A few decades ago, Blyth was a hotbed of political intrigue. Elections were fought as if there were no tomorrow unless your side wins. Whose side you were on made a difference. It affected where you did your shopping, to whom you spoke when you walked down the street - or ignored as if they were not there. Alliances were formed as a means of improving your side's chances at the polls. We told everyone about mistakes the other guys made, and when we ran out of them, we made up some more and spread the word.
As a young child belonging of course to "our side", I was frequently reminded by "their side" that I was not as good a kid as I should be. One of their employees stopped his truck one day to tell me that if it were not for the dairy on our street, he would not have plowed the snow from it. On one summer day I was walking down the street and a woman from their side came out on her porch and shouted at me using some very raw language and some words that I had never heard before. I have no idea why I was chosen for this attention apart from the fact that I was on the other side.
Election days (which came around each year in December) often ended with a huge argument over how the votes were to be counted, and complaints that the other guys were doing something illegal.
If you were a town employee and were identified with one side, you could be sure that the other side would be looking for a chance to replace you with one of their friends.
Nomination meetings were very well attended, and many were nominated for each position. Not everyone agreed to stand, but there were very few acclamations. If someone resigned before the term was up, the person who came next in the voting would often be appointed to fill the vacancy.
You might ask what all this partisanship was based on. I don't have the answer to that. It was not a Liberal-Conservative divide. It was not a matter of commercial rivalry. I have no idea what caused the rift. It was akin to chosing sides for a game of soccer in the school yard. I am sure that some people in the village were not involved in the division and may not have even been aware of it. But a very significant portion of the population was linked to one side or the other.
I have been thinking that it's too bad that we could not recapture that enthusiasm for local politics - so long as we could eliminate the vitriol and the bickering and the senseless and petty actions that took place in the background.
Blyth people need to get engaged in the life of this community AS AN IMPORTANT PART OF NORTH HURON.
Amalgamation is a fact of life whether we like it or not. Burying our heads in the sand will not make it go away.
About a remarkable Ontario village
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
A New Thought About the School Situation
Let’s All Cut Our Losses
Let me make clear at the outset that I represent only myself. If I get my facts wrong or misrepresent some group’s position on the school situation – blame me.
I sent an email to Jenny Versteeg, the chair of Avon Maitland District School Board a few days ago. The message reflected my usual impatience and anger against the board for deciding to close the Blyth Public School and for the potential closing of the Brussels Public School. It was not a very polite letter.
In a very short time, I received a reply from Ms. Versteeg. It was a lengthy, very polite, clear and logically developed presentation of the board’s process and position. I still strongly disagreed with their conclusion, but the message caused me to re-think the situation.
Naïve or not – this is what I came up with.
As things stand now, everyone is losing: the AMDSB, the children, the parents, the communities, local businesses.
As for the school board – they are almost universally detested throughout our communities, and these feelings will remain for a very long time. Their image falls into the same category as those who pushed us into amalgamations, ultra large health units (LHINs), attempted hospital closings, etc.; remote, uncaring, bureaucratic, meddlers who, we feel, have no business attacking our communities, ignoring our wishes and needs.
Our children are losers in that none will be able to walk to school, they’ll be separated from many of their friends, infants will spend hours travelling by bus on school days.
I don’t need to repeat the complaints raised by parents of the children. We do not want our Grade 7 and 8 children in F.E. Madill and we are under no obligation to fall in line with other jurisdictions that permit this arrangement.
Communities will become unattractive to young families who will not care to move to a town that has no school. Property values will decline. Businesses will see a loss in commerce for this and other reasons.
A JUDGMENT ERROR BY THE LOCAL COMMITTEE
I believe that the ARC team gave the board permission to close the Blyth School when they promoted the idea of a Super K to 8 School which would replace several area schools including that of Blyth.
True, they gave this option given the prospect of replacing the schools with what to them was an exciting new vision of an institution which will represent an advance into a high value educational experience made possible by an innovative building and innovative teachers using innovative methods. They were turning a perceived problem into an opportunity.
