Get Real: A super school is the answer to education concerns in Kincardine

Change is the only constant in life.

So said Heraclitus, the pre-Socractic Greek philosopher, whose message was a simple one – prepare for change because it is going to happen, over and over again.

Just when you think everything is settled and the crisis has passed, things change again – think, computers and cell phones.

Such is the game with the education system.

When we moved to Kincardine in July, 1995, there were seven elementary schools (six public and one separate) in the area of Kincardine, Underwood and Ripley.

These included Bruce Township Central, Kincardine Township-Tiverton (KTTPS), Huron Heights, Elgin Market, W.E. Thompson, Ripley Central, and St. Anthony's. In fact, in Ripley, the Kindergarten to Grade 6 students were housed in what is now Ripley-Huron Community School, while Grades 7 and 8 were in the old high school, Ripley District School, down the street.

As a reporter with the Kincardine Independent, I worked with the other reporter and the editor to cover events at all of those schools. Each had a Grade 8 graduation which we attended and took photos, and I remember pasting together seven pages of award winners for the next week's edition of the paper.

Fast forward a few years, to September, 1997, when our eldest entered elementary school. We lived on the west side of Kincardine, so she attended Elgin Market. Two years later, we had moved to the east side, and she switched to Huron Heights, with her younger brothers joining her there.

At some point, perhaps in 1998, Elgin Market and W.E. Thompson schools were twinned, with the primary students going to Elgin Market, and the junior and senior students to W.E. Thompson.

Following the accommodation review in 2002 (prompted by declining enrolment), Bruce Central and W.E. Thompson schools were closed, and the students were sent to KTTPS and Huron Heights. Then, Elgin Market and Huron Heights were twinned, with Elgin Market housing the Kindergarten to Grade 3 students, and Huron Heights taking on the Grades 4-8.

This meant our eldest stayed at Huron Heights, but the younger two switched to Elgin Market. That year, our middle child began having behavioural issues and was transferred to KTTPS where he could receive extra help. So, that year, our three children were in three different schools.

The following year, the youngest joined his brother at KTTPS where they continued through graduation, and all three attended Kincardine District Secondary School.

In 2011, there was another accommodation review (again prompted by declining enrolment), and this time, there were no school closures. However, Elgin Market became a full French Immersion school for Kindergarten to Grade 8, and KTTPS and Huron Heights were twinned, with KTTPS housing the primary students, and Huron Heights taking the junior and senior students.

Now, this September, comes another change, with the Grades 7 and 8 students from Huron Heights and Elgin Market moving to KDSS.

Nobody should be surprised since the ultimate goal is a new high school and the only way to make this happen is to fill the building you have so the Ontario Ministry of Education, in its ivory tower in Toronto, can look down on small-town rural areas, and say, “Oh, well I say now, you have no space, you should have a new school, and here's the funding.”

At least, that's the goal of the Bluewater District School Board.

So, seriously folks, what is your objection to this change? The education system in Kincardine and across Ontario, has been in flux for years – all based on declining enrolment which means a shortage of funding and hence, a shortage of programs and services for schools in the province.

The only objection we should have is that the school board has made a complete mess of forecasting enrolment changes and the requirements to handle what is perceived to be an increase in enrolment, especially in the Kincardine area.

Yes, I get it, hindsight is 20-20. But, with all the systems in place, with all the numbers recorded, with news of the Bruce Power Major Component Replacement (MCR) project forecast two years before it began ramping up in 2016, you'd think the school board would have considered more in-depth examination of how these factors would affect schools in the Kincardine area.

Back in 2011, the board was actually leaning toward closing one of the Kincardine schools. Thankfully, Kincardine mayor Anne Eadie and other officials told the board (much nicer than I would have) that it was crazy to even imagine such a thing, with Kincardine on a solid road to growth, particularly on the south side where Elgin Market school is located.

The Bluewater school board is a few years late and many dollars short, in putting things in place to deal with the increased enrolment that is going to hit in the next year or two.

Kincardine needs a super school – one for Kindergarten to Grade 12 – or at least one for Grades 7-12. And that should have been built by this year – right across from the Bruce Power MCR building, north of the Sutton Park Mall.

Unfortunately, here we are, paying to fix up an old high school which should have been demolished years ago, patching together the remnants of old classrooms, while we wait for a vision-less school board to see the light.

Ah, life in the fast lane.