Raise the Hammer

Media release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Event Organizer: Larry Pattison, E: larrypattisonjr@yahoo.ca, C: 289-689-2870

PREMIER OF ONTARIO, EDUCATION MINISTER, EDUCATION CRITICS, DIRECTORS OF EDUCATION, SCHOOL BOARD TRUSTEES, PROVINCIAL PARTY LEADERS, MPP’S AND MPP CANDIDATES, ONTARIO MAYORS AND COUNCILLORS

Tuesday June 3rd, 2014 at 5-7pm Outside Hamilton City Hall 71 Main St W Facebook Page: School Closures Moratorium (Hamilton)

HAMILTON, ON – Hamilton is joining other communities around Ontario who are hosting protests in their local municipalities to encourage MPP’s once elected, to implement a school closures moratorium within 100 days of the provincial election.

London and Hamilton City Councils are among communities who have already sent letters to our Minister of Education, Liz Sandals, asking her to invoke a moratorium on school closures as well.

Schools are closing at an alarming rate throughout Ontario meaning the loss of walkable, liveable communities, children spending hours on a school bus each day, jobs, and neighbourhood hubs.

Broken funding formulas, a flawed accommodation review process, and unnecessary hurdles facing school groups and municipalities working together to help save their local schools through building community partnerships, are just three of the driving factors behind the overwhelming dismantling of our education centres and their surrounding communities. MPP candidates in attendance who have not already, will also be asked to sign the attached School Closures Moratorium commitment.

This is what the commitment is asking for:

a moratorium on all Accommodation Review Committees and school closures within 100 days of the provincial election, and that all proposed closures that have not commenced construction be suspended until:

• a process is established whereby educational benefits to the students are proven
• a full and accurate accounting can be made to demonstrate that there are long term economic savings to consolidation
• a process is established that considers and measures the broader socioeconomic costs of consolidation as a major consideration in the process

This event is a peaceful, non-partisan event and is open to the general public.

If you cannot make it but support this cause, please state your support on the Facebook page listed above and we will bring you with us.

We look forward to you joining us at Hamilton City Hall in person or in spirit.

Attachment: School Closures Moratorium - Ontario election 2014

Comment edited by lawrence on 2014-06-02 12:41:00