The SAVE OSCVI group hosts a Town Hall meeting tomorrow evening to outline the next stage in their fight to save the school from immediate closure.
Local residents can learn about the battle plan, the status of an appeal, and fundraising efforts.
OSCVI parent and organizer Kerrie Lent says residents can find out how to make their voices heard.
She says they are seeking legal assistance to fight the decision by the Bluewater District School Board to close OSCVI and move all of the secondary students into the older West Hill Secondary School this September.
Lent says they want a one year delay so stakeholders can be consulted, and the community can adjust.
She says they will crunch some numbers tomorrow night to challenge the board's logic that closing the school is a good economic decision.
The SAVE OSCVI group has filed a formal appeal with the Ministry of Education and continues to gather signatures for a community petition to the Minister of Education. That petition now numbers about 3,000 signatures.
There will be guest speakers, and a question period.
The meeting runs from 7pm to 9pm at the Owen Sound Legion.
The Board’s policies state clearly that it should take 24 to 30 months to close or amalgamate a school, according to Judy Keeling, one of the SAVE OSCVI organizers.
In the case of OSCVI, the community first learned of the plan on March 1, and by April 19, the school’s fate was sealed.
“What we’re hearing every day is that people feel the Board’s decision doesn’t make sense’,” says Keeling. “There’s a real sense of betrayal about how this process played out.”
“I don’t know why the decision was made, but it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with what’s best for the students, what’s best for the community, or even what’s best for the taxpayer,” says Keeling.
