School board could learn a lesson or two: Central students
The Barrie Examiner. Raymond Bowe.
Tradition isn’t lost on the younger generation at Barrie Central Collegiate.
Both Chelsea Nash and Lauren Beaney come from a long line of Central students, each having a grandparent who attended the downtown school. Neither teenager wants to hold the distinction of being the last.
The Dunlop Street high school is officially on the Simcoe County District School Board’s chopping block, with planners hoping to have it mothballed in June 2012, due to deteriorating infrastructure and accessibility issues.
“The board is looking at this from a numbers perspective,” Nash said. “They’re not looking at it from an emotional perspective.”
In October 2008, the board identified Central as a top priority. Last February, board trustees passed a motion to review the city’s five high schools: Central, Barrie North, Innisdale, Bear Creek and Eastview. An accommodation review committee (ARC) met for the first time this week.
Members will meet throughout the fall and winter, with a final recommendation due to the board director by March 2.
The board wants to open a new high school in 2015 in the southeast part of Barrie, where the population is exploding, although the board has no funding for such the project. Enrolment is declining downtown, so there’s no plan to build a new school there.
If Central does close, students now in Grade 11 would be the last graduating class, something of which many pupils are keenly aware.
“There’s absolutely no point in closing it down — I think it’s great,” said Grade 11 student Haley Gill.
“Central is more of a family (than other high schools in the city), so it would be hard to tear us apart.”
Nash, also a Grade 11 student, says it doesn’t make sense to close Central and send the students to other city high schools that are already operating well above capacity.
“Build a new school, but why not fix this one up? It’s a good building,” Nash said, adding she doesn’t believe the facility is so far gone that it should close.
Nash said she loves everything about the school, all of which would be lost forever if it closes.
“It’s the people in this school, it’s the teachers who have given us every opportunity,” Nash said. “It’s the atmosphere. There are just so many benefits.
“Everyone knows each other,” she added. “You’d lose that. It wouldn’t be the same (at a new school), because everyone will be secluded with their group of friends.”
“We’re all very close,” said Grade 11 student Alyssa Hall of her classmates.
Sharona Haynes, who just entered Grade 9 at Central, says the smaller school environment means more opportunities for students.
“I don’t want to go anywhere else,” said Haynes, who lives close enough that she can walk to school, something she may not be able to do somewhere else.
Grade 11 student Kaili Lukan said it would be a shame to lose the school’s long athletic tradition. The school has a string of Georgian Bay rugby crowns, as well as last June’s provincial women’s title which Lukan contributed to.
“None of us want this to happen,” she said of the closure. “This (school) is part of our life. It’s not falling apart and it’s not like we need anything.”
An elevator could be easily installed to address accessibility, Lukan said.
“It would cost the board more to build a new school than to fix this one up,” she said.
Grade 10 student Victor Fillion said the school isn’t falling apart around him.
“It doesn’t look like it needs to close down at all,” he said. “I see no reason.”
Enrolment is expected to decline at Central, North and Eastview over the next decade before stabilizing. Bear Creek, which includes more than 500 students who will move to the new high school in Angus next fall, has about 2,000 students.
With less than 1,000 pupils, Central is the only school in the city operating below capacity.
