I was inspired to seek public office because I believe, like so many of you, “I can do something about that” on the issues we face. As councilor, my role is to take a stand on what’s best for residents and go to bat for it. Pushback is inevitable from those who don’t have the community’s interests at heart. I will stand with you and for you, to achieve the best interests of our city, without caving to unacceptable compromise in the name of consensus.
None Burlington High Schools should be slated to close. A short term solution for money from the Ministry is backward thinking, I attended a recent Open House and thought the way the information was presented was poor, confusing and lacking – all the potential alternatives and those 6 options were what they came up with?
Then I heard those weren’t really the preferred options… How could any member of the public come up with constructive comments based on the provided info? What could possibly come out of the process other than pitting school districts against each other? I don’t have confidence in their projection model – how does it account for demographics as neighbourhoods turn over? There are more unanswered questions being ignored than information provided answering the public’s’ concerns. Have all the options been considered ie a merge of the the HDSB and the Catholic District to address escalating transportation costs, the utilization of walkable schools and boundary changes; a reworking model of the existing school boundaries or the busing of Hayden’s overflow students to Pearson.
There is an unsettling key and fundamental flaw to this whole process. Four trustees are answerable only to Burlington voters in their respective wards. They can all vote to do nothing and yet the trustees from Milton, Halton Hills and Oakville will be able to carry the blame and shiv for the Burlington Schools. Wouldn’t trustees and councils voted for at large would make much more sense. The PAR process is in need of an overhaul.
Marianne Meed Ward
None Burlington High Schools should be slated to close. A short term solution for money from the Ministry is backward thinking, I attended a recent Open House and thought the way the information was presented was poor, confusing and lacking – all the potential alternatives and those 6 options were what they came up with?
Then I heard those weren’t really the preferred options… How could any member of the public come up with constructive comments based on the provided info? What could possibly come out of the process other than pitting school districts against each other? I don’t have confidence in their projection model – how does it account for demographics as neighbourhoods turn over? There are more unanswered questions being ignored than information provided answering the public’s’ concerns. Have all the options been considered ie a merge of the the HDSB and the Catholic District to address escalating transportation costs, the utilization of walkable schools and boundary changes; a reworking model of the existing school boundaries or the busing of Hayden’s overflow students to Pearson.
There is an unsettling key and fundamental flaw to this whole process. Four trustees are answerable only to Burlington voters in their respective wards. They can all vote to do nothing and yet the trustees from Milton, Halton Hills and Oakville will be able to carry the blame and shiv for the Burlington Schools. Wouldn’t trustees and councils voted for at large would make much more sense. The PAR process is in need of an overhaul.
STUDENTS FIRST PLEASE!
Sharron Langford
I wrote a letter to the post (published) indicating I suspected this was the case. The PAR process needs to stop now!