By Linda Crouch
(Niagara At Large is pleased to run this piece submitted by Linda Crouch, a St. Catharines resident who ran and lost her bid last fall for a seat on the District School Board of Niagara’s board of trustees. We believe Linda Crouch’s comments contributes to the discussion over what has become a very contentious issue in our region and we welcome your comments at the end of this piece and any comments members of the school board may wish to submit.)
Segregation or not, the fact is that the District School Board of Niagara cannot afford the DSBN Academy. This publicly funded board simply does not know how live within its means. For years now, the DSBN has not been living within its means and has been drawing down its reserves.
Linda Crouch
In January 2011, the DSBN agreed to spend over $431,000 *just to bus* the first 150 school children to this school from all over Niagara, an area of more than 751 square miles (1,852 km2) to this new DSBN Academy. Ostensibly, the dollars for the transportation came out of the reserves as well. How much will transportation cost taxpayers when the full 525 students attend the Academy?
To quote from the June 22, 2010 DSBN Minutes, a meeting that I attended: “Trustee (Dalton) Clark reminded the Board that $2.6 million was transferred from the general operating reserves to balance the 2009-2010 budget…Trustee Clark added that as at September 1, 2010, the Board will have an opening balance in the general operating reserves of $3,807,110 and the Board will only be able to transfer funds out of the general operating reserves for another one to one and one-half years…Trustee Clark reminded the Board that the District School Board of Niagara is the second lowest funded in Special Education in the province.”
To quote the DSBN’s own press release on balancing the budget: “Although Trustees were able to use funds from our reserves to largely offset the costs of the funding shortfall, this practice is not sustainable. Unless a more permanent solution can be found, the Board’s reserves will soon be depleted and Trustees will have to consider even more significant cuts,” says Finance Committee Chair Dalton Clark.
Then why is the DSBN doing this DSBN Academy when it simply cannot afford it, and that instead we could consider the Pathways to Education program, an award-winning model with proven results that keeps kids in their own schools and does
not stigmatize them?
Empire School, where the DSBN wants to house the DSBN Academy needs $690,000 in facility upgrades for things such as roof repair and heating. In fact, the DSBN just voted at that very same June 22 meeting to close the building as it was too costly to repair for the local (coincidentally low income) students who will stop going there as of June 2011. This cost of building upgrade hasn’t even been recognized by the board yet, as only
informal information was provided to the Trustees before their vote.
This board, except 2 trustees, has shown that it is apparently unable to live within its means and is not conducting itself in a transparent, accountable, responsible manner.
The Minister of Education must now step in and stop the abuse of taxpayers and children as experimental pawns. The Minister has a duty to save us from these bureaucrats who hide important, contentious issues such as this at election time.
Director Warren Hoshizaki, long-serving Trustees Dalton Clark, Lora Campbell, the new DSBN Chair Kevin Maves, and all of the other incumbents who hid this from us should be removed from their positions. They have breached our trust and should not be allowed the privilege to keep representing us.
I ran in the last election in St. Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake and was honoured with 5729 votes, but those were not enough to win. I have tried to keep out of the media on this issue for fear that my former candidacy would taint the issue and seem like sour grapes. But with the groundswell of negative reaction by taxpayers and the audacity of the DSBN’s director to continue with this program, I felt that I finally had to speak as I am compelled to share the fact that we just cannot afford this program period.
(Visit Niagara At Large at http://www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to residents in our greater Niagara region.)
Niagara At Large 
Linda raises the difficult issue of Affordability, which is quite different from whether the DSBN Academy is a good idea … or not.
Niagara South & Niagara North (Lincoln) Boards always tried to frugally follow Ministry of Education rules. However, when things were re-organised a few years ago, they were Not rewarded for careful finances over the years – the profligate spenders around the province had their deficits paid off, but there were no rewards for our good guys.
WHY is Niagara so poorly funded in Special Education AND in Health Care?
-w-
Now, is the Academy a good idea?
Probably.
However, what started as a decent exploration by a quality school board (DSBN), has gotten side-tracked in the language used. Using Education to help solve poverty IS a good idea. Too bad, DSBN -and the media- couldn’t have predicted that Calling it ‘poverty’ isn’t a good idea.
