Cole Harbour school situation doesn't need fixing

To the Editor:

As chair of the Auburn Drive High School Advisory Council, I would like to draw the attention of Cole Harbour residents to some significant changes proposed for the Auburn High/Cole Harbour High family of schools as a result of the recent Imagine Our Schools program conducted by the Halifax Regional School Board.

This initiative was launched by the HRSB in response to a request from the Department of Education for input into a 10-year planning process.

HRSB engaged CS&P Architects Inc. of Toronto to research and compile information from various sources, and create a vision for the state of its schools in 10 years. Recommendations affecting the Auburn/Cole Harbour family of schools, and accepted by HRSB staff, include the following highlights:

- Auburn Drive High School and Cole Harbour High School to be consolidated. Auburn Drive to receive $4 million for unspecified upgrades; Cole Harbour High to receive a $12-million upgrade including four trade shops, two classrooms, four labs, and an extra $1 million for a daycare.

- Junior high schools feeding into the consolidated schools include Ross Road, Graham Creighton and Sir Robert Borden.

- A new high school with a focus on trades/technology to be constructed for Eastern Passage/ Shearwater/Woodside at a cost of $25 million.

- Astral Drive Junior High School, which currently feeds into the Auburn family of schools, will become a member of the new Eastern Passage/Shearwater/Woodside family of schools.

- Cole Harbour students south of Cole Harbour Road will attend the proposed high school in Eastern Passage.

- Caldwell Road Elementary School will be closed.

As a long-time resident of Cole Harbour, parent and active volunteer in our schools for 18 years, I am very concerned about the impact of these proposals on the community of Cole Harbour.

As it now stands, Eastern Passage does not have a sufficient population base to justify the construction of a new high school in that community. Eastern Passage has 600 students, not enough to justify a high school where 1,000 students are required.

It does not make sense to dissect the community of Cole Harbour, and send half of Auburn's students to Eastern Passage simply to arrive at a sufficient number of students to make the school viable.

It is also worth mentioning that Astral Drive Junior High students tend to pursue academics, not trades.

Nor does it make sense to spend $25 million of taxpayer's money on a new school when all communities are well served by the two existing high schools.

Residents of Cole Harbour are proud of their community and their schools. This proposal will deprive our children and their parents of the opportunities to interact with each other and will have a devastating impact on the diversity of our school communities.

The entire Imagine Our Schools consultation process has left me puzzled - why spend large amounts of money and rip apart a community to fix something that isn't broken?

If you share my concerns, and since we do not presently have an elected school board member to represent us, I strongly encourage you to make your views known by contacting our one-man school board, Howard Windsor at 464-2000, ext. 4445, or by e-mail at hwindsor@hrsb.ns.ca.

You may also want to consider putting forth a public submission by going on-line to hrsb.ns.ca/tools/ presenters/ which must be requested for by noon on March 26 to present that same evening at 6 p.m. in Keating Hall, Dartmouth High School, 95 Victoria Rd., Dartmouth.

Lorelei Nicoll, Chair

Auburn Drive High School Advisory Council