Raise the Hammer

How about social services being dumped on us to cover costs. Those services/not for profits could save a ton in operational costs if they moved into schools.

Hey Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hamilton-Burlington, how about a permanent home inside the old Scott Park HS? Connected to a beautiful, historic pool and soon a community/seniors centre. Next to a huge park. Big gym, a theatre for showing movies perhaps. We'll set aside room for a club house available after hours for Bigs and LIttles to utilize too.

Let's move Parkview students into that facility used for specialized learning, safe quiet environment, that also serves other children's needs like Big Brothers or the like.

If you offered space to Mountain (although it would be nice for them to continue to have their own facility as well), and you open up the Parkview curriculum to welcome students in other schools not reaching their full potential for various reasons. You could create quite a community hub in that old building. Move the Football Hall of Fame, create a home for the Hamilton Sports Hall of fame, put a coffee shop/eatery right off King (punch in a big window on either side of entranceway), and turn it into a bit of a street facing business that supports that communities needs.

I would love for US to purchase Scott Park. For us to create this new school perhaps under a separate/public board umbrella because separate school should be about different learning; not religion, that recognizes kids that learn differently (which is all of us for that matter), and teaches kids about everyone in their community and builds strong community members.

I'd like to know why the separate board isn't called just that. The Hamilton-Wentworth District Separate Board. Why is it the Catholic board? Is Catholicism really the minority faith? I would think agnosticism or atheism would be more inline with reality as this quote states:

A 2006 study suggests that atheists constitute a religious minority in the United States, with researchers concluding: "Americans rate atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians and other minority groups in 'sharing their vision of American society.' Atheists are also the minority group most Americans are least willing to allow their children to marry."10

I'd rather not get into religion but the bottom line is, the separate board should be named just that, with different types of schools under that umbrella. I'd rather us not publicly fund schools based on religion but if we think this is okay to continue, that Mosque seeking funding for a new centre which would include a school, should be the beneficiary of some public dollars too to support their school system.

I wonder if we have grounds to start our own publicly funded school, with Parkview @ Scott Park, as the template for not only the type of education, but a testing grounds for Schools as Community Hubs.

Does CAS need one building? Can they work out of multiple ones? Would it be better if they were spread out amongst the communities who utilize these services? What about Blood Services? Walk in clinics? What else receives funding that could benefit by utilizing empty school space therefore coming up with a solution for the funding burden our city faces for social services, giving students from Mountain and Parkview a property learning environment, and running a school that has income sources meaning the board can focus on education and worry less about building operational costs.

Then we keep SJAM because our desire is to bring more families downtown. We designate and re-purpose 100 year old King George. Then we designate and keep Delta Collegiate as a high school. It's our Central. It's our Westdale.

This is my perfect scenario for our North Arc.

Comment edited by lawrence on 2013-10-30 13:26:12