News
[18 Nov. 2009] - 2nd meeting between OSTA and BCSC
Following the 3 Nov. 09 meeting between OSTA and the Consolidated Council (see further down on this page), a second meeting was called, for 18 Nov., this time including our Zone 3 trustee, Mr. Mark Fisher.
The following are my notes and comments on this second meeting.
-The requested additional manipulations to the survey data were not do-able by OSTA. However, one of the BCSC members, Ellen Dickson (Barrhaven School Council), offered to work on the raw data and was in fact able to provide us with the school-specific data on all questions. For our school, these can be found here.
-The requested documentation to show how the various schools would be linked in the 3-tier busing system was provided, but the information dates from April of 2009 (since that time, Berrigan, for one, has lost one of its buses, so the data in this chart is no longer 100% accurate). Tanya reformatted the information, and then did a simple comparative analysis of the two boards' busing requirements -- the results (at page bottom) are quite interesting. See the attached pdf file, Busing Links.
-The request for OSTA to speak with OC Transpo to look into getting additional express busses for Barrhaven was not done. Mr. Weiringa said that those procedures were available to anyone to undertake should they feel it necessary.
-A dollar figure on how much OSTA anticipates in the way of savings for the public board has still not been provided.
-OSTA sees no need to reconsider the current overlap in bell times between Barrhaven Public School and John McCrae High School, which is a serious concern for parents. This is the only one of three elementary/high school neighbours which did not see bell times offset (Berrigan and the LDH, and Jockvale and McCrae have had their bell times changed to avoid overlap).-In Mr. Weiringa's opinion, the on-going consultation with the BCSC has not been a complete waste, as Barrhaven parents have now had time to accept the bell time changes as laid out in Option #4. And with that, the entire 6-month consultation process with the BCSC had just been dismissed as simply a softening-up period, and not one which would change anything from Option #4, presented last April, before the survey was even undertaken.
In sum, our meeting brought out into the open the fact that this has been `consultation in bad faith', to be blunt. And our Zone 3 trustee, Mark Fisher, became increasingly disturbed at the trends he was seeing, and was quite clear about his displeasure in the process and the stalemate that seemed evident.
==========Back to the meeting's content:
Based on the more detailed analysis from Ellen Dickson, there was even further statistical support for what parents had been saying since the two public consultation meetings held in Barrhaven in Feb. of this year. So, nothing new was found -- but further evidence was found that:
a. Change start times by more than 15 minutes and daycare is immediately needed where it wasn't before.
b. Change start times by more than 15 minutes and getting to work becomes a huge problem: 15 minutes later for school will translate to 30 to 45 to even 60 minuters later for work.
c. The financial savings that the board may realise are far outweighed by the daycare costs alone which those parents affected would have to bear.
d. Where families are affected by start time changes, they are affected severely. That is, with a change of 15 minutes or more the impact is enormous, compared with 5-10 minutes.
e. Families finding no daycare options stated they will most likely have one wage-earner go to part time work -- or even stop working. Effectively, family incomes are immediately and massively affected.
There is great frustration again, as it seems clear that Option #4, devised in late April, will be OSTA's final proposal to the public board. The frustration comes directly from the fact that the BCSC was formed in May/June to provide a Barrhaven body which OSTA could consult with, as per a request by the board for more information. That consultation, and the survey which resulted, spanned the summer months, from June till the end of September. And now, after having conducted that survey and analysed those results, in November 2009, OSTA will not make any changes to its April 2009 proposal. Consultation, just to make it look like further public input had been sought -- and then utterly ignored.
The trustee, Mr. Fisher, was quite clear in saying he was unhappy with the process, unhappy with the narrow mandate OSTA was refusing to consider needed any socio-economic impact component, and unhappy with the general imbalance in the underlying transportation differences between the two boards. And stated clearly that he will be communicating all of this to his fellow trustees.
Updates to the above: Since the 18 Nov. meeting, we have learned that OSTA will not be presenting its final proposal to the Business Services Committee meeting on 9 Dec. -- the assumption had been that it was the Dec. presentation which was necessary in order for the board as a whole to then consider this item in January 2010 -- the board's deadline for a final decision. So we are unclear on where things currently stand.
As well, our trustee, Mark Fisher, has indicated that he has a meeting scheduled with the Director of Education to discuss the issue.
The BCSC is considering how best to proceed in terms of bringing their disappointment and dissatisfaction with this summer's consultation process with OSTA to the board's attention. And while the BCSC was formed to bring a single voice to bear for Barrhaven's parents and schools, there is also a clear and strong desire to try and bring changes to the OSTA procedures before the next large community in the board's purview undergoes the same problematic process.
Ch. Thiele
Chair, Berrigan Elementary School Council
[ 3 Nov. 2009 meeting] - Update on OSTA survey results
Overview
As indicated in the brief notice which appears in the November council newsletter, it is now clear that there will be no change to the plan of having all elementary schools bussed second. It seems that, because the Catholic Board had gone ahead in accepting all but one segment of Option #4, that we're all going to be looking at only minimal changes to that option -- and then the Catholic Board will have to consider any revisions as well. So we're stuck with having St. Joe's being bussed first, and then the elementary schools coming in on the 2nd round.
On this point, I had asked Mr. Weiringa to please try to make sure that it was not only the Public Board elementary schools in Option #4 which might receive a few tweaks but also the Catholic. We are all well aware that the majority of minutes in bell time changes is being visited upon the Public Board. However, as the Catholic Board had baulked at a bell time change of only 15 minutes in the original proposal, there is probably going to be reticence on OSTA's part to tweak any of the Option #4 bell times for Catholic Board elementary schools.