The board perhaps should have realized that the agreement on closing the school was contingent on the super school being part of the deal.
It seems to me this is a time when some negotiation should be considered. Negotiation could avoid the situation where everyone loses.
Huron County, North Huron, Huron East cannot tolerate the losses of Blyth and Brussels Public Schools. If Blyth and Brussels lose their schools, the losses are not confined within their borders; they extend out into the rural area surrounding them, most residents of which see these villages as the centre of their communities.
Let’s hope that there are some statesmanship displayed in the next few weeks, regardless of what comes from the current review of the Blyth School decision.
Let me make clear at the outset that I represent only myself. If I get my facts wrong or misrepresent some group’s position on the school situation – blame me.
I sent an email to Jenny Versteeg, the chair of Avon Maitland District School Board a few days ago. The message reflected my usual impatience and anger against the board for deciding to close the Blyth Public School and for the potential closing of the Brussels Public School. It was not a very polite letter.
In a very short time, I received a reply from Ms. Versteeg. It was a lengthy, very polite, clear and logically developed presentation of the board’s process and position. I still strongly disagreed with their conclusion, but the message caused me to re-think the situation.
Naïve or not – this is what I came up with.
As things stand now, everyone is losing: the AMDSB, the children, the parents, the communities, local businesses.
As for the school board – they are almost universally detested throughout our communities, and these feelings will remain for a very long time. Their image falls into the same category as those who pushed us into amalgamations, ultra large health units (LHINs), attempted hospital closings, etc.; remote, uncaring, bureaucratic, meddlers who, we feel, have no business attacking our communities, ignoring our wishes and needs.
Our children are losers in that none will be able to walk to school, they’ll be separated from many of their friends, infants will spend hours travelling by bus on school days.
I don’t need to repeat the complaints raised by parents of the children. We do not want our Grade 7 and 8 children in F.E. Madill and we are under no obligation to fall in line with other jurisdictions that permit this arrangement.
Communities will become unattractive to young families who will not care to move to a town that has no school. Property values will decline. Businesses will see a loss in commerce for this and other reasons.
A JUDGMENT ERROR BY THE LOCAL COMMITTEE
I believe that the ARC team gave the board permission to close the Blyth School when they promoted the idea of a Super K to 8 School which would replace several area schools including that of Blyth.
True, they gave this option given the prospect of replacing the schools with what to them was an exciting new vision of an institution which will represent an advance into a high value educational experience made possible by an innovative building and innovative teachers using innovative methods. They were turning a perceived problem into an opportunity.
The board perhaps should have realized that the agreement on closing the school was contingent on the super school being part of the deal.
It seems to me this is a time when some negotiation should be considered. Negotiation could avoid the situation where everyone loses.
Huron County, North Huron, Huron East cannot tolerate the losses of Blyth and Brussels Public Schools. If Blyth and Brussels lose their schools, the losses are not confined within their borders; they extend out into the rural area surrounding them, most residents of which see these villages as the centre of their communities.
Let’s hope that there are some statesmanship displayed in the next few weeks, regardless of what comes from the current review of the Blyth School decision.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Minister Wynne Replies About School Closure
I have received a three-page letter from the Minister of Education Wynne in reply to my complaint about the imminent closure of Blyth Public School. Ms. Wynne tells me what I had already learned: that school boards have the absolute authority to close any school they wish. I will quote one paragraph from her letter:
“It is to the benefit of all students that locally elected boards are allowed to operate with a level of autonomy and are provided with the authority and responsibility to make decisions regarding the most appropriate pupil accommodation arrangements for the delivery of their elementary and secondary programs.”
In theory, this is a good model: a local body provided with the authority and responsibility to make decisions, this body ostensibly being accountable to the electorate for their actions. Unfortunately, we, the electorate were asleep and did not realize that the people we elect to the school board actually had the power to make so much mischief and outright damage to our community. Perhaps even the board members did not realize that they would be called upon to make such decisions as have been thrust upon them.
