A.J. Baker ARC Report

Tuesday, 13 May 2014 15:55

The fight to save A.J. Baker Public School from closing returns Tuesday night when ARC Chair and local Trustee Graham Hart is scheduled to present recommendations to the Thames Valley District School Board.

ZORRA TOWNSHIP -- Another chapter will be written Tuesday night in the ongoing effort to save Kintore's A.J. Baker Public School in Zorra Township.

Graham Hart, one of two Oxford Trustees and Chair of the Northwest Oxford Elementary Accommodation Review Committee will present the ARC's recommendation to the Thames Valley District School Board tonight.

A.J Baker Parent and ARC member Marcus Ryan says Hart will finally present their recommendations which were decided on last month.

"There's been a lot of waiting up until now, and there's still going to be some more, but we're really down to the last four events now before the board ultimately makes their decision."

A.J. Baker is just one of the schools under accommodation review by the School Board.

In a show of support, a crowd of A.J. Baker supporters will travel to tonight's meeting in London to help represent the school.

Ryan says tonight's presentation will be received by the school board as information, with more important meetings still to follow.

"There's not going to be an in-depth debate tonight, but we're hoping to get an idea from the tone of the presentation and the questions that are asked of what direction the board might be leaning."

Ryan says previous ARC's have given him and other members the expectation that the Board won't deviate from it's initial stance to close the school.

"From what we've seen over the past couple of years in previous ARC's, our expectation is that they will come back with exactly the same recommendation that started this whole thing off and that's by closing A.J. Baker and sending the kids elsewhere."

Parents says they're concerned a very large section of Zorra Township would be left under serviced by a public school if A.J. Baker were to close, forcing students into longer bus commutes, to as many as three different outlying schools.

Ryan says senior administration with the school board will respond to the ARC's recommendations with a response to the ARC report likely coming at the next board meeting in two weeks.