To the Editor,
Re: Trustees recommend re-opening Cedar as secondary school, April 14.
The school board is sending the district right back into an inefficient, very expensive, deficit-causing model that will only hurt district-wide education.
In a very short period of time, it has reversed the decision to consolidate elementary schools in Cedar; stopped all work on the conversion of the new Cedar elementary school; and decided to bus their children out of catchment, even though no other student in the district gets this service.
No mention of enrichment programs that have also been put on a backburner and will likely never see the light of day again. No mention of the horrid conditions of the Hammond Bay gym that was slated to be rebuilt. No mention of the entire surplus garnered over the past few years, through property sales that would have contributed to the creation of a brand-new secondary school.
Yes, they are doing what they said they would do. But these things only benefit their own small, sparsely populated community.
Bill BardNanaimo
To the Editor,
Re: Trustees recommend re-opening Cedar as secondary school, April 14.
The new school board, the majority of which was voted in on a platform of ‘Save Cedar Schools,’ has decided to not convert Cedar Secondary School. Big surprise. For the chairman of the board to state that the decision to re-open the school was not predetermined is a joke. People of Nanaimo, you have only yourselves to blame, as many of you did not turn out to vote. The people of Cedar came out in droves, and voted for a special-interest platform of trustees, who now have the majority vote on the board.
Next time, people, get out and vote so that everyone is represented fairly, and the rest of the community doesn’t have to pay the price for a decision that benefits only a small minority of the population.
Lee RobichaudLantzville