RAINBOW DISTRICT—The Rainbow District School Board (RDSB) is again calling for a one school board system in Ontario.
At an RDSB meeting last week the board passed a motion giving approval for a letter to be sent to the Ontario Public School Boards Association (OPSBA) and copied to MPPs requesting consideration for one school board as a possible solution to the underutilization of school facilities.
“The (RDSB) trustees passed a motion to send a letter to the premier of Ontario, OPSBA, MPPs and the Ministry of Education to at least start a conversation on a one school board system in order to preserve community schools in every area,” said Norm Blaseg, director of education for RDSB.
If there was a one school board system, “there would be more savings in education and the boards; even if it is reduced to say two boards,” said Mr. Blaseg. “Northern Ontario has seen a decline in school enrolments and communities are stressed with enough employment opportunities and in some cases families have to leave a community due to employment in other communities. Families leave and the community they are from can’t afford the number of boards in an area.”
“Because of all of this it is becoming increasingly more difficult for schools to be sustainable (in term of infrastructure and utilization) and operating dollars are not there. In many communities there is no critical mass of kids on hand to attend schools,” said Mr. Blaseg. “In the long term some schools can’t be sustained.”
On Moose 94.1 Radio on September 29 it was reported that RDSB chair Doreen Dewar believes the request will fall on deaf ears. She pointed out in the past when RDSB has asked for the merger of all four school boards in its area, all three mainstream parties rejected the idea. She indicated that under one board system, more schools facing lower enrollment can merge because there’s no multi-board jurisdiction to worry about. The merged schools would still have their own distinct programs as well.
“It is exactly true, every time we bring up the issue of one school board system, it seems more and more members of the general public are in favour of this idea,” Ms. Dewar told the Recorder.
“I understand there have been concerns raised by our coterminous boards that they can’t support our actions,” said Ms. Dewar. “My response to this (is that) I understand their need for protecting and enhancing their own distinct programs and the RDSB would be very much in favour of that being done. But maybe at least it is time to talk about a one school board system. Through discussions maybe our government could come up with this option or a mechanism that everyone could endorse. We (the board) feel it is time to at least talk about the concept.”
“The word from Queen’s Park is that even though there is declining enrolment in schools throughout the province school board budgets are larger,” said Ms. Dewar. “We understand why the province doesn’t want to continue putting money toward half-full buildings and, as a taxpayer, I understand. Maybe we could even look at having two boards similar to what was in place prior to 1998 before four school boards were in place.”
“Our main idea with passing this motion is to encourage the province, MPPs and coterminous boards to sit down and talk, get some dialogue started on this issue,” said Ms. Dewar. “I’ve been very encouraged by comments from taxpayers on this issue. When I was in Espanola last week parents were telling me that we need to look at having one school board system.”
“There needs to be at least discussion held on other opportunities and ideas, for a one school board system, or maybe two. Or the province might have other ideas and recommendations that can be looked at. The main thing is to have discussion and a presence in the community,” said Mr. Blaseg. “If collectively we discuss the issue and through our ideas I’m sure we can figure out something.”
