The board voted on July 2 to close Brantwood, Linbrook, Chisholm and New Central public schools and build a school in Clearview. The two remaining southeast Oakville schools, E. J. James and Maple Grove, would be renovated.

While the fate of the schools will be reexamined, the board did approve the construction of a new Clearview JK-8 school, which is slated to open September 2010.

The board’s decision is a direct result of a report released last Friday by the Ministry of Education. Former education minister Dave Cooke was appointed to create the report as a result of a petition received by the Ministry of Education in July 2008 asking for a review of the board’s decision.

Cooke’s report is not binding, as the Ministry of Education has no authority to overturn school closure decisions or delay their implementation.

Wayne Joudrie, director of education, said the board took Cooke’s comments seriously. The recommendations passed at Wednesday’s meeting that were in response to the report demonstrate the board’s commitment to the community, he said.

“The main reason that the board approved the recommendations, and I generated them to begin with, was an act of goodwill with the community,” Joudrie told The Oakville Beaver. “A third party, independent facilitator came in, did a review and identified a couple of areas that were of particular concern, and for us to ignore them wouldn’t be appropriate. We are a public body and we need to look at recommendations, particularly when they come from a third party, unbiased perspective.”

The board passed four recommendations Wednesday night in response to Cooke’s report. Besides constructing a new school in Clearview and suspending the implementation of the July 2 decision, the board also approved a recommendation to develop a community consultation process to explore alternate solutions.

The board will work with the Ministry of Education to develop a process that will include timelines, representation and alternative accommodation options.

A draft of how this process will work is expected to be presented by board staff before the end of January.

Joudrie told the Beaver he does not want to rush the consultation process, declining to comment on a possible format for the process or a timeline. He said a final decision on accommodation needs of students in southeast Oakville could possibly be made by the end of June.

“We are interested in dealing with this appropriately, so if it takes a little more time, we’d rather get it right,” he said. “In an ideal world, we would have this resolved by summer break, but again, there are a lot of pieces that need to fall into place before that could happen.”

The fourth recommendation passed at Wednesday’s meeting was that Joudrie will present a report to the board by the end of January that will respond to Cooke’s findings.

Oakville Residents for Public Education (ORPE), the group that coordinated the request for an administrative review by the Province, is satisfied the board is taking action in response to Cooke’s report.

“We welcome the decision to suspend the closure decision,” said ORPE spokesperson Mark Caskenette. “We’re happy the board has clearly signaled that they want to fix the process and, I hope, ensure that the ultimate decision can garner the support of the community.”

Caskenette said there is still too much uncertainty around the upcoming consultation process. He said if the board outlines exactly what it is looking for from the outset, then an appropriate course of action can be determined.

“We still have some concerns there is a lot of fuzziness around the process that will move forward,” Caskenette said. “I think for our community, we would like to see an open and transparent process. We still believe it would be useful from both our and the board’s perspective, to have a third party, independent facilitator manage the discussion. ”

Caskenette said the board should take its time crafting the process proposal.

“We would like to see that it is not a hastily developed process, but one that does meet all the elements that Cooke outlines in his report,” he said.

Once the proposal is established, Caskenette proposed that the actual process not last as long as PARC PE14, which met regularly about the accommodation issue from May 2007 through to March 2008.

“I think an abbreviated process would be suitable to the community,” Caskenette said. “I can’t imagine people wanting to spend another year going through this.”

Clearview Oakville Community Alliance (COCA), Clearview’s ratepayers association, is happy with the board’s decision to go ahead with a new school, according to president Michelle Sloane.

“The Clearview community is pleased with the final decision to build a school in Clearview,” Sloane said. “We are thankful that the construction will not be dependent on an accommodation review in the balance of Ward 3. We are excited to begin our journey to a new school in Clearview and are excited that our children will have the opportunity for a brand new, modern school with the best programming available.”

Joudrie said supporting the construction of the Clearview school was a decision made based on Cooke’s report.

“It was reflected in Mr. Cooke’s submission and very clearly he outlined that Clearview students should be educated in a school in Clearview,” he said.

Although it is not known how many schools will be closed in southeast Oakville, the board specified a 500-student school for Clearview in its approved recommendation Wednesday night.

Several trustees expressed concern about committing to a specific student capacity before a decision is made regarding the other schools in the area. However, Joudrie remained firm that regardless of future decisions, the Clearview community can support a student body of that size.

“Right now, we believe there are enough students in the Clearview area that are either currently enrolled and are being bussed out, or are in other schools, that we believe we would attract,” he told the Beaver. “As a result, 500 is a very solid number.”

Joudrie said that doing another study on the size of the school or waiting for the decision regarding the remaining schools could cause significant construction delays.

“Building a school takes time,” Joudrie said. “We have to go through several stages to get designs, the architect, general contractors, etc. and all of that takes time. If we had set that piece aside at the same time and reviewed the entire package, it would have been, we believe, a disservice to the Clearview community.”

COCA supports a 500-capacity school, saying it is the ideal size.

“For best programming in Halton, your school should be 500,” Sloane said.

Although the July 2 decision specified that Clearview would be a JK-8 English school, Monday’s recommendation did not determine what the school would offer.

COCA hopes to be able to provide input to the board on the school’s programs, Sloane said.

“We will continue to work with the board on the final size of the school and potential programs, such as a possible French immersion program that was discussed last night by trustees,” she said.

Caskenette said ORPE supports a school in Clearview, as long as students are coming from that community and not being bussed in from other parts of southeast Oakville as a way to meet the 500-student capacity.

“A school for the Clearview community that meets the elements of the Cooke report, including minimized bussing, which we would interpret to be a made-in-Clearview solution for the children of their community, would not be a concern for the community,” he said. “The concern comes up about where does the student population come from. There has never been clarity through this process about where the population will come from to make a viable model in Clearview.”

Joudrie hopes the board’s decision to review accommodation options in southeast Oakville in light of Cooke’s report will improve relations between members of the community and the board.

“I’m always a big fan of people working towards, as Mr. Cooke said, a consensus and making everyone happy,” he said. “If you work hard, most often you can come to that type of resolution. I’m hopeful that will occur here.”