ARC 13 a.k.a the biggest waste of taxpayer money and time!

I brought this up when this ARC started in January about the whole thing is a crock, and 11 months later I think I'm pretty close on my assessment. If they really wanted a true discussion on what to do with the schools lets have a PUBLIC forum and let everyone have a say. The current system doesn't allow for that, instead the recommendations put forward at the end of this were put their by Parent Council EXECUTIVE members that had their own personal agendas in putting forth these recommendations and don't truly give a DAMN what the majority of parents wanted in the end. In the end it's the Taxpayer that gets screwed in the end. I hope that in the end the TVDSB does what they have done in every other ARC and ignore the recommendations and go with the one's they presented at the beginning. My biggest problem with the ARC all along was that the only ones that had any say in the end were overzealous Parent group people that DID NOT poll their school community to see what they thought, on top of that the recommendations that they did put forth will add up to much more cost than the cost of closing the 4 schools, again who do they think is going to pay for this. This whole ARC just reeks of self interest and secrecy from the public and in my opinion that's the true crime of the matter.

There are changes that Desperately need to be implemented in the way they decide to close schools.

1. Eliminate the use of ARC's from the process outside of the community reps the only people on these committee's are self serving and doesn't give a DAMN what the rest of the parents in their school community want. I have proof of this claim, just ask I will tell.

2. Make it mandatory that OPEN public meetings are held at EACH school, eliminate Parent Councils from running the meetings. Have a vote on the recommendations that are brought forth during the meeting, and that the only ones that go forward are ones that passed a PUBLIC vote.

3. Dissolve the current school boards and return to the school boards from pre-amalgamation, which would add trustees from your LOCAL area and Eliminate the current system of voting where there are only 2 voting from the area and the rest are from out of the local area.

In the end there are some of you that think that I'm spewing out sour grapes, I can assure you I am not the school that my kids attend is one of the one's in the study that will get an addition. I feel that the Thames Valley District School Board has had a vendetta against schools outside of London, just look at the facts. They have built plenty of new schools within London and only a handful in the rural area while closing way to many schools. I have a even better idea, the next school board elections are next year, let's hold these trustees accountable and vote EVERY one of them out. I can think of one in my area that should have been run out of office years ago. Lets put new faces and new ideas on the board of trustees and lets keep them accountable each and every one of them. If they know they are going to have their feet held to the fire then they will soon learn that when their constituents say something they better damn well listen.

The public input meeting on the current recommendations will be held at Princess Elizabeth Public Schools in Ingersoll on November 18th at 7pm, to get your name on the list to speak at the meeting email Susan Van Aarsen at s.vanaarsen@tvdsb.on.ca A group will be granted 10 minutes to present and an individual will be given 5 minutes. I urge people to come out and see what the future education of your kids will look like if these people get their way, It's time to get off the sidelines people and time to get involved what better time than now to start.

To view the recommendations put forth by the ARC just click on the title of the blog.