As Tanya indicates in her summary, we also asked that OSTA go back to the data and pull it out another way -- so that the results were shown in terms of the schools being represented, rather than just the respondent. That is, some answers (esp. those related to how many minutes' change is acceptable -- or not) need to be referenced to the current start time of a school. For example, if Berrigan starts at 8:00am and then shifts to 8:30, it's possible to still catch express buses out of Barrhaven. But if a school starts at 8:15, a 30-minute shift would put parents looking for express buses after 8:45 -- and that's only if the world runs like clock-work. So the start time is significant to the answer. Identifying the school will probably provide these correlations, which may then make it easier to zero in on any possible tweaks to Option #4.
At this stage, I think the tremendous efforts people have made to argue against the whole OSTA process, while yielding little fruit for us in Barrhaven, may yet be fed back to OSTA and our own board, to help improve the process for other sectors in the board which have yet to enjoy OSTA's attentions. It is disheartening for many of us to see how the consultation process has been so flawed. It can and should be done much better, more effectively, and more transparently for all parents of all boards.
I wish I could bring more positive news back to our council and all our parents, who have invested a great deal of time and effort in crafting submissions to the board, attending board meetings, and responding to the survey. Thank you, everyone.
Nevertheless, we can take pride in having been active participants and having effected several changes in this process:
a. Berrigan's start time was changed by only 30 mins, to 8:30, rather than 45 mins.
b. the bell times for Berrigan and for the LDH were adjusted to avoid an overlap of student arrivals/departures
c. further down the road, the concerted efforts of Berrigan and its fellow Barrhaven schools have prompted our board to generally try to start high schools later and elementary schools earlier.
Chair, Berrigan Elementary School Council
Nov. 12, 2009
Summary notes by Tanya Weiner, BCSC coordinator
428 people completed the survey. Some of the information was very interesting but we have asked Roy to please extrapolate it by school (for those people who answered and specified their school), as the data wasn't very useful in it's current form.
The bottom line still remains as it has since June - According to Roy, OSTA doesn't see many more changes they can make to the Option 4 than how it was originally presented. He said that all the compromises they saw from Option 1 were integrated into Option 4. Without directly saying so he eluded that it is most likely the option that will come through in the Dec. Report to Business Services. Also the OCDSB in the end still has to agree on the same option as the Catholic Board.
Through discussions we asked Roy to specifically provide/consider the following:
a. provide the survey data in a more usable form
b. provide us with details of which schools are "linked" to the same bus routes to share buses (this info will help us see if there is any way to shave time off certain schools)
c. as per the survey results try to ensure that all school time changes (regardless of the actual minutes of change) stay within a start time of between 8am and 8:45am. We realize that there needs to be changes but we think that parents (though they may be resistant to the change) will be able to make arrangements and cope if the start time is no later than 8:45am.
d. Of the safety concerns originally brought up in Feb, harmonization with High School times was one of the biggest concerns. Option 4 addresses this for all effected schools (Berrigan & Jockvale) except Barrhaven PS. We ask that this one school's start time be reconsidered.
e. Requested OSTA speak with OC Transpo and request that an additional Express Run of all routes be added to the Barrhaven area.
Survey results can be found at www.http://barrhavencsc.wordpress.com/osta-survey-results/
Notice that the Home page has a link Original Proposed Bell Time Change Options -- Barrhaven
Parents are invited to examine the results and send their comments back to berriganschoolcouncil@hotmail.com by November 24, for forwarding to the BCSC.
[JUNE/JULY 2008] - Input Requested
The Provincial Government has mandated that both the separate and the public school boards attempt to amalgamate their buses in order to cut costs.
The Ottawa Student Transportation Authority has been asked by the Ottawa Carleton District School Board to undertake further consultation in the Barrhaven area with a view to implementation of changes in Barrhaven busing for the 2010-2011 school year.
As such, please take the time to go to the OSTA website, www.ottawaschoolbus.ca, and follow the links on the left hand side to reach and complete the online survey. Every opinion counts and we would like to see the optimal solution for all families.
The survey deadline is September 30th, 2009.
Some concerns raised by Barrhaven area parents include:
Presently, the separate board provides busing for their high school students, where the public board does not. Public board parents feel this inequality should be addressed prior to any implementation of a tiered busing system.
As the proposal stands, 30 buses are needed in the morning to feed St. Joseph High School. Once this school has started at 8 a.m. for the day, the buses are able to service all the other schools in Barrhaven. It was stated that since high school students work better with a later start and teenagers don't require day care before school as do elementary students, it was recommended that St. Joe's be the last drop off rather than the first. This would allow earlier elementary school start times.
A change in bell time for Berrigan from 8 to 8:45am creates before school daycare problems. Not the least of which is the additional cost to parents and the lack of available daycare in the Barrhaven area. Some parents feel that OSTA is downloading costs onto Barrhaven parents in order to save money. A later start makes it difficult for some parents to get to work on time after dropping off their child at school.
Concerns were raised over the safety of our children regarding the increased traffic around our school once the new high school is opened in September. The new school's proposed hours are 9:00-3:10, only five minutes earlier dismissal time than Berrigan's. This will result in approximately 2500 students being let out at essentially the same time once the high school is at capacity.
Send us your feedback in favour or opposed to the proposal. Be informed and voice your concerns!