The committee carrying out the program and accommodation review of five public schools in Kingsville, Harrow and Amherstburg is now set in stone.
The first public meeting is set for January 29 at General Amherst High School in Amherstburg as the Greater Essex County District School Board begins a new PARC process involving General Amherst, Kingsville District High, Harrow District High, Harrow Public and Western Secondary schools.
Superintendent of Education Todd Awender says the new PARC may mean a better shot at getting a K-12 school in Kingsville after the Ministry of Education rejected the board's first proposal. "Hopefully through this procees, we're hoping that we could even build better business cases that, to the ministry, would warrant them providing us money to get one or two new schools if that's possible," says Awender.
According to Awender, the committee is being tasked with decreasing empty spaces in schools and enhancing programming.
"I've been through them before myself, a number of them, and I've often seen what you thought might happen at the beginning often ends up different because you have so many different people that are giving their input and things come up that you may have never even thought of," says Awender.
The committee includes four community representatives; one more than usual to better represent the communities involved. The committee will first hold a closed meeting on January 26 to go over organizational issues like electing a chairperson before the public meeting.