After two years of indecisiveness the new Near North District School Board has come to the same conclusions as the previous Board and that is to close Widdifield high school and keep Chippewa open.
There wasn’t much of a debate, there were barely any comments as to the thought process behind the decision, other than the fact that “we’ve spent too much time and wasted too much money on doing nothing.”
“There’s been $7-million wasted in not doing anything for two years,” says Chair of the Board Jay Aspin. “That’s $7-million in programming that’s gone out of the Near North District School Board, and that’s why I said last week that we were going to make a decision this week, come hell or high water.”
Aspin says as of September 2020 there will only be two high schools in North Bay under the NNDSB banner, but how they get there is still under discussion.
“The board made the motion tonight to choose the two operating schools as West Ferris and Chippewa in the North Bay area and Widdifield is to close, and there is an additional clause that empowered the administration to give us a full implementation plan as soon as possible.”
When asked if they have enough time between now and the start of next school year to get everything ready for teachers, students, programs and more, Aspin says, “that’s the plan and the administration has been tasked with doing it.”
And as far as job losses go he responded, “I don’t know if there will be any, and we’ll have to wait for the implementation plan.”
He says their job as a board was not to reconsider the entire process, just the decision the previous board had made. He says, “This wasn’t a re-ARC, this was just a re-vote. We had to look at the factors, look at what the other board had done and made a decision on whether they were wrong or right. We knew they were wrong, according to the Ombudsman and the procedural rules, however, this board by a vote of 8-1 agreed with their original decision.”
There was much confusion over how the meeting proceeded. Just like the previous weeks meeting, the board room had more than a handful of parents, teachers and students in attendance.
One of those concerned parents is Rebecca Geauvreau who says, “I’m actually flabbergasted because I thought they were doing a re-vote. My problem all along has been the process, it has not seemed transparent at all. Why are you making this choice? There was nothing transparent about that vote and we brought that to the ombudsman, who said there were things going on here that shouldn’t have happened. The trustees said they have gone through the exhaustive details over the last nine months, but then we just heard a vote where everyone agreed with what was said by the last board.”
“The problem was the way it was done,” says Aspin about the previous regimes process in this school closure. He adds, “We supported the decision, but not the way it was done, and we corrected that. We implemented the measures that were required as per the ombudsman’s report. In other words, we uncovered what was hidden. We had public discussion on it and we called a meeting.”
He also says the last board, “didn’t adhere to the rules and it’s a different story now with the new by-laws we have set."
“They basically excused the wrongs of the last board, in my opinion, something the ombudsman’s office pointed out and they are still moving forward," said Geauvreau.
"Nobody is standing up and making a decision they still haven’t told us why they picked Chippewa over Widdifield? It might be the right choice, but you have not said why it’s the right choice, that’s what I want to know as a parent.”
Aspin says one of the reasons he voted in favour was because, “If you take a large school out of downtown North Bay, you’re going to have a lot of transfers.”
“In addition, I’ve looked at all the numbers, and clearly Widdifield was the one that had to be chosen.”
But when asked what the plan was for the Widdifield building, his response was, “that’s in the future.”
Understandably there will be disappointment at Widdifield.
“Well there is a future in other schools, and this opportunity means the board doesn’t have to close other schools," said the Board Chair.
"When one door closes another door opens. We have to look at the big picture, and right now, losing $3.5-million a year is not sustainable. We have to act, believe me this is heartfelt. We don’t like doing what we are doing, but we’re forced to look at the situation and respond accordingly.”
