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6- The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday March 1, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-3824, ext. 224 Circulation: 845-9742 The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone (416) 340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate.The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Commentary NEIL OLIVER Publisher DAVE HARVEY General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager Metroland Media Group Ltd. includes: Ajax/Pickering News Advertiser, Alliston Herald/Courier, Arthur Enterprise News, Barrie Advance, Caledon Enterprise, Brampton Guardian, Burlington Post, Burlington Shopping News, City Parent, Collingwood/Wasaga Connection, East York Mirror, Erin Advocate/Country Routes, Etobicoke Guardian, Flamborough Review, Georgetown Independent/Acton Free Press, Harriston Review, Huronia Business Times, Lindsay This Week, Markham Economist & Sun, Midland/Penetanguishine Mirror, Milton MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA ANCHOR Circ. Manager WEBSITE oakvil ebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver is a division of Letter to the Editor Clearview deserves a school I am writing to you today to express my concerns and disappointment about the current school situation in Ward 3. I am a resident of Clearview and have been for 13 years. I strongly support a decision for a school to be built in Clearview. My husband and I moved to Clearview with the promise that a public school would be built in our community. A promise that has now been unfulfilled for over 20 years! This issue has been brought to the table many times over the years, without resolution, leaving Clearview residents feeling frustrated and hopeless. We are an orphaned community. Currently there are seven public schools south of Cornwall, an area with approximately 17,904 residents, while there is no public school north of Cornwall (Clearview), a community with approximately 7,208 residents (south of Cornwall ­ one school for every 2,557 persons and north or Cornwall ­ 0 schools for 7,208 persons!) Now, it seems, a decision is finally going to be made and I strongly feel that the residents of Clearview have been blind-sided by the latest process. I do not feel that the residents of Clearview have appropriate representation in our schools (Chisholm, Maplegrove and Linbrook) and as a result, information isn't being made available to us. While understandable, from the respective school's point of view, they, and the communities surrounding these schools, have agendas that are obviously very different. It is my understanding that the objective of the recently established PARC (program accommodation review committee) was to review and access the situation in Ward 3 (in Southeast Oakville) and make suggestions to the Halton District School Board as to what schools should be closed, consolidated or built, based on an established list of `values'. The latest recommendations made by the PARC on Feb. 19 do not fulfill theses values for the residents of Clearview. Specifically, the core values of, "Fairness to all of Ward 3 parents" and, "Ability to walk to a neighbourhood school" are not being met. Other `values' pertaining to programming, the stability to attract and maintain top staff, specialists for appropriate grade levels, minimizing split grades, long term stability, sustainable size, appropriate size for additional support (librarian, music teachers, vice principal etc), with schools serving their community, were not met either. A new school in Clearview would begin to address the 20-year (and perhaps, permanent?) inequity of Clearview students always missing out, by being unable to participate in `before and after school programs' because of busing. The community of Clearview is sustaining the schools in the south. It doesn't make sense to make costly renovations to buildings that are 50 to 76 years old, and, in many cases, environmentally questionable, when there is an open, unrestricted site available for a school that could offer the residents of Ward 3 optimal programming. The site available in Clearview could house a school that parents would have confidence was safe, clean and environmentally sound. A final decision that Clearview children will always be bused to older, inefficient schools south of Cornwall and used to subsidize these old schools is unacceptable. A decision needs to be made for a larger school that could accommodate the programs and facilities necessary to meet the needs of the community and all our children, a decision that would provide students with the best that our educational system can offer. Please do not let the wants of a few placard waving parents dictate the future and needs of the entire Ward. JANCIS SULLIVAN IAN OLIVER Group Publisher Media Group Ltd. Canadian Champion, Milton Shopping News, Mississauga Business Times, Mississauga News, Napanee Guide, Newmarket/Aurora EraBanner, Northumberland News, North York Mirror, Oakville Beaver, Oakville Shopping News, Oldtimers Hockey News, Orillia Today, Oshawa/Whitby/Clarington Port Perry This Week, Owen Sound Tribune, Palmerston Observer, Peterborough This Week, Picton County Guide, Richmond Hill/Thornhill/Vaughan Liberal, Scarborough Mirror, Stouffville/Uxbridge Tribune, Forever Young, City of York Guardian RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville TV AUCTION Taking the leap into adulthood and landing on your feet E ighteen years ago today, I took out the garbage. Carted it to the curb. Much to the bewilderment of my baffled better half. It was in the wee hours of a cold, damp morning. A light snow was falling. My car was idling in the driveway, my wife was in it, not trying to figure out what I was doing ­ it was pretty obvious that I was hauling trash ­ but, rather, why? In time, the proverbial light bulb would go on in my head as I belatedly came to embrace another valuable survival lesson for expectant fathers: if your wife's water has broken, her contractions are clustering, and she's waiting for you to deliver her to the hospital, it's probably not prudent to delay the trip with (what your spouse may believe to be inessential) manly tasks like taking out the trash. Even if (in my logical defense) it is garbage day. Eighteen years ago today, our second son, Scott Andrew Juniper, was born ­ not in the car en route to Credit Valley Hospital, as we like to joke, but close. Okay, truth be told, we had an hour or two to spare (I probably could have fixed the leaky kitchen faucet before we left, if I had any clue how to actually fix a leaky faucet). Still, the birth was remarkable in its brevity; Scott was obviously in a hurry to get into the world, and on with his life. Nowadays he doesn't seem anxious to get anywhere. He likes it just fine where he is. He likes hanging out with his friends, doing not much of anything beyond school and work. Personally, I cannot relate. When I was his age I was just aching to get on with the rest of my life. I'd had enough of high school, of my hometown. I had a notion I wanted to be a journalist, a Andy Juniper notion I wanted to be a novelist, and more than a notion that I wanted to be "anywhere but here." And, because I cannot relate, I worry. I worry about my son and his future the way Garp worried about his offspring in John Irving's The World According to Garp: obsessively, to the point of distraction. In my defense: I can't even begin to explain how close I am to this (now-adult) human being. I fathered him. Hell, I mothered him. After my wife's maternity leave expired, I stayed home with him. We did everything together. We were inseparable. And, when our eldest headed off to Junior Kindergarten, Scott and I were alone. Alone, together, five days a week. He was (and remains) a good egg. Well behaved. And a fine source of entertainment with his creativity, curiosity and wry sense of humor. Most days when I was doing my impersonation of Mr. Mom, he'd have me howling with laughter, at least once. Of course, at some point in time he began to grow up, and naturally pull away. There have been times in recent years when I've felt disconnected from him, times when I've looked at my son and thought that my boy's been abducted by aliens. I recently reread David Gilmour's poignant memoir, The Film Club: A True Story of a Father and a Son. It's a beautiful book, brimming with insight as Gilmour navigates the choppy waters of his son Jesse's journey into adulthood with empathy and unconventionality; for instance, he lets Jesse drop out of school at age 16 to find himself, in part by watching films with his dad. While you may not agree with Gilmour's unusual methods, I think you have to agree with his logic: spend time with your children, believe in them and, even if they don't choose the path you would have chosen for them, if you afford them the opportunity and the space, they will invariably make the leap into adulthood. And, hopefully, they will land on their feet. Andy Juniper can be visited at his Web site, www.strangledeggs.com, or contacted at ajuniper@strangledeggs.com.