The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board has voted in favour of a major amalgamation project that aims to spark new partnerships.
Trustees have approved the transfer of students from Hess Street School and Strathcona Elementary to a new junior kindergarten to Grade 8 school on the Sir John A. MacDonald Secondary site.
Christine Bingham, the trustee for Wards 1 and 2 says this proposal also involves the redevelopment of the eight-acre plot into a community hub.
“That’s where we’re really going to be pushing the funding from the ministry to create this because they’re looking specifically for community hubs,” said Bingham.
She adds, “we have a ton of partnerships that we could be putting in there that would serve our schools, that would serve our students that would serve the community downtown.”
David Heska, a member of the parent council at Hess Street School as well as the group Keep Hess Open, calls the move a success.
“As a committee to work hard over the past eight months to come with a proposal that says we could actually develop something here in the core, at the John A. MacDonald site, and then to have others kind of buy into that, is just a great news story.”
The pitch, according to Heska, was sparked by other options within the accommodation review, that would bus students out of the neighbourhood.
He says now that the board has approved the redevelopment, the real work begins to make the community hub component a reality.
“It’s all of our responsibility to try to figure out and bring to the table, who are the partners,” Heska said.
“Is it McMaster University, is it Mohawk College, is it the Hamilton Community foundation, is it the YMCA, the YWCA or the adult education programs that the Hamilton school board has?” Heska said.
School board staff are expected to report back to trustees with a more detailed proposal on the community hub no later than December 2017.
Word on ministry funding will likely bring the board into 2018 as it tries to push plans ahead.
Heska says one positive for the parent council that fought to keep these schools open is that the motion by trustees states that they will remain open if funding falls through.
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