In Terms Of History

The separate school board has had the right to build complete high schools for about thirty years.

When the law changed in Ontario, they started slow. They converted elementary schools. My daughter Heather went to St. Roberts in Markham . After Grade Ten, she wanted to go to Williams because private school fees were required at St Robert's.

After a few weeks, she was utterly miserable. Sheer size and numbers at Williams had completely overwhelmed her'

I don't think any institution is improved by enormity..I think it becomes dehumanized.

Heather went back to St Roberts.

When I finished writing about St. Max on Friday, I thought about how a public school supporter parent might feel about such a school being built in Aurora but not available to their children.

Then I remembered. Sue Walmer and her "organisation" went to battle to ensure it wouldn't.

When the public board was contemplating location of a new high school. the horns blared with the call to mount the ramparts to challenge the board's authority..

The Mayor, completely in character, immediately engaged and the council chamber was made available to accommodate opposition hordes to assemble and plan the campaign.

The issue was on the board's front burner because they have to make the need for a site known when development is being planned.

Arguments presented against a new school were opposite to the arguments against a new separate high school just weeks before.

Except for the lament about heritage and tradition which, in the context of education. I frankly find extraordinary.

Sue Walmer, as I said led the charge. She took CAO John Rogers to task for failing to act in making the Council Chamber available.A Council decision is required. Ms Walmer is completely confident in her supervisory role in Town affairs.

Mayor Morris inferred the town would block any attempt by the board to sell the Williams site for development. The Mayor is equally confident of her autocratic authority..

Oh....the majesty of it all.

Except maybe for police facilities which function twenty-four- seven, , nothing is as hard-worn as a school. It acquires an odor. A mixture of lunch boxes ,chalk,running shoes ,sweat , winter outerwear,exercise togs and hormone-driven youth.

People who complained about odour in the change rooms of the Aurora Community
Centre have a sense of it.

But Walmer and Morris, like a Punch and Judy Show, promptly beat upon the heads of board trustees for even thinking of such a thing.

They may not have won the battle. The school board still has a worn out building that costs hundreds of thousands to maintain and provides few of the facilities required for a modern education.

They still have a vastly expanded future student population to plan for and a decision pending

They may, like everyone else, be waiting for the next election to be over, when decisions can be made without Meddling Messrs Morris and Walmer on the scene ever-ready for combat.

The Dunning Avenue school site is worth millions which would go a long way to providing funding for a new school in a new location with all the space needed.

It would provide for housing envisaged by the Province for "infilling" to reduce urban sprawl.

Which in turn would provide passengers for a rapid transit system.

Which would reduce pollution by taking cars of the road.

Which would fulfill Aurora's commitment to environmental protection so oft cited by none other than Messrs Morris and Walmer

Oh yes, let's not forget Councillor Gaertner and MacEachern in the phony baloney
histrionics that represent Aurora's politics.

But more than anything, it would provide opportunity for public school students to enjoy facilities that would generate new enthusiasm and commitment of parents and staff and students to their future, their community and their world.

At the opening of the refurbished Church Street School, MLA Frank Klees received the only real applause of the evening. When he said we need to do the same thing with Wells Street there was a shout of laughter and the people there came to life. .

I thought, .what is the matter with these people that they can only get excited about musty, malodorous , mouldy, worn-out, relics of the past.