School closure consulting questioned

Parents who spent many hours attending board-sponsored sessions in an attempt to head off the closures of their childrens' schools are questioning the value of the process.

"I've lost complete faith in the whole system," said April Sullivan, whose son goes to McCauley School, one of five schools that will close in June. The others are Parkdale, Eastwood, Fulton Place and Capilano.

"I mean, who do you believe, what do you believe?" she said.

The public school board hired an Ottawa consulting firm, at a cost of about $260,000, to meet with parents in the weeks leading up to the final decision on the closures. In the end, every closure recommended by board administrators was approved.

Sullivan said she tried to believe the consultations would make a difference, but ended up disillusioned.

'It was just round and round, just a political bunch of garbage." April Sullivan, McCauley parent

"It just seemed like everything else. It was just round and round, just a political bunch of garbage," she said.

School board trustee Bev Esslinger said the process was an attempt to provide parents with someone other than school board staff to gather and present their concerns.

"This whole process of using the consultants came out of work after the previous round of closures," she said. "We gathered that data and what people wanted, and one of the things that they felt would be important was a third party."

Esslinger insisted she hadn't made up her mind about the future of the schools prior to the consultations with parents .

"We didn't always do what they asked us to do, but we listened with a view to our responsibility," she said. "We have to keep in mind the big picture."

The board will review the consultation process to see whether it can be improved, she said.

But it was a plan that was flawed from the start, according to Liberal MLA Hugh MacDonald.

"That wasn't an independent nor an impartial consultation in my view," he said. "And I'm quite disappointed in our school board."