By David Thompson, Near North District School Board Chairman.
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Over the past year and most recently, there have been numerous articles and letters in the media regarding the ongoing fiscal and enrollment challenges that the Near North DSB face now and into the future. As Chair of the NNDSB, I am hoping that the following facts will help clarify some misconceptions and refocus our attention on the important issues at hand.
Since 2006, our Board student population has decreased from 12,600 to 9,500 students. Over the past 12 years, the Board of Trustees has completed 12 school closures/consolidations throughout our large jurisdiction but until this year had not seriously dealt with the North Bay secondary issue.
When we announce an increase in enrollment over projections, it must be noted that the projections are still for a number lower than the previous year. If the enrollment projections were for 9,400 and it was 300 hundred less than the prior year of 9,700, an actual enrollment of 9,500 is 100 over projection but we still have DECLINING enrollment. The Near North DSB must consolidate schools as our system has more than 4,500 surplus spaces meaning we receive no funding to maintain them as per the current ministry funding formula. The money being spent maintaining half-empty schools is money that could be better spent enhancing programming for our kids.
Currently, the Ministry of Education provides “top-up” funding to rural schools to offset operating costs. This is not true of schools within 20km of each other which include all of the North Bay secondary schools.
A large part of the duties of the Board of Trustees includes setting the direction of the Board by developing and implementing a Multi-Year and Capital Plan. Prior to the North Bay Accommodation Review, senior staff took over 14 months to collect data on each and every school in the district, obtained demographic statistics on all communities and consulted with local governments regarding any potential future growth or development in communities. That information provided the required data to make informed decisions on how taxpayer monies should be used to best serve students. Once again, by best serving students, the board needs to spend money on programs and not maintaining half-empty buildings. It is vital that the Board of Trustees not only be concerned with students currently in our system but properly plan for future students and staff. Anything less would be an abdication of our duties as elected public school trustees.
The reality is that declining enrollment equals less funding for the Near North DSB…period!
On December 20, 2016, a motion was brought forward to consider the consolidation of schools in North Bay and form an Accommodation Review Committee (ARC) The ARC is not a decision-making body. They contribute and provide advice to the Board of Trustees. This initial staff report, accepted by the Board on Dec. 20, 2016, recommended a 3:1 consolidation of our Secondary Schools.
The Board hired an outside facilitator to conduct and oversee that the ARC followed Ministry and Board guidelines to ensure that our community had every opportunity to speak and present at public meetings. Originally, there were three scheduled community meetings but a fourth one was added to allow for even more public input.
Several public presentations were made for and against a 3:1 consolidation. Many presenters, including the Mayor of North Bay, advocated for the retention of West Ferris Secondary School even though only 25% of the NNDSB student population is located in this area. At the conclusion, most presenters felt that a 3 to 2 consolidation would be more acceptable for the students and staff of North Bay.
As a result, the Final NNDSB staff report was amended from the Initial report to recommend a 3:2 consolidation reflective of the community presentations.
The Board listened to the community and, although not unanimous, the majority of the trustees were convinced and the decision they made supported the community’s wish for a 3:2 consolidation with a school at Widdifield and West Ferris sites. The Board voted 5-3 in favour of 3:2 consolidation as recommended by the ARC. This decision is being upheld by the Board. The only difference between what the ARC recommended and what the Board decided was which of the North end schools would close. West Ferris and Chippewa sites were decided with the latter being considered for future a one secondary school scenario. This was not “behind the scenes”, there was no “manipulation” involved. Careful consideration was given to each site; the capacity, location, and potential for expansion should the move to one school in the future be necessary as our student population continues to decline.
For further clarification, the decline in enrollment in our secondary schools has become an urgent problem for our current student population. We have three North Bay schools unable to provide full programming because the numbers in each building are not great enough to support a wide range of course selections. The ideal decision to allow all students in North Bay equal access to all programs would have been to house all secondary students under one roof. The community did not support this vision and we listened as we made the decision to keep two secondary schools. Also, the Board listened to the community’s wish to keep a school in the south end of the city when our own student population data did not support that choice. Again, we need to recognize where our money is best spent and it's not on bricks and mortar. May I remind everyone, people detested the idea of 7 and 8s at Chippewa and we believe that has had an excellent outcome and has been replicated at three other NNDSB secondary schools.
