Dear trustees, I have pasted below, a copy of an email that was sent to the board and to which I was

ccd. The email is from Stephanie Higginson, who Im sure you are familiar with in her prominent role in the Save Cedar Schools organi ation. I have watched with interest, the developments regarding school planning issues and the response from the community members I represent as constituents. The issue creates significant concerns for me as their !"# and representative in most of the areas impacted by the boards plans. #s we all $now, funding from the provincial government has been insufficient to maintain services and schools for over a decade. This chronic underfunding and downloading of provincially mandated costs, both new and increased, has led to a series of deficits that boards all over the province have been forced to deal with annually. !y colleagues and I will continue to push the provincial government to meet its obligations to students and boards during the upcoming legislative session, beginning %ebruary &&th. In the meantime, SD'( is faced with obvious and immediate challenges. The plan introduced to the community has led to a broad and negative reaction from parents, particularly in the South end of the district where it appears closures and consolidations are focused. The email we have all )ust received from Stephanie Higginson is, I believe, an accurate representation of how the ma)ority of parents in the South end feel about the plans of the board. The many parents who have contacted me have been unanimous in the feeling that the South end has been singled out to bear the brunt of the impacts of these changes and little of the benefits and I must say that I agree with that impression. The perception seems to be that the board has not been responsive or willing to adapt its plan to the voices heard during the consultation process. The overwhelming impression is that the board has proceeded with its plan without full $nowledge of the costs, to the point where perceived savings may not materiali e or may even result in increased costs, all of this at the e*pense of the wishes of my constituents. I have reviewed information provided by the board and I must say that I agree that there seems to be a void of data available to support the decisions affecting schools in my constituency. %urther, comments in meetings and in the media by board members undermine any sense of confidence as they have been contradictory and sometimes bordering on confrontational in tone. The issues affecting our schools affect our community, economy and most sensitively, our children. +iven the lac$ of clear indication of costs, the obvious contrary positions of your and my constituents and the organi ed resistance to the boards planning, I re,uest that the board reconsider its plan and re-e*amine the course upon which it has embar$ed. .e are all responsible for the broad constituencies we represent, but also to each individual. It seems that the large numbers of constituents demanding the board reconsider is owing of the boards renewed consideration. /lease ta$e whatever steps possible to suspend the current plan and go bac$ to the community in a spirit of goodwill and cooperation that I am sure will be greeted well. 0ours truly,

Doug 1outley !"# 2anaimo-2orth Cowichan 3&-&' High St "adysmith 4C 561 '"& 789-7:8-6;<8

CC: Doug Routley TO: Trustees: I have already sent you a small essay on this issue on January 8, so you know how I feel on most of these issues. However I do feel that on eve of the vote it is important to remind you of the important and relevant information regarding this busing issue. I will make this short...I know, it is hard to believe but I am going to try. First and foremost, this will not come as a surprise to most of you when I say, I am adamantly opposed to the closure of Cedar Secondary School and it's repurposing into and elementary school. It was a rushed decision as demonstrated by the ridiculously tight timelines under which the consultation process occurred. This rush to judgement has meant that many important details were unknown at the time of the decision and one of those details was the cost of bussing students to John Barsby. The original plan stated that the cost of bus students would be $281,200 (which was the cost of purchasing two buses, that you thought the Ministry would pay for out of capital expenditures because usually they buy the buses). However you have since learned that the cost is actually going to be $280 000 for the busses (which you have to pay for not the Ministry, because someone forget to look into the fact that the ministry doesn't buy busses when you close school. I agree that is actually a total pisser because really, it is them that you are trying to please by closing schools, but rules are rules as we like to tell our students and sorry you didn't do your homework) and $175, 878 annually for busing for a total of $455,878. All this only to rip apart the newest high school with the best facility rating in the district. And this becomes even more irresponsible when one takes into account the fact that you have known since July 12 that this district is not getting any money for new schools and you will need to pay for maintenance and repair of the existing schools in the district. Spending money from the AGF to rip apart the newest high school in this district when that money is so desperately needed in other facilities in this district (hello Hammond Bay gymnasium and an annex for an about to be over capacity LIS which is one of the worst rated facilities in the district). All of these unknown and unanticipated costs seem to cut significantly into the estimated cost savings expected by the closing of Cedar Secondary school. I will not give up the fight to save Cedar Secondary School. However IF the school does indeed close then I would like to think that you, as our elected representatives are interested in what is the NEXT BEST CHOICE for Cedar students. So, lets look at the most recent registration numbers for LSS versus Barsby. LSS numbers are now up to 205, which means Barsby numbers are down to 179. It was also noted at the last school transition committee meeting that if busses to LSS were provided then most parents from Cinnabar would also put their kids at LSS. So, it seems to me that you actually do have an overwhelming majority of families choosing LSS as their school of choice. That despite every effort by the school district and some members of the board of education to "convince" parents otherwise. Recently I was told that trustees are tired of Cedar families thinking that the trustees are "trying to screw Cedar". I can understand you being tired of the feeling. But to that I have one response...stop trying to do it. I am usually much more eloquent than this, but I am tired and you are tired and I could spend a whole bunch of my time and my words trying to say this in a nice and diplomatic way, but I am not going to waste anymore of my time trying to be diplomatic with you. It has gotten this community no where so far. So, let me back up a little bit here. When I say stop doing it, I don't actually think that you are sitting around the board room table, rolling up your sleeves, laughing maniacally while trying to think of new and wonderful ways to stick it to the "Cedar Folk" as you have so wonderfully taken to calling us. BUT I can understand why it is that people in this community would actually think that this is the case. Let's list the reasons why: 1. You closed our high school. The newest and most overcapacity high school in the district with the third highest grad rates and one of the highest post secondary transition rates You are closing our elementary schools only to move our small elementary aged children into a repurposed high school that will never be more then 75% full because it is is a stupid idea and is located next to a commercial grow op that emits such strong smells of marijuana on a regular basis that people the neighbourhood can't do their laundry on those days because the smell comes in through their dryer vents. In case you haven't thought of a team name for the new Cedar

