TORONTO – Schools across Ontario are being closed because school boards say there aren’t enough kids to fill them.
But a decision to close one school is proving costly for the District School Board of Niagara where outraged parents and community members are taking the board to court over the closure of Parliament Oak Public School.
The concerned residents have formed CARE (Citizens for Accountable and Responsible Education) and launched a legal challenge.
They are asking the court to have a second look at the decision to close the school – the fourth in five years. They claim the process was unfair and the board came to an incorrect conclusion.
Robin Ridesic is spear heading the effort. Her five-year-old daughter Leila goes to Parliament Oak school, and her son Wes hopes to start school there next year.
“They are a shining star, that school, and we want to preserve that,” she said.
Instead the board’s plan is to bus students out to a much larger school nearly seven kilometres away even though an addition will have to be built at that school to fit them all.
Many in old town Niagara-on-the-Lake have argued closing the historic school would tear the heart out of their community.
One parent, Torquil Campbell said access to education is critical.
“If you don’t have that then what you have? You have an enclave, a resort community a retirement village, you don’t have a town,” he said.
The group and the town have both said there are up to 800 units still to be developed in old town. However, the school board claims that will only mean the addition of one student a year. An addition which will be offset by older kids graduating.
But the parents aren’t buying it.
“It is my client’s contention in this matter that that demographic information is incorrect,” said CARE’s lawyer Lionel Tupman.
The school board said the numbers are clear, and they got them from the town itself.
The board’s number say the school has only about 100 students and is operating at less than one third of it’s capacity – there are only four students in grade six.
Board vice-chair Sue Barnett said going to court is expected to prove costly for taxpayers.
“$100,000, easy, just to have somebody look at the paperwork,” she said.
But the parents insist it is the right thing to do.
“The facts are on our side, we know the right decision for our children for taxpayers for our community is to keep Parliament Oak open.” said Ridesic.
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