HawthorneVillager.com

Hope everyone had a great Easter Weekend (some of yours may not be over till tomorow)!

are any of you attending the School Board meeting tomorrow night?

HDSB Public Meeting to present changes to proposed Capital Plan
Tuesday, April 18, 2006 at 7-9 p.m.
Hawthorne Village Public School (Gym)
850 Bennett Blvd., Milton

here's a link to the Capital Plan info:

http://www.hdsb.ca/main.aspx?sMenuKey=1 ... PageID=468

I am going in hopes of getting info on the plans for a school in the ph14 area and regarding accomodation at HV Public and Sam Sherrat until it's built. if anyone else is going, let me know - we could actually meet face to face i'm going solo, since my husband has to mind the youngins.

I will be going as well. Need as many voices and faces there as possible. This can be an RSVP thread

See you tomorrow night.

Mike

awesome - glad to see there are others going. shoud we have a secret handshake or all wear something red?



i know a friend of mine has her kids in french immersion at martin street school. the school boundry maps show martin street is the primary FI school for coates crossing and EW foster for the rest of hawthorne village.
at least for 2006-7, i'm sure it will change..

http://www.hdsb.ca/main.aspx?sMenuKey=8 ... PageID=335

Is it good for parents to go to this meeting if their kids do not go to this school(s)?

PS. Hurry up and build a french school in Milton

Tim

PaulB, I don't think your comments are fair. My son goes to EW Foster for Immersion. As a parent, I see having a second language in this day and age as a major priority. As a result, I made a poitn to take the time to ensure he was enrolled in a program like this starting in PreK, in a private school, until it was offered in a Kindergarten level at a public school.

My son needs the extra challenge at school, and French offers this to him. If I could get him into Sacre Coeur in Georgetown, I would break my arm off to do that....unfortunately they are quite selective with the language background that your family comes from, and I as do many, do not share those qualifications.

EW Foster is a great little school with a great staff, as are other schools in the area. If you may remember correctly, this EXACT same problem happened in Mississauga for those of you around my age, 28, when we were in school.

The houses boomed, and the Boards CHOSE to mess up the boundaries, overload all of the new schools, (causing crowding, portables. etc. etc.) while the older schools then sat empty. For those of you Streetsville-ians, I know I went to Russell Langmaid for PS....after I graduated, it sat empty while River Grove PS had over 12 portables at the time. Same happened to Dolphin for grades 7/8....right after I graduated, they opened Hazel McCallion and that school became just as overcrowded, and Dolphin is now a ghost town.

These schools are not "allocated" specifically for French Immersion programs, that is definately not the problem whatsoever. There is a set boundary for "local" children to attend a regular program within each of the schools. If they were to delete the French Programs, do you think the kids in them would just drop out of school?? Those kids are still bodies that need to sit in a classroom in Milton somewhere!!

It is the Board's responsibility to ensure that they make the most of whatever resources are available to them....obviously not the case from what I am seeing. Programs such as French Immersion, or even Special Education, etc. for that matter are not the problem....and absolutely NOT should they be cut for the sake of overcrowding at other schools.

I am not offended with your comments, but just wanted to share my opinions on this, as I am sure you may just not be familiar with the program, as perhaps your kids are not involved in it.

This is also not a shot to you, please don't take it this way, (I hate making posts like this on a board, because they sound like I'm mad, but I'm not...) but playing devil's advocate, private schooling is also an option for students not in a specialized program, should you not like the decisioning by the Board as well......not just for French Immersion.

phhhewwww....OK, off my chest!

Bottom line is that we need to get on top of the Board to ensure that their planning decisions and boundaries are practical for populations and student occupancy, for both now and future growth, and I agree that it is necessary for as many as possible to attend a meeting like this.

My son will be graduating to WI Dick next year to attend Grade 6 French Immersion....so the public school system is not in my immediate radar, however, when my 1 and 2yr olds are old enough for school in the next few years, I don't want them into an overcrowded school with no programs left due to the board's previous poor planning decisions either.

Jessica

BUMP...

As a reminder, the meeting is happening tonight. I think its important for any parent of a child at HVPS to attend even if its just to get more information. The proposed changes not only affect the children attending the school but the local area as well. With double students comes double number of cars people, traffic etc.