As a result of our tough decision, some detractors have called on the Ombudsman or the Ministry to intervene or have demanded that we wait until after the June 7th provincial election to see what the new government will do regarding the moratorium on school closures. The NNDSB has been wrongfully accused of not following the Accommodation Review Process (ARC) process and has been accused that it was “non-transparent”, with “behind-the-scenes mechanisms intended to manipulate and coerce people” or that the ARC process was “underhanded”. As well, it has been stated that the Board ignored the ARC decision/recommendation.
First of all, to set the record correct, the issue of Pupil Accommodation is not within the purview of the Ombudsman. The ombudsman does not have the authority to overturn decisions made by a Board of Trustees.
Secondly, the Ministry cannot overturn an ARC decision made by a Board of Trustees. The Ministry has the power to come in and review the process (NNDSB Ministry Review King George-Dr. McDougall-Trusler ARC - Final report by M Wilson Nov 2013) to ensure that the process was followed. We are very confident that our process was followed as the suggestions provided by the Wilson Report were considered when our policy was amended in 2015.
The Near North District School Board has followed our process as our policy adheres to the Ministry of Education pupil accommodation review guidelines that are presently in place and contains all minimal requirements.
The NNDSB website contains all documentation with respect to our Accommodation Review policy, a copy of the current Ministry PAR Guidelines, our Capital Plan, our initial staff report, the timeline we followed in our Accommodation Review process, all of the presentations made at the public meetings, the final staff report and the Board of Trustees final decision.
As Chair of the Board, I have been accused of delivering an “empty invitation to the City of North Bay to deflect the absence of earlier consultation”. If one took the time to properly research our process, one would see that the City of North Bay was included every step of the way through our Accommodation Review Process. Our staff met with City of North Bay staff while gathering information to inform our Capital Plan. Trustee Beam, Director Young and I met with the Mayor, in his office just prior to the public release of our Capital Plan. We held a community meeting prior to establishing the ARC and the City of North Bay had a representative there. In addition to our original ARC guidelines, we requested and included a representative of the City of North Bay who sat as a member of the Accommodation Review Committee.
Once the Final Staff report was presented to the Board at our June 2017 meeting, the Trustees had several questions for our Director of Education regarding a number of property concerns. The Board passed the Fricker recommendation but deferred the secondary decision until September so that we can continue our discussions based on new information requested by our Director of Education. As a result of the Fricker consolidation, the Board prepared and submitted a business plan at the September 7th, 2017 deadline to the Ministry to consolidate the three elementary schools. As a result, the Ministry approved the funding to build a new elementary school on the Fricker site.
The Board held two Committee of the Whole meetings in early September 2017. At Committee of the Whole meetings, there are no public presentations or questions as they are designed so that trustees can have informal discussions. Unfortunately, the meeting and agendas were not properly posted, for which the Board apologizes. Nevertheless, to discuss all of the property and staffing items were deemed to be in private and therefore, were discussed in private. The result of the Private portion was a public recommendation to consolidate the 3:2 secondary sites into Chippewa and West Ferris sites. The recommendation went to the September 2017 board meeting where the public discussion of the motion was conducted and passed. Each trustee was asked and had an opportunity to discuss their thoughts and reasons on the motion. As a result, the motion passed 5-3 with one trustee absent to support the consolidation of three secondary schools into the Chippewa and West Ferris sites.
On a further note, the Trustees met with concerned staff members from WSS on October 12, 2017, to personally answer their questions regarding why we determined the Chippewa site was chosen over Widdifield.
As a result of the Board motion, our Director of Education has been tasked by the Board of Trustees to make the consolidation happen in a timely, fiscal and transparent manner. The Director is responsible for monthly updating the Board, staff, parents and our students on the progress of the consolidation. It is the responsibility of the elected Board of Trustees to monitor this consolidation process as it is one of the main governance duties of a publically elected school board.
David Thompson, Chair
