My name is Krista Gill. I am a parent of two children at Derby school. I attended the University of Guelph and hold a Bachelor of Adult Education. I am a local Realtor and in my spare time I am the current manager of the Derby School Matters website. I act as the liason person for Derby Supporters to ensure that their voices are heard and that their letters of support are sent to all concerned. I have forwarded 43 letters of Support to the Derby ARC. Of the 43 letters that I have sent, only 7 have been posted on the Derby Accommodation Review page on the Bluewater District School Board website. We, the public have been repeatedly advised that the Accommodation Review process is to have open communication. I find it very discouraging that our volunteers, we are able to keep the public more informed than those who are to be assisting us through this process, and dishonest that we were not informed that the letters that were collected and distributed by the volunteers were unacceptable to post in the format that we sent them. I have chosen to present a summary of findings from a “Study of Relationships between Boards of Education and Rural Communities during a period of School Consolidation”. This study was titled “Negotiating Rural Futures” and was prepared by Maureen McCallum and Dr. Al Lauzon from the University of Guelph. The link is located on the resources page on our website and I will be encouraging the trustees to read it and consider the recommendations made. The study first identified that “the consideration of rural, as a variable in the development of educational policy in Ontario continues to be ignored”, and that “restructuring assumes no difference between rural and urban educational needs values, and generally disregards rural lifestyle, tradition, local knowledge and meaning. ” The objective of the study was to explore the impact that periods of school reviews, such as the one we are participating in today, have on rural communities and their relationship with their respective Boards of Education. A multiple cross case analysis was studied on 4 different communities that had recently been part of a review. Of the 4 cases that were explored, 2 were public schools, and 2 were secondary schools, 1 of each was closed and the other was spared. They collected data from a large cross section of people involved including community members, students, teachers, retirees, trustees, and board staff. The full study consists of 50 pages of informative and specific case studies on each school. A summary of their findings highlights 4 main themes. Rural Communities that have participated in a review found: 1. Destruction of their school community. 2. Destruction of the community infrastructure. 3. Destruction of the relationships between the community and the Boards of education.
4. Destruction of the regional communities as they are forced to compete against one another in an attempt to save their own school. I think that everyone one of us here today can concur that we have already experienced or seen the impact that this accommodation review is having on us, our families, our community, and the communities around us. I can honestly say that I am becoming less and less confident that we can make a difference. As I read the growing literature it becomes evident that the policies are where the changes need to be made. The outcome of other previous Accommodation Reviews, are hard to overlook. I am hopeful that our trustees will take into consideration the recommendations of this study and the fact that we recognize the difficult position that our Minister of Education has put them in. The study identified 5 needs for rural education. These are: 1. The coordination of policy development between the Ministries. 2. Honesty. a. The Ministry of Education has ignored the fact that it has demonstrated that learning outcomes are better for smaller schools than they are for larger schools, and that smaller schools do not have as many of the social problems that larger schools have. b. They concluded that educational policy development has ignored these facts and that there is no need for community consultations, as it is a waste of people’s time if their input is not to be valued or used. 3. Transparency. a. Government prides itself on holding others accountable and accept no responsibility for the conditions that are created by the policies and deflect their responsibility by stating that the closure of schools is a Board decision. b. However, the fact is that Boards appear to have very little flexibility based on the policies that the government create. 4. Flexible policies that account for the uniqueness of rural community schools. a. Ironically, the government has concluded that a “one size fits all approach” is not adequate for rural healthcare, but has failed to see that the same argument applies to rural education. 5. We need the Ministry of Education to be monitoring the impact of educational restructuring. It would be helpful to know what the consequences are for those rural communities who lose their schools. As I read these cases, it was difficult to hold back my own emotions. The comments from the communities were very familiar to our situation. The Heidelberg Community reported that the information that they collected was not taken seriously, and they did not have access to information, and nobody addressed the questions that they asked. They reported a lack of transparency. Unfortunately for them, the general consensus of their community was that once under review they were destined for closure. As
a result, there were only 6 to 8 parents at their meetings. Heidelberg did close. It was also a single school review. Their comments and experiences are familiar. However, we should be proud. We have so many strong and positive community members to show support for our school. Look around, we are working together to ensure that our trustees see that the outcome of small rural school closures are not the answer. We are working together to ensure that studies such as this one, are exposed. Our trustees are informed. I have faith that they are listening. Surely, they have read the 43 letters that our community has sent them, even if they are not available to the public. Rural Communities are unique and do rely on all of their resources and services to survive. I have already had families talk to me about selling their homes to ensure that their children will not be bussed to Owen Sound and forced to be placed in an urban school environment. I certainly consider Derby School to be a Rural schooI and I was appalled when I found out that we do not receive rural funding when other schools in larger centres within the Bluewater District School Board do. I questioned this, and it took 2 letters and the request of Bill Walker, to receive a response from the Minister of Education that confirmed that Canada Post is in charge of deciding what schools are actually rural, with no exception and no opportunity to apply for exception. During my investigation I also discovered that our own School Board appears to be confused with the accurate location of the school itself. There is no * asterick on the Bluewater District School Board website map http://www.bwdsb.on.ca/schools/ to indicate the accurate location of Derby Public School located in Kilsyth, instead if you click the link you will get a list of schools located in Owen Sound, and if you look for the list of elementary schools it says so as well. I requested that it be corrected but, I was told that they would not be able to accommodate my request. In this day and age of navigational devices it does seem strange to me that it should be so difficult. I am certain that when the Minister of Education received my letters she would have looked up the location of Derby on our Board website and just laughed, Owen Sound is not rural anyway. Our words are not being acknowledged. Our questions are not being answered in a timely fashion. And, the there is a breakdown in accountability for the situation. The Minister of Education is saying that although they set the policies, it is responsibility of our elected trustees to make the decisions. Hopefully our trustees can see how flawed this system is, and that in time there will be changes to policy that ensure “Rural” schools are recognized as the unique and important entity that they are. The Minister of Education needs to hear from the School Board Trustees directly to influence these changes. In the meantime, the Value that Derby has to the Community should not be overlooked.
LINKS to References http://www.ofa.on.ca/issues/additional-information/Lauzon-final-report--Negotiating-Rural- Futures- http://www.ofa.on.ca/issues/additional-information/Lauzon-should-we-keep-rural-schools- open
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