The concept that parents can choose specialty schools for their children is great (eg. French immersion, high-skills, etc), as explained by the Director of Education Warren Hoshizaki. But, why couldn’t this Academy be called something like ‘College-Bound Academy’ for people whose families have never gone beyond high school? That wouldn’t limit it to poor folks, and would include Many of us, whose parents never attended College/University, but worked hard to send us there.
My daughter was hired upon graduation from Trent U’s Teachers College to teach at Drapers’ Academy in Harold Hill (NE London, England). The community was created as a model townsite when East-End London was re-built after WWII bombing. Today, my daughter says that taxis are loathe to go there without being pre-paid, and that she has Grade 7 boys involved in gang fighting….
This school is at-this-moment being re-created to try to change a ghetto-like community and encourage higher education. About 10-20% of the teachers were recruited from Canada – perhaps we have different attitudes to treating people equally, regardless of race, creed, class, origin? The school is a partnership between the local Board, Drapers’ Academy & Queen Mary’s University. Sounds similar to our DSBN Academy, doesn’t it?
Doing nothing in Harold Hill isn’t an option, but my daughter reports that it’s an uphill battle to light the spark of curiosity in that culture.
Almost forgot: the Drapers’ Guild is ~800 years old, and their mission statement has included Education for a very long time. Isn’t it interesting that a business group should be asked to participate in this British experiment?
~Lorne WHITE, Trustee 1976-78
Niagara South Board of Education
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Linda, Well said. I have been attending the dsbn meetings for over three years and i also ran for trustee. I received the highest vote of all 13 candidates in Niagara on The Lake but in St Catharines I did not receive the votes needed to put me over.
I have and will continue to represent Equality for all children.
We must stay on top of the DSBN and hold them accountable.
We need transparency, no more lies tell parents what your plans are and talk to us before you make major decisions.
Cheers
Paolo Miele
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There are many people in this area of 10% unemployment, an area where industry seems to have been forsaken and we the public have seen what could be best described as malfeasance on the part of some elected people. Atlas Steel. John Deere, Union Carbide, Wabasso, Welland Pipe, Shaw Pipe and numerous foundries are an example of industry that have fled this area. We have Civic Servant staffing where the $100,000 club seems to be the goal and each year we see the ranks swell as the “OTHER” peoples are suffering . There is close to 200 employees of the DSBN of Niagara in that club and that does not include the Cathholic School Boards whom I am certain are not without there share of members in that club.
Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves in 1882 and Martin Luther King aided in eliminating segregation in the 20th century and NOW we see the elite re- instigating it in our Niagara Region, a segregation the leaves a bad taste in the mouths of the majority of residence in this impoverished Region.
The poorer folk are never allowed input just herded into accepting their fate much like the NHS and now the DSBN and others are doing now IT IS TIME WE REACT to this form of DICTATORSHIP
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Please note that Betty Lous Souter is listed to present about the DSBN Academy low income school on Feb 8 after 730 pm at 191 Carlton St. in St. Catharines, after Paolo Miele (DSBN Watchdog), Samantha Battersby (low income Mom, her views are stated here http://www.bulletmedia.ca/niagara_bullets.php?action=viewa&ID=225) and Brock Professor Kevin Gosine who is a consultant on the Pathways to Education program, an award winning program to help low income/at risk students. Please consider attending.
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What has baffled me from the beginning of this controversy is that if the DSBN has identified the potential candidates, why aren’t they targeting this problem at the local level- in other words the individual kids within their own school. The plan is well intentioned to be certain, but I believe this is not a cost/results effective solution.
Just a comment on Linda’s posting re- Betty Lou Souter is addressing the DSBN in her function as CEO of Community Care of St. Catharines and Thorold. There’s a name recognizable to many for her other role as Chair of the Board of Trustees for the NHS. Perhaps, her solution will be bus the kids up a brand new, state of the art facility in west St. Catharines ?
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Well said Linda. It is now up to us, the public and the parents of these children to stand up for them!! If the board thinks this is the best they can do, I suggest the return to the drawing board!!
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