Comment 120833

By rgelder (registered) - website | Posted February 27, 2017 at 13:54:44

Bang on, on most counts. However, it should be pointed out that Westdale's enrolment is significantly higher than that at SJAM. The fact that the former was exceeding capacity while the latter was beneath was cited as a justification for closure during the ARC process. In fact, Westdale was disqualified from closure consideration entirely on this basis alone.

However, the reasons for this also evidence of the point this excellent piece makes. Can the HWDSB justify why there is such a concentration of specialized programming (ie. French Immersion, International Baccalaureat, strings, etc.) contained in a single school, and is it any wonder that the building is bursting at the seams?

Wouldn't it be sounder educational policy to spread such programming across the city so that some buildings would not be overcapacity while others are barely half full? I would submit that there is classism endemic in the decisions tactily made to keep programs of choice out of the inner city and in more affluent areas.

Thank you for this piece. I can tell you first hand, from more ten years of teaching in the building, that Sir John A. Macdonald Secondary School is a special place as a function of the caring staff in addition to the reasons you provided. It is, indeed, a gem.

“An advanced city is not a place where the poor move about in cars, rather it’s where even the rich use public transportation”

Enrique Penalosa

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