Students from the Owen Sound Collegiate and Vocational Institute rallied for their school on Friday.
More than 75 youth protested against the Bluewater School Board’s recommendation to renovate the OSCVI for kindergarten to Grade-8 students in 2017-18.
If the recommendation is approved by Trustees on Tuesday (April 19th), OSCVI would close on June 30th for the elementary school renovations.
Jazzmine Helm is a Grade-9 student at the OSCVI — and she says the proposal is unfair to the students who pride themselves on their school.
Helm, who organized Friday’s protest, tells Bayshore Broadcasting News the Board will tarnish the OSCVI’s prestigious reputation by approving the recommendation.
She says elementary school students won’t appreciate the school’s history and its graduates, including Billy Bishop and Agnes Macphail.
Students at OSCVI in @CityOwenSound are rallying for their school. @BluewaterDSB may vote on Tuesday to renovate.1/2 pic.twitter.com/fwt3PzuEGL
Bayshore News (@NewsBayshore) April 15, 2016
Chair of the Bluewater District School Board, Ron Motz, says any secondary school can be re-branded — and the Board will continue to honour distinguished graduates.
If approved, students from the OSCVI will be consolidated with West Hill Secondary School students at West Hill for the 2016-17 school year.
Helm says West Hill Secondary School is an aging facility and, if it’s possible, she’d prefer to be transferred to St. Mary’s High School.
She says a group of OSCVI students will attend the School Board meeting at 7 PM on Tuesday in Chesley to see if Trustees heard their concerns.
Marg Gaviller, the Bluewater Board’s member for Owen Sound, says a secondary school should remain on the City’s east-side.
However, her statement at a recent Committee of the Whole meeting failed to amend the final accommodation review report, which was recommended for approval.
Aside from reconfiguring Owen Sound’s secondary schools, the final ARC report also recommends that four City-area elementary schools be closed by 2018.
If approved, Derby Public School in Kilsyth would close as of June 30th.
Students would then be re-located to Arran Tara Elementary School, Hillcrest Elementary School and Hepworth Central Public School in September.
Bayview Public School and Sydenham Community School would both be closed effective June 30th, 2017 — and students would be re-located to the renovated OSCVI.
Dufferin Elementary School would also close on June 30th, 2017.
The students would then be re-located to Hillcrest Elementary School and Keppel-Sarawak Elementary School in September 2017.
