We believe that school board meetings should not take place after Nomination Day, the last day that candidates can register for the election. This year, nomination day was Friday, September 12. We believe Halton District School Board should not be meeting, let alone voting after this date in recognition that the election campaign is in full swing.
HDSB is scheduled to vote on the removal of the English track and the newly implemented Full Day Kindergarten program from this school on October 1st. We believe this vote should not take place during the campaign.
More informaition on Pineland's boundary review: http://hffins.weebly.com/blog/category/pineland-public-school
Dear Director, Associate Director and Trustees:
A new school year has barely begun and you are rushing through a vote to remove English and the newly implemented Full Day Kindergarten from Pineland Public School in Burlington, Ontario.
This vote will set a dangerous precedent for all neighbourhood schools in Halton.
School councils are not even formed until the first week of October -- how is this even fair that the vote take place before schools can adequately inform the parents? How will they delegate?
How have you provided news of this to the greater community of tax payers that will give them adequate time to process this huge dismantling of their neighbourhood and then learn the timing and rules of how to delegate?
This decision does not need to be and should not be rushed through before the October 27th election.
The goal SHOULD BE for every neighbourhood to have a kindergarten program that all children can walk to -- single track FI schools do not allow us to reach this goal.
We believe English Track should be a valued program in every neighbourhood and dual track schools can and will support this goal with the proper FI boundary for balanced programming.
Click here for a very workable solution that keeps Kindergarten programs and English at neighbourhood schools - it's something this board refuses to consider but has been successful and doesn't deny any child access to French Immersion. Give the new group of trustees who are election on October 27th a chance to do extensive research into a solution. Our kids deserve that!
If you rush this through, the legacy of the 2010-2014 trustees will be the removal English AND Kindergarten from this neighbourhood school, forcing children living within walking distance to be bused away for public education. The legacy of this board will be increasing our carbon footprint, adding to the polution, traffic and congestion and ignoring children's mental and physical health. After all, we know from experts (like those at the Active Healthy Kids Canada, Participaction and the Global Summit on the Physical Activity of Children) that school boards and municipalities MUST work together to develop plans that promote active school travel. The legacy of this group of trustees will also be providing bus companies with record profits due to their ever increasing contracts.
Sincerely,
