Dear Editor:
It’s final. Westmeath Public School will close for good at the end of June.
The Renfrew County District School Board (RCDSB) trustees correctly identified this as an emotional issue for the community. However, these emotions are not confined to the sense of loss and grief at the demise of the 110-year-old school.
My dominant emotion now is frustration at what was passed off as consultation – all perfectly within Ministry of Education guidelines, mind you – in this fast-tracked three-month “modified process.”
Frustration at the board’s failure to acknowledge or address the many concerns and suggestions raised by parents and other community members.
Frustration at the presumed gullibility of the community as it responded in good faith to the invitation to engage in the process, an invitation that implied some hope of influencing decision.
Yes, our voices were “heard” and noted and are recorded in the Board staff report. However, they were not reflected in any board staff or trustee response to the many questions, concerns, and suggestions offered. The “consultation” was an elaborate and costly opportunity to vent – to what purpose? So that people would be so awestruck at having their input heard and noted that they wouldn’t mind that it was not considered worthy of response? If I would have vented over a bottle of wine with a neighbour or gone to a shrink, it would have had the same impact on the final decision, probably would have left me feeling much better, and certainly would have saved the RCDSB a lot of money.
I am frustrated that the choice of WPS families is being trampled. I am further frustrated at the lack of any attempt to compare the educational value of what is being destroyed with the presumed advantages of consolidation.
I am appalled that there was not even the courtesy to deal with each of the schools in a separate motion. Madawaska and Westmeath, which surely are very dissimilar, voted on in the same motion.
I bristled at the suggestion by some trustees that those questioning consolidation lack the ability or willingness to work with other people, rather than recognizing that these attributes are foundational to the rural way of life and are precisely what are fostered in a community school.
We were admonished to “be positive” going forward, as if that, too, was a novel idea. Apparently positivity is a very elastic concept, since the many positive suggestions included in community feedback were not deemed worthy of response.
Presumably a bigger school will inculcate in the children a more acceptable version of positivity, along with a spirit of co-operation superior to
those of their parents.
It is clear now that the three-month “modified process” was merely a rubber stamp for what had already been decided. Since we’re about saving money, what was the cost of this farce in two communities, and how does the Board
justify it?
Yes, Trustees, I am emotional. You got that right.
Marie Zettler,
Member of the Westmeath Community
