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.
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