concern to people all across Barrie,” he said. “It’s not the best option. It will leave a vacant site in the downtown of the city and be an economic blow.
“We (the city) want to be a part of the solution. I believe there are great opportunities to make something great happen on that wonderful site in the centre of the city,” he added.
Jack Garner, who graduated from Central Collegiate in 1953, was a former city alderman from 1965 to 1970 and a former Simcoe County District School Board trustee from 1995 to 1998, also spoke to the committee.
“The big enrolment problem is the remaining four Barrie secondary schools. They are all over 100% utilized. Where will the 926 Central students go? You have no room for them except in more portables.”
Garner said the provincial deficit problem is going to create a very serious budget problem for the board.
“Capital transfer funds are going to be very limited until the end of the recovery legislation in 2017-18 (so) provincial capital and operations funding is your problem. Things are only going to get worse,” he told committee members. “You cannot expect any significant new construction capital funding for up to seven years.
“Current economic and planning figures tell us loud and clear you need, and will continue to need, Central Collegiate as a secondary school in Barrie.”
Board superintendent and ARC chairperson Stephen Blake said the staff option to close Central was made at the beginning of the process and is not necessarily the final option.
“We’re getting information out to the ARC members about conditions of the schools, financial considerations, enrolment trends and intensification of the downtown area. Now that we have this information, we’ll start looking at alternative options,” he said. “It’s really an entire city issue we’re trying to address here.”
The third public meeting will take place on Jan. 25 and a final report is due to the board director by March 2.
Further information about the accommodation review process and the schools under review — and how to submit comments and questions for consideration — is available online at www.scdsb.on.caand is in print at each of the schools under review and at the Midhurst education centre.

 

 

 

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