Nelson parents ‘ready to battle’ to keep Burlington school open

BURLINGTON — The recent surfacing of a scenario that could see Nelson High School close by 2018 has riled up some of the New Street school’s supporters.

The Halton District School Board’s Program Accommodation Review Committee has narrowed the list of options for it to consider to six, with the newest one being a recommendation to close Nelson, with corresponding program changes to Central and Robert Bateman high schools and Dr. Frank J. Hayden Secondary School.

The options are being considered by the school’s board 14member review committee in reaction to board projections of about 1,550 empty pupil spaces in Burlington’s public high schools.

Four local high schools — Lester B. Pearson, Bateman, Central and Nelson — are in the mix for possible closure. The board’s preferred option, for now, is to close Pearson and Central with accompanying program changes at Bateman and Hayden.

Seven Burlington high schools, including Aldershot and M.M. Robinson, are involved in the review, which began in October.

Nelson parent council chair Kate Nazar said she knows the process is fluid and said “we are ready to do battle.”

Nazar and Rebecca Collier, a Nelson parent rep on the review committee, contend Nelson has

unique geography and programming features that should preclude it from closure.

“While we recognize there is very specific criteria for evaluating the six options, within Burlington and overall in Halton Region, Nelson has a reputation and a tradition of excellence in the areas of academics, athletics and the arts.”

They say that trio has made the high school a draw for families and students into Burlington for a long time. The parents noted that in the 2016 Fraser Institute report on Canadian school academic performance, Nelson ranked 65 out of 740 schools, making it the highestranking school in the city.

The amenities around the school are important considerations as well, they say.

“Nelson is the only true campus environment in Burlington with the stadium, track, baseball diamond, arena and fitness facilities (nearby).”

They noted that new track and field improvements have been planned in partnership between the City of Burlington and the Halton public board, and that the track’s revitalization has begun with construction slated to begin this June.

If Nelson closes, its gifted program would be redirected to Pearson.

Nazar and Collier also point to French Immersion (FI) as an area where Nelson has an established program that “continues to grow and supports the single-track FI (elementary feeder) program at Pineland P.S.”

In terms of comparing the six options, the one to close Nelson is shortsighted on several levels, they say.

The option targeting Nelson doesn’t make sense from the standpoint of proximity and cost effectiveness of transportation, they say, as the school’s 1,000-plus students would be bused, or at the maximum walking distance, to either Bateman, to the east, or Central, to the west.

Under the Nelson closure option “four schools are above 100 per cent utilization and one school is above 90 per cent.”

Such a scenario “will inevitably lead to the need for portables in many Burlington secondary schools and possibly boundary changes in the near term,” according to the review committee’s Nelson reps.