The result of our negligence has thrown us into a terrible situation. We have ended up with board members who have failed in their accountability to the communities they are supposed to represent; board members who can be led around by the nose by board staff who have no sense of community and can hide behind the board.
Blyth is obviously a victim of this mixture of its own inattention, spineless board members, and bureaucrats who are incapable or unwilling to comprehend the place of the school in communities.
It appears that the same fate may be in store for Brussels. If this is the case, it would appear that there is an anti-village agenda at work here.
Huron County is a very rural community. It contains no cities. Ignoring the imposed amalgamations for a moment, it is a county of 5 small towns and 5 smaller villages, with all of the land in between comprised of rural, mainly agricultural townships. All of those descriptions have made us subject to many government, economic, and commercial assaults many of which have had devastating effects on our way of life, our economy, and our local political system. What is especially depressing about this school situation is the fact that the damage is being done to us by our own people. Even our M.P. and M.P.P who should be supporting us vigorously are less supportive than we expect.
As I have written before, we need a strategy to cope with this type of assault if we are going to survive and thrive as a community. We need a methodology to get messages back to those who threaten us. We need to find ways to force them to pay attention. Failing those efforts, we need to devise ways to “put a burr under their saddles”. Make life uncomfortable for them, embarrass them, whatever it takes to force them to re-think their irresponsible policies and practices.
In the present school case, the only solution is to change the minds of the board members. Solid arguments and reasoning do not seem to penetrate. They should be ashamed of themselves, but are not. Stronger measures will be needed.
We need to a strong level of support from the residents of our communities, from local councils, from our M.P.s and M.P.P.s and from other rural counties and small communities.
I am still waiting for a member of the school board to come and tell us why she allowed the board to close the Blyth Public School and to send our children helter skelter in all directions for their education.
“It is to the benefit of all students that locally elected boards are allowed to operate with a level of autonomy and are provided with the authority and responsibility to make decisions regarding the most appropriate pupil accommodation arrangements for the delivery of their elementary and secondary programs.”
In theory, this is a good model: a local body provided with the authority and responsibility to make decisions, this body ostensibly being accountable to the electorate for their actions. Unfortunately, we, the electorate were asleep and did not realize that the people we elect to the school board actually had the power to make so much mischief and outright damage to our community. Perhaps even the board members did not realize that they would be called upon to make such decisions as have been thrust upon them.
The result of our negligence has thrown us into a terrible situation. We have ended up with board members who have failed in their accountability to the communities they are supposed to represent; board members who can be led around by the nose by board staff who have no sense of community and can hide behind the board.
Blyth is obviously a victim of this mixture of its own inattention, spineless board members, and bureaucrats who are incapable or unwilling to comprehend the place of the school in communities.
It appears that the same fate may be in store for Brussels. If this is the case, it would appear that there is an anti-village agenda at work here.
Huron County is a very rural community. It contains no cities. Ignoring the imposed amalgamations for a moment, it is a county of 5 small towns and 5 smaller villages, with all of the land in between comprised of rural, mainly agricultural townships. All of those descriptions have made us subject to many government, economic, and commercial assaults many of which have had devastating effects on our way of life, our economy, and our local political system. What is especially depressing about this school situation is the fact that the damage is being done to us by our own people. Even our M.P. and M.P.P who should be supporting us vigorously are less supportive than we expect.
As I have written before, we need a strategy to cope with this type of assault if we are going to survive and thrive as a community. We need a methodology to get messages back to those who threaten us. We need to find ways to force them to pay attention. Failing those efforts, we need to devise ways to “put a burr under their saddles”. Make life uncomfortable for them, embarrass them, whatever it takes to force them to re-think their irresponsible policies and practices.
In the present school case, the only solution is to change the minds of the board members. Solid arguments and reasoning do not seem to penetrate. They should be ashamed of themselves, but are not. Stronger measures will be needed.
We need to a strong level of support from the residents of our communities, from local councils, from our M.P.s and M.P.P.s and from other rural counties and small communities.
I am still waiting for a member of the school board to come and tell us why she allowed the board to close the Blyth Public School and to send our children helter skelter in all directions for their education.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)