District Considers New Field

Email to Jamie Brennan

I would appreciate clarification on information provided in the article entitled District Considers New Field that

appears in todays (May 20th) Nanaimo News Bulletin.

Please inform if the rebuilding of the field is to be paid from the $2 Million budgeted for the conversion of the

interior of the school. Also, you are quoted as saying that Staff was supposed to report on the plans for the field

in June but instead they rolled that project into the overall conversion project so that whoever is successful will be

expected to not only do the conversion of the interior of the facility but also do the rebuilding of the play field

closest to the school.

Could you please inform how and when such a decision was made (rolling the field project into the overall

conversion project), and when such a change of plan was approved by the Board.

Thanks,

Jukka Efraimsson.

Reply from Jamie Brennan

Staff made that decision and reported it to the Business

Committee earlier this month. The Board directed staff to

develop a plan for the field and report in June, but they

presented earlier so the field could be included in whole

conversion bid.

We expect that he costs will remain the same.

Is there a problem? It was my understanding that

upgrading the field closest to the school was a good thing.

Have not received today's Bulletin yet.

Regards

Jamie Brennan

Yes, the fields are THIS wet & muddy

for much of the school year, Jamie.

2nd email to Jamie Brennan

Thank you for replying. Don't get me wrong, upgrading the field is a good thing. However it will cost money, and if the budget is being kept constant, then something has to give. Either the field upgrade will be done substandard to keep the costs to a bare minimum, or else a project planned for inside the school will be scaled back or eliminated completely. It is unreasonable to expect that someone will donate their time, equipment and materials to upgrade the field for free. This issue brings up a bigger problem that seems to reoccur on a constant basis. The information provided by staff to Trustees at key times seems to be inaccurate, incomplete or not timely. For example, when the Board made its decisions last June 26th, the new Cedar 21st Century mega elementary was to have over 450 students in it. However, it was obvious even back then that this number was grossly exaggerated. The number is closer to 270 which is the combined populations of NCI and Woodbank. The cost savings from closing NCI and Woodbank and converting CCSS into an elementary school started out at $1.3 Million. By your October 23rd Board meeting this figure had been reduced to $470,000 annually. Completely missing still from these cost estimates are renovations that will have to be done to JB and LSS to accommodate increased numbers of students from Cedar. To sum it up, you and your fellow Trustees are constantly being supplied with information that downplays costs and exaggerates benefits of converting CCSS into an elementary school. I can only imagine the sales job that Hutchinson must have given at last June 24th in camera meeting for you to drop your alternate plan and get excited about the 21st Century Mega Elementary proposal for Cedar. Hutchinson's predictions were wrong, and everyone out in Cedar knew it from the get go. You knew it too. So why is the Board sticking with the plan? The only reason that makes any sense is that the Board has to fill up John Barsby in order to be able to reapply for new school funding to replace NDSS. It appears that the Board was somehow convinced that the easiest way to accomplish this was to bus in the high school students from Cedar. Never mind enforcing catchment on the 200+ John Barsby area students that currently attend NDSS. Since your staff is so fond of making wild predictions, I'll make a few for you to ponder. I predict that if a new NDSS does get built, over time, the vast majority of Harewood parents will want their children to have access to the new NDSS. Over time, the number of Harewood children in John Barsby will decrease to the point that it will again be severely underpopulated but this time by kids bussed in from Cedar. The end result will be that Cedar elementary students will be housed in a half full 21st Century mega elementary, and a good portion of Cedar High School students will be manning the fort at a half full John Barsby. This will not be a way to deliver the enhanced educational opportunities promised for Cedar students. Someone has got to call for a reality check on the 10 year enhanced facilities for learning plan. It's not even a year old and it's already off the rails. Why not let it be you?

Regards,

Jukka Efraimsson

Save Cedar Schools will update if/when Jamie replies again.

Note: Despite what Jamie Brennan says, SD68 received a cost estimate of slightly more than $750,000.00 to

remediate all of the fields, in March of this year (Save Cedar Schools filed a freedom of information request on

correspondence about the Cedar Secondary conversion and learned some surprising things)

Email to Jamie BrennanReply from Jamie Brennan2nd email to Jamie Brennan Thank you for replying. Don't get me wrong, upgrading the field is a good thing. However it will cost money, and if the budget is being kept constant, then something has to give. Either the field upgrade will be done sub...Regards,Jukka Efraimsson