Concerned Port Dover citizenry ask schoolboard- give PDCS its fair shake
Residents of Port Dover are calling on the Grand Erie District School Board (GEDSB) to abandon their plans to close the high school in the fastest growing community in the area. Rural school closure is an issue of national concern. Recently, the local municipal Council passed a resolution calling on the provincial government to stop closing schools.
The School Board is undertaking a review process of 5 Norfolk Secondary Schools, with Port Dover’s declining student enrollment at the forefront of the discussion. According to numbers presented to the review committee on Oct 13 by GEDSB Superintendent of Business, Jamie Gunn, The Board is providing ‘courtesy bussing’ for 621 kids in Norfolk to attend another school outside of their catchment area. That just doesn’t make sense. Port Dover is working hard to find solutions but the School Board isn’t giving Port Dover its fair shake. They are allowing grade 8 students from PDCS traditional feeder schools to be diverted to Simcoe. They have haulted the successful program for Chinese students at PDCS. The School Board’s own data concludes that if all local students went to Port Dover Composite School (PDCS), it would have the second highest enrollment rate in the county!
Port Dover residents are concerned for the future of Port Dover, concerned about the effect the school’s closure might have on the ability of the community to lure new residents, businesses, investment and doctors to Port Dover.
Save Our School (SOS) supporters are calling on the people of Port Dover to show up and be counted at the upcoming public delegation meeting on November 15, 2011, at 6:30 p.m. at Port Dover Composite School. Lawn signs supporting Port Dover Composite School are popping up around town, along with posters and flyers asking for support for the cause. Community action has saved PDCS from school closure before and it can happen again.
For more information, visit Silo Direct Link to savePDCS Facebook or email savePDCS@gmail.com.
Media enquiries: Pam Schneider, 519-583-3058
(Pam is a PDCS graduate and parent of two PDCS students and a parent representative on the School Board’s Accomodation Review Committee)
Recent Comments