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10 - The Oakville Beaver, Friday May 2, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com Students plead to remain together Continued from page 8 Grade 7 French immersion student, who will be heading to Sunningdale in the fall. "It is such a good experience to have two different sets of people together." The students also expressed concerns about transferring from a middle school back to an elementary school. Howcroft said she is not excited about going back to Sunningdale. "There will be so many younger students and it feels like taking a step backwards," Howcroft said. "A lot of students at my school are worried about what is going to happen and how they are going to deal about being separated." If the current recommendations are approved, English track students at Lorne Skuce, Munn's and Montclair will be directed to a single school ­ Montclair ­ which will offer junior kindergarten to Grade 8 starting September 2009. Approximately $2.1 million in renovations are needed to prepare the school, according to the school board. The end result is that Lorne Skuce will be closed by September 2009. Heather KcKechnie, a Lorne Skuce parent, suggested their school be considered the new English track school. She cited Montclair's lack of windows, dated appearance, location along a busy street, and lack of outdoor play structures, and lack of safe drinking water as some of its unpleasant aspects. "Upgrades have recently been done to Lorne Skuce, including new windows, a new boiler, new pavement and a new roof," said KcKechnie. "A lot of money has been spent to improve the school in the last four years and we feel that the disposition of this property would be a waste of taxpayers' money." A common theme in many of the night's delegations was communication issues between the board and parents. "The legitimate concerns of parents have been intensified because of a lack of effective communication and the confusion that many of the parents have experienced thus far," said Jane Robertson, a Sunningdale parent. There were several delegates who agreed with the current recommendations, but asked the board to make its commitment to the PARC recommendations a top priority, especially when "A lot of students at my school are worried about what is going to happen and how they are going to deal about being separated." Carly Howcroft, Grade 7 Sunningdale French immersion student it comes to finances. "We do support Mr. Joudrie's report and recommendations for three strong, vibrant schools.... We are asking you, the trustees, to please consider PARC PE16B's sixth recommendation, which, I quote, states: the overcrowding and under-enrollment conditions present in the schools studied should be treated as a matter of urgency," said Anne Scrafield-Goulart, a PARC PE16B member and Ward 6 parent, who was part of a delegation representing more than 130 parents from wards 5 and 6. Joudrie told The Beaver he was impressed with the suggestions made at Wednesday's meeting. He said he will take the information provided by the parents and likely make adjustments to the current list of recommendations. "I think they really want some assurances that if we are moving down this road, that the financial and fiscal house is in order and what we end up with is something that is really good for kids," Joudrie said. "I think there are some really good nuggets in the suggestions they gave and I expect we will be using some of those in the final report to the board." Joudrie said he anticipates having the final draft of recommendations available on the school board's website at www.haltondsb.on.ca on May 16 in anticipation of the May 21 meeting, when the board will make a decision on the issue. "The board has all kind of options on May 21," Joudrie said. "They can approve the recommendations, modify a set of recommendations or send it back to staff to do something different. They have lots of latitude around this, but a lot of trustees get that we have an urgent issue to deal with, particularly at Sunningdale, so their inclination is to move with some urgency." For more information on this issue, visit the school board's website at www.haltondsb.on.ca.