We Need Your Support. Please Spread The Word!
As you know – our petition for a new public high school in Stittsville has just begun and Lisa MacLeod the Conservative MPP for Nepean-Carleton has already raised the petition and our community’s need for a public high school in the Ontario Legislature this week.
The petition continues and we need everyone to sign it. We would like to have 10,000+ by September 2016 – this is the number Barrhaven had to petition for their new public high school.
Thanks to everyone who came out to sign the petition over the weekend. On Monday June 6th, Nepean-Carleton MPP Lisa MacLeod presented the petition at the Ontario Legislature (Queen’s Park) for the the new Stittsville high school! (see video below)
We met with Lisa MacLeod, MPP for Nepean-Carleton this week to seek their advice on ways of influencing Queen’s Park. A few years ago her team successfully campaigned for approval of a public high school in Barrhaven.
She strongly recommended we start a petition with handwritten signatures and she would present it to the Minister of Education.
Sign The Petition This WeekendWe would like to ask everyone who is interested in a public high school for Stittsville to sign it over the weekend if possible.
We are preparing Lisa MacLeod, MPP to present a question in the Ontario Legislator next week (see below for more information). The petition can be found in the mailbox at the following addresses:
Jack MacLaren – our MPP – has already raised the issue with the Minister and Lisa MacLeod has agreed to raise it as a question to the Minister during this week’s Question Period. At this time, she also wants to note that a petition has started and to show at least two pages of completed signatures. We have to move quickly if we want to get her something by Monday morning.
Thank you for your continued support!
Jenny and Jennifer
from the Stittsville Public High School Now Committee
Jennifer Smith (left) and Jenny Guth stand on one of the possible sites for the new school, at the south west corner of Robert Grant and Cope.
Stittsville Central has been catching up on a few loose ends from May 24th’s meeting about building a public high school in Stittsville. They talked with Jennifer Smith and Jenny Guth, a few MPs, Shad Qadri and the Ministry of Education.
Read more about updates on support from politicians, possible locations for the school, and how the Ministry of Education decides what to fund.
Last night at a meeting (May 24th), the public high school for Stittsville finally hit #1 on the Ottawa Public School Board’s priority list.
But the OCDSB’s priority list is mostly symbolic. The Ontario Ministry of Education decides what projects actually get funding. They’ve skipped over Stittsville before and they could do it again. Board staff don’t even know when — or if — the Ministry will ask them for the list, or how much funding will be available.
After 20 years of lobbying, Stittsville parents are making a final push for a local public high school. Listen to Jennifer Smith and Jenny Guth as they are interviewed by local Ottawa Radio stations.
A group of parents in Stittsville are ramping up their campaign to get a public high school built in their neighbourhood.
The renewed push comes as the Ottawa Carleton District School Board moves towards making a $36.1 million high school in Stittsville its top priority for capital funding. The proposal has been on the public board’s priority list for about a decade but has never received the necessary funding from the Ministry of Education. [Read more…]
There aren’t too many Ontario communities of 30,000 that don’t have a public high school, says Ottawa-Carleton District School Board trustee Lynn Scott.
But Stittsville, the fast-growing suburb at the western edge of Ottawa, may finally lose that dubious distinction. Ottawa-Carleton District School Board trustees are set to approve a wish list for capital projects that moves the proposal for a high school in Stittsville to the No. 1 spot.
That’s no guarantee the province will provide the $36.1 million required to build it, however. Stittsville residents first began lobbying for a public high school more than 20 years ago.
“I definitely feel hopeful,” says Stittsville mom Tanya Hein, who has two children in public elementary school, another starting kindergarten next fall and a fourth on the way. “The population in Stittsville definitely warrants having a public high school here.” The community is expected to grow to 70,000 over the next decade or so, she notes.
Finally, it’s happened! The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board has placed the building of a new public high school in Stittsville at the top of their priority funding list – however this does not mean the Ministry of Education will allocate the funds for this essential capital project. This is where we need the media and the public’s help.
The official approval of this capital funding priority list will occur next Tuesday, May 24 at 7:30 pm in the Boardroom at the OCDSB offices (133 Greenbank Rd. Nepean, K2H 6L3).
While the need for a new public high school is well-understood locally, the Ministry of Education in Toronto needs to see community support for this issue beyond a business case. We are asking residents with children in the Stittsville community, especially those in elementary grades, to come out and sit in on the meeting to show their support. We want to emphasize that simply being present and visible in front of cameras and media at this meeting is all that is required, and will put pressure on the Ministry of Education through media coverage. Only one representative per household is needed, children are welcome and we are asking participants to wear red as a show of solidarity for this campaign.
Background Information:
The campaign to have a public high school built in Stittsville has been ongoing for almost 20 years. We are a fast-growing community, and the need to have a public school built in our community is essential. Currently students who wish to stay in the public education stream have no choice but to attend 60-year-old South Carleton High School in Richmond. Children are bused up to 20 km away, many are at the bus stop before 7 am, and most with a 45-minute to one hour bus ride each way. Due to the school’s rural location, only limited transportation is available during exams and for extra-curricular activities, meaning parents in Stittsville are largely responsible for transportation outside regular hours (a 40 minute round trip).
Additional Resources:
Why a New Public High School for Stittsville is Needed Now (Slide Show)
We are extremely disappointed to share the news announced on Friday that a public high school for Stittsville once again did not get funded by the Ministry of Education. While we had been optimistic this time that our survey and other efforts would give the OCDSB the information they needed to present a more compelling case, that unfortunately did not happen. We were #2 on the OCDSB’s list of priorities this time but have no additional information to understand why the public high school has been overlooked, yet again.
Some key factors that we continue to face are that the cost of the high school is roughly equivalent to the cost of the 5 projects, which were announced, so the Ministry can make more students and parents happy by funding multiple smaller projects rather than one big one for our community. At the same time, South Carleton continues to be slightly below capacity which is also something that the Ministry considers.
We had hoped that our survey results shed some light on this second point by showing that many public students switch to Sacred Heart rather then go to South Carleton. But there is clearly more work to do so that the OCDSB makes this new high school the top priority and pushes the Ministry to understand some of the local issues at play.
Rest assured, we will keep fighting for this school when the next call for priorities comes out. The last one was in October 2013, and this one was in July 2015. We hope there won’t be as much delay before the next one.
We know this news will be very frustrating for many people, but please stay positive and help us to continue to push for this school! We want to thank you all for your continued support.