Comment 74526

By JBJ (registered) | Posted February 17, 2012 at 15:45:36

My daughter went to Central and now attends Ryerson and is in the SAGEQUEST program. She will most likely attend SJAM because she wants to study art and it is the school that is within walking distance of our home. Given the current fiscal climate, notwithstanding the 300+ recommendations outlined by Don Drummond, it is utter folly to spend money constructing a new high school in the lower city and demolish/sell off three existing buildings. The arguments regarding Delta are valid; SJAM is not surrounded to the same extent by housing as is Delta. It would be awesome if someone or a group could turn that building into something that benefits the surrounding neighbourhoods.

A more important issue is something that has been raised before and is happening in some areas in the US. That is, school boards in inner city and suburban districts are being amalgamated and students are then transported to schools to ensure a mix of individuals from affluent (translation suburban) and less affluent (translation inner city) neighbourhoods. There is a terrific study done by a Syracuse University sociologist who compared the state of schools in Syracuse with those of Raleigh, North Carolina. See Gerald Grant, Hope and Despair in the American City. One of the big issues with the whole ARC process is that certain schools were excluded and these happen to be schools that are perceived as being full of affluent kids from bourgeois neighbourhoods. It would be a better use of scarce resources to have students mix together with those from different backgrounds and areas of the City than simply perpetuating the idea that code red neighbourhoods are dying and everyone wants a split level detached in Glancaster.

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