I think anyone who lives in the area should come to the meeting to hear whats going to be happening around us. Information is good

See you there. We can try to congregate in an area.. someone bring a HV sign...hahah.

Mike

I will be there, I agree with Paul to a certain degree.

You cannot build if you do not have a solid foundation. 1200 kids in a school built for 650 is not a solid foundation. If you need to sacrifice other aspects of education in the Region, it must be done to rectify this problem. I do not care if it is football teams, sports equipment, music equipment or whatever. Everyone needs the same base and that is just not happening here.

And I may bring up the $600,000 payout although I do not want to look stupid if they challange me on something since I do not fully know the storey.

Matt

Anyone know if gaurdian angel is going to have the same problem with sizing??

Matt

Paul;
I don't think I'm understanding

I am totally with you into wanting schools of 1200 kids.....but I don't understand how cutting programs is going to "free up" more space in the schools. There are no kids in these schools that are not in this area that would otherwise attend schools elsewhere. Therefore, should we cancel these programs, the same number of students would still be at these schools. The programs have nothing to do with population at schools.

Take EW Foster, for instance. That school wouldn't hold more kids if it wasn't a French Immersion program....as right now they are filling the remaining spots with full, normal English programs. So instead of it being a 70% capacity school with JUST a french program, it is at 100% capacity, as we have approx 30% of students in a regular program.

Can you help me, I'm just not understanding your reasoning, I guess.....

Jessica

great to hear all the response on this topic! parent need to get involved in how the school board makes decisions regarding accomodation, building and program funding. Paul B is right - we vote for these trustees, so they have to listen to us..

by the way, this is a public info session on the capital plan for all milton schools (the capital plan is actually for all of halton, but each town gets their own meeting) it is being held in HV public, but the plan they are presenting affects all public elementary and secondary schools in halton. even the ones not built yet... i.e. the proposed location SW of thomspon/Derry. even if you are just looking for info, please attend!

i don't know anyone in person, so i'd love to meet those of you attending.. if you see me wondering around by myself wearing a pink t-shirt, please introduce yourself! this is sounding a bit like a blind date

see you tonight!

bernadette

Paul, I did not see Caroline there and how was the leaf game, oops, I mean work?????

Matt

The meeting was well attended last night which is a good sign. Paul Tate showed up and answered a few questions and made the "political" statements our hosts couldnt.

The decision to put in portapaks at HVPS has been put off until next year so its still possible and in the cards. They are looking for submissions until May 18th where they will be collected and the finalized plan will be ready sometime in June to present to the school board.

Sometime today the plan V2 that was handed out should be available on the site http://www.hdsb.ca/main.aspx?sMenuKey=1 ... PageID=468 is the link for all of that information.

Theres still time to make comments on this even if youre not a parent of children that go to these schools. They are looking for input from all residents in the area since these changes can and will affect everyone.

They admitted they are at least 2 schools behind in construction but due to funding from the province they are trying to look at other options instead of building them such as redrawing boundries etc.

Have a great day!
Mike

The meeting was very well attended – and I thought that Paul Tate seemed very supportive and willing to take our concerns to the board and province. (Since that was my first time seeing him in person, I will be fair and not assume his approach had anything to do with the upcoming municipal elections)

Version 2 of the Capital plan did have changes included in it that came directly from public input after the first meeting. That meeting was not as well attended – word must have spread!

The big sticking point last night was the fact that the plan they are proposing to the board (upon approval from the board, it will go to the province) does not include building the 4th school in the Coates crossing area. Instead they are proposing that the students from that area be accommodated at Bruce Trail (the new school on Costigan Rd) and Sam Sheratt via portables. I think I will start a new topic on that can of worms in hopes of catching the attention of future coates crossing (ph14 & 15) residents that are not following this thread.

To be continued…..

good point! i will find a contact for Mattamy. i'm on a mission now

it hasn't been scrapped yet - the board members that were there seemed to get the message. i have a feeling that the response will be so overwhelming that they will have to at least make the pitch for funding to the province... let's just pray that the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

so let's start squeaking to our MPPs!