Sharbot Lake PARC to meet
again in August.
by Jeff Green
A last-minute intervention in favour of
locating a new school in Parham led members of the so-called “Sharbot
Lake PARC” (Program and Accommodation Review Committee) to call
another meeting before submitting their final report to the school
board.
Members of the committee will have one
month to consider narrowing the wording on the location of a new
school. The wording in their draft report calls for the school to be
built “at the Sharbot Lake High School site or any other
appropriate site.”
The members of the Limestone District
School Board’s PARC for Sharbot Lake High School and its four
feeder schools have been meeting since January, and their latest
meeting (July 6) followed two public meetings in June.
Near the end of the meeting, which
until then had focussed on the input received at the public meetings,
Leslie Pickard, a parent representative from Hinchinbrooke school,
presented some information she has gathered about available land at
the Hinchinbrooke site, which at 6 acres had been deemed too small to
handle the new Kindergarten to grade 12 school that is recommended by
the report.
Pickard had contacted the adjacent
landowners, which include Viv Lowery, Forde Robinson, the Township of
Central Frontenac, and the Parham Fair Board, and made the argument
that the cost of purchasing or obtaining agreements for leasing the
necessary lands would be minimal.
“Certainly when you compare the sale
value of the Sharbot Lake High School site [estimated in a board
staff report at $250,00] and the sale value of the Hinchinbrooke site
[estimated at $125,000] there is no real cost advantage to Sharbot
Lake over Parham,” Pickard said.
“I'm not doing this because I'm from
Parham,” she said, “it's just that this is a decision that we
will live with for 40 years, and I did this research because this is
what feels right to me. I am open to any site, but if we are hoping
to attract students from the south in order to have some enhanced
programming, Parham is closer than Sharbot Lake. The site is also
flat and open. It is just a better location than the Sharbot Lake
High School site.”
Pickard's submission threw a bit of a
curve ball into a process that seemed, at that point, to have been
winding up.
PARC members representing both Sharbot
Lake schools, and Clarendon Central in Plevna, challenged the
assertion that Parham is a central location, noting the distance from
Plevna to Parham.
Cheryl Armstrong, school council
co-chair from Sharbot Lake High School, said, “Leslie gave a
wonderful presentation about the advantages of this site. No one gave
a presentation about Sharbot Lake. I'm a little concerned that if we
submit our report with the wording it has now, there will be no
opportunity to look more closely at Sharbot Lake. Should we not be
choosing the site as a PARC rather than leaving it up to the board,
as our wording has it now?”
Roger Richard, the school board
treasurer, agreed, saying, “From the PARC's point of view it is
always best for PARC to make a decision.”
Barb McLaren, a school board trustee
(representing South Frontenac) who has been chairing the PARC
meetings, said there is “nothing stopping us from having another
meeting before finalising our report.”
A meeting has been set for August 11 at
Sharbot Lake High School. School board staff will prepare a report on
the implications for bussing of the two proposed school locations,
and if a member of the committee wants to provide background about
the advantages of the Sharbot Lake High School site they will have
the opportunity to do so.