2.

Elementary students, the community of Cedar has, we are soon to be proud parents of the "BC Buddies". 3. You provided busing from South Wellington to Chase River, you also did the same for the English stream kids that you took out of ....(insert school name here because really I can't keep track of every detail all the time and I am too tired to walk across my house and pull out that big huge binder that you see me drag around everywhere) last year when you moved them to...again, insert school name here, but I think it was Mountainview)... And finally, you want to ignore our school of choice and ask us to take just one more for the team (because these are decisions that are in the best interest of the district as a whole) and send our students to Barsby instead of LSS.

4.

So to those of you who feel tired of the Cedar families complaining about your plan that you say is in the best interest of the district, stop asking Cedar to take one more for the team. Just stop and give us something. You say the choice to close Cedar Secondary is about the educational opportunities provided by a larger student body (although Chairperson Neary did recently state on the radio that this is all about $$$), so let's just pretend that it is about educational opportunities. It shouldn't matter where those educational opportunities happen. So, if you want us to stop complaining, how about you stop giving us things to complain about. Just give us something here people. Seriously, give us SOMETHING. There is a city bus from Cedar to Nanaimo. Get creative, work with the city transportation department and arrange for a bus to roll through Cedar to Barsby in the morning and back in the afternoon. It is what most school districts that are located in cities do in order to avoid having to pay for busses. Furthermore, many families in Cedar actually work in Nanaimo, so getting kids to and from Barsby for many families isn't an issue. So, that to me is school choice. I know that you love Barsby. I love Barsby. What is not to love about Barsby? If I was teaching still, I would probably want to do it at Barsby. Every school district has a Barsby. I wish Cedar had as many champions on the board as Barsby but hey, that's that right. But really at the end of the day, LSS won this round, they attracted more families and more students than Barsby. LSS is a better fit for our students. You are just going to have to find another way to fill Barsby (although I do think that many Cedar families will still chose Barsby because of it's proximity to the city and you will see a slight increase in enrollment. On a side note...Did it ever occur to you that it is actually kind of funny that in your efforts to fill city schools you left the two most empty high schools open, which happen to be 2.6 km apart, it is not rocket science here folks on why these two schools are the most underutilized)...no probably not because half of you LOVE Barsby and most of you LOVE NDSS and one of you seems to sort of like Cedar, so it probably didn't occur to you. Anyway, if you want us to stop thinking that you have it out for Cedar, how about you stop acting like it. Stop asking us to take just one more for the team and do the right thing, the thing that an overwhelming majority of YOUR CONSTITUENTS in Cedar have asked you to do, MAKE LSS OUR CATCHMENT SCHOOL. If you want people in Cedar to stop thinking that you are trying to screw us, then START REPRESENTING US. Yes you have an entire district to consider, but the district is made of many parts and one part of it is Cedar and you seem to need a reminder that CEDAR IS PART OF YOUR JURISDICTION AND DESERVES AS MUCH RESPECT AS THE REST OF THE DISTRICT. If you want us to stop bugging you STOP ASKING US TO TAKE ONE MORE FOR THE TEAM. The tone of this email is different from my others, but you can take this one and the last essay that I have written you and read them in tandem. Together they represent how I am feeling. TOTALLY AND UTTERLY ANGRY, with a lot of well thought out information and arguments to justify why I feel this way. Sincerely, Stephanie Higginson Long Live Cedar Secondary!