Boundary review meeting to be held January 12
This post was written by Bedford Beacon Editor on January 4, 2012
Posted Under: News and Information
Posted Under: News and Information
The Halifax Regional School Board is currently completing a boundary review for Bedford South, Basinview Drive Community, Sunnyside Elementary, Kingswood Elementary, Madeline Symonds Middle, and Bedford Junior High schools.
The boundary review committee recently expanded the scope of the review to include Hammonds Plains Consolidated Elementary School. For more information, click here.
A public hearing will be held on Thursday, January 12 at 7 p.m. at Basinview Drive School.
Reader Comments
The Halifax school board has invited members of the public to make alternative suggestions to the proposed boundaries, but has not provided any public information other than a map that would allow members of the public to formulate informed, factual alternative suggestions. It proposes to make this information available to the public at the time of this meeting and then grant members of the public 5 minutes to present their alternatives or opinions.
The process being undertaken, has the veneer of transparency and public consultation but for the reasons described above, is not truly transparent nor procedurally fair to the members of the public, who will be most affected by the proposed changes.
To ensure that the public meeting will have greater success at being productive I urge that the HRSB release the information used in its decision making process for the new boundaries publicly and in advance of the meeting.
Providing the criteria and factual information used in the decision making process in advance of the meeting will facilitate the public to make alternative proposals and suggestions which are based on the same facts held by the board and its employees and ensure that the boundary review process is conducted in a complete and transparent process.
At the present time members of the public cannot form a reasonable opinion or recommend alternatives as we do not have the same information that is available to HRSB staff, nor will we have we had the benefit of considerable period of time to review the information if it is only presented publicly for the first time at the meeting and we are requested to immediately respond with our alternatives and/or opinions.