New west-end high school could replace three
DON FRASER
POSTMEDIA NETWORK
A high school review in west Niagara could merge three high schools into a new facility.
On Tuesday, District School Board of Niagara trustees received that recommendation in a senior staff report for a West Niagara Secondary Accommodation Review.
Beamsville District and Grimsby secondary schools and South Lincoln High School are part of a process — which includes public input — that could see those schools shut down.
A phase-in plan by staff.
They suggest South Lincoln close June 30 next year, with students redirected to nearby high schools, according to student location and program desires.
DSBN would find a property and build a new central school in the review area.
Grimsby Secondary and Beamsville District and would close June 30, 2020, with a new facility opening September 2020.
Staff, in the program and planning committee report received Tuesday, say the closures are needed because of falling enrolment that is affecting programming and academic options.
Over the past five years, enrolment in the west Niagara area has tumbled 28 per cent, or 607 students, with staff projections showing a continued decline.
All three schools also need a lot of work, with $26 million of it forecast between 2016 and 2020.
More than $26 million-plus is on the tally for Beamsville, Grimsby’s is north of $19 million and South Lincoln about $7 million in upgrades and repairs.
Beamsville’s high school was built in 1917, Grimsby’s in 1925 and South Lincoln’s in Smithville in 1953, said the report, with most additions more than 40 years old.
It says students, should they combine into a new site, will have access to a “fully composite school that allows for all (academic) pathways.”
Among other benefits, they will have more flexibility with timetable choices and enriched extracurricular options. The three schools now have a combined enrolment of 1,545, with South Lincoln at the bottom with 269.
Among other relocation arrangements, students currently attending South Lincoln would graduate from E.L. Crossley in Fonthill, or from Grimsby.
The recommendation was received and passed without comment by DSBN trustees Tuesday —itwasnotedmostwereataprevious committee meeting and were aware of the details.
“The crux … is about enrolment, especially at South Lincoln which affects programming for students,” said Jim Morgan, superintendent of planning and transportation, in an interview after the board gathering.
“And it’s also the facility utilization at the schools under review, with the average at 61 per cent, for the three schools.” Morgan added no student going to a new school is projected to have a bus ride longer than an hour, with most having a run of 30 minutes or less.
Board chair Dale Robinson said trustees are seeking public input in the ARC process.
“We know nobody likes to see their local schools consolidated,” Robinson said after the meeting. “Everybody feels a loss of tradition and heritage, but we have to look at the programming needs of our students.
“A lot of them are already transporting themselves to other schools, because with underutilized space and small enrolment, we can’t offer the breadth of options our kids need for their post-secondary education.”
The accommodation review committee first meeting is on Nov. 3, to be followed by three public meetings on Nov. 10, Dec. 15 and Jan. 26.
Feedback will be provided to a future senior staff report, with the ARC possibly proposing different plans for the schools.
A final DSBN staff report will be presented to its board in February, with a decision expected at a March 28 meeting.
Reports, minutes and agendas, as well as meeting dates, will be posted to DSBN.org/arc. While it flirted with a $700,000 surplus, Niagara Catholic District School Board now expects to wrap up 2015-16 about $500,000 in the black. It set a $256.9-million budget for the past September-to-August school year. Giancarlo Vetrone, superintendent of business and financial services, told school trustees Tuesday the surplus came from planned delays in system priorities. A mild winter also left about $400,000 in savings for snow removal and utilities costs. He expects to take $142,000 from the surplus to help cover a $350,000 replacement of the roof on the Catholic Education Centre, the board’s headquarters on Rice Road in Welland. Meanwhile, the board’s administration, Vetrone said, keeps a close eye on health benefit costs, monthly sick replacement costs, and legal fees for local negotiations, grievances and arbitration. In the past, those expenses led to serious budget overruns.
Niagara Catholic looking at $500,000 surplus
“We have turned around our financials,” said Vetrone. Board chair Rev. Paul MacNeil said “it is good to find ourselves on stable ground.” Monsignor Clancy Elementary Catholic School showed a drone view of its community Tuesday. The video swept over Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church, Monsignor Clancy and St. Charles Elementary Catholic School. The Thorold school was featured during Tuesday’s Niagara Catholic District School Board meeting. Each month the board highlights one of its 57 schools. Principal Daniel Trainor had his students outline what the school means to them and showed photos and videos school activities. They stressed the grades 4 to 8 school is a partner with St. Charles, a kindergarten to Grade 3 school, and Holy Rosary parish. Monsignor Clancy has 348 students and St. Charles 290. It has a history of change. Built as A.T. Clancy School in 1964, it expanded with additions in 1968 and 1990. It became Monsignor Clancy Secondary School in 1989. Then in 1999, it reverted to an elementary school for grades 4 to 8. Thorold-Merritton trustee Pat Vernal thanked the principal, staff, students and parents “for creating a wonderful community by bringing the two schools together.”
Monsignor Clancy heart of a community Saint Paul student selected for national history forum
Bethany Poltl, a Grade 9 student at Saint Paul Catholic High School in Niagara Falls, has turned a heritage fair project into a trip to Ottawa. She is one of two Ontario students among 26 from across the country selected for Canada’s History Youth Forum in Ottawa in October. Her project on Women’s College Hospital won Niagara Catholic’s Heritage Fair in April. It carried her to the provincial heritage fair.