It will be very hard for the Provincial Government to avoid being drawn into the mess which is the re-organization of schools on the north-east Avalon. Demographic shifts, population explosions, shifting "family" neighbourhoods, aging infrastructure, commitments to neighborhood schools, new class size limits and existing infrastructure make for a tangled process for planning for the future. The average age of schools in the capital city is 42 years old.
The Eastern District School Board has been in the midst of a planning exercise for three years. Phase two is currently underway. They will ask the Province for permission to proceed with building new infrastructure when the process is finished and recommendations are accepted.
The Province, though, decides what projects get approved. They hold the purse strings. The board can plan but the Province will decide priorities. In effect, the Department of Education will have the final say.
Today's Telegram illustrates that government wants to have all the facts in hand before releasing engineering reports commissioned by the Department of Education on Bishops College and Holy Heart of Mary School. Building reports have caused the Province lots of headaches in the past.
The Eastern District School Board used these reports to move forward with recommendations in its phase 2 school organization and capital works plan. The Province says the reports are still in draft form.
From personal experience, the Province is right. Last spring the school council at Virginia Park School received an engineering report on the school that was full of language causing us concern about the safety of our children. It forced us into action. We were mystified in the fall when the Minister of Education played down our concerns and claimed to have addressed the report's concerns. It led to a very public and acrimonious dispute between Minister Joan Burke and me.
In the end it turned out that we were both right. The engineering report that we had been given by the board was not the final report. The Department of Education had ordered a review of the most contentious issues related to life safety. A subsequent engineering study was done. The two documents together were the final report. Someone at the board level had forgotten to provide us with that document which addressed many of our most serious concerns.
If the reports given to government in the case of Bishops and Holy Heart, which are much larger and older facilities, needed further clarification then they are not final, and are in fact drafts. What purpose would be served in publicly releasing the studies until they are final?
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