DEBATE WITH STEVE HOWE

MY DEBATE WITH STEVE HOWE, Director of Communications, AMDSB

On March 27, 2012 I was invited to be interviewed on the CKNX Talk Show about the replacement of our Blyth Public School and  the new Maitland River School at Wingham.

I indicated that Blyth was not properly represented in the meetings of the Accommodation Review Committee and the meeting were not properly advertised. The Communications Director of Avon Maitland District School Board came on afterwards and stated that there was no truth in what I had said. He went on at great length saying that all the communities were fully involved and consulted according to the Guidelines that the ministry required the board to follow. He said that every meeting was fully advertised in all the local papers (He mentioned The Citizen in particular.)

The truth is very different. Only one advertisement appeared in The Citizen through the entire ARC process. A small ad appeared in the December 4, 2008 Citizen,  the week before the second ARC meeting.  None of the other ARC meetings were advertised in The Citizen – not even the first meeting.  As the guy who places the ads, I guess Steve was assuming that no one would go back to check on the“facts” at the source fro 2008 an 2009.

I did!

The Ministry of Education Guidelines state that the board is responsible for recruiting a representative cross section of the community to the ARC meetings. Obviously they failed miserably at this task. Placing a tiny ad in one issue and hoping for the best does not constitute "recruitment".

One would almost think that they wanted to avoid involving people who might see what damage would come to a community losing its only school. A sort of “Mis-Direction of Communication” function.

Steve Howe said that all the meetings were reviewed in the press. Actually very few reports appeared in the Citizen. Most of the reports came from parents in letters to the editor.

Steve Howe said that the board followed all the Guidelines. The guidelines state that the community consultation must include representation by parents, educators, and business and municipal leaders from the community.  There were no Blyth business people or municipal councillors in attendance at the meetings, and the minutes of the ARC committees contain no presentations or comments by either of these groups.

Steve Howe said that there was a large attendance at all of the meetings. A parent’s letter to the editor of The Citizen on December 4, 2008 asked the question “Why aren’t people coming out to show support for their schools?” Poor attendance was consistently reported by concerned citizens.

Steve Howe said that in his opinion loss of the school may be “inconvenient” but should not create any serious problems for the communities. He further indicated that there are many communities in Huron County which are thriving despite the fact that they have never had a school. I would ask Steve to name a few of these communities.  How about Jamestown, Belfast, Bluevale, Bodmin, to name just a few?

Steve Howe said that the board adopted all of the ARC’s recommendations except the move of Grades 7 and 8 to Madill High School and the K to 6 school instead of K to 8. He forgot to mention the placement of the school in Wingham instead East Wawanosh. Also the Maitland River Elementary School is not even remotely the same as the envisioned Center of Excellence.

Steve Howe said that the new school will have many special programs with specialized teachers which would not be possible in our current schools. I would like Steve Howe to be a little more specific: Tell us what specialized programs and what specialist teachers are going to be hired, and what current teachers are going to be replaced by these new hires?

Avon Maitland has had a program for many years aimed at instilling values in all the students, values such as honesty, truthfulness, respect for others, dependability, etc.

Perhaps the Avon Maitland board and staff could acquire some of these values by joining the kids as learners!

Brock Vodden  

April 24, 2012