Preston High To Lose Kitchener Kids
From the Waterloo Region Record yesterday:
A new study of public high school boundaries is recommending that all students within walking distance of Huron Heights Secondary School should attend there.
If trustees agree, teenagers living within a few minutes’ walk of the school — who have been very unhappy about being bussed to Preston High School in Cambridge — will finally get their wish to attend their own neighbourhood school. (link)
I absolutely support the idea that kids should go to school in their own communities. It is indeed ridiculous that students have been bussed right past their neighbouring school into another city. It makes no sense and I hope that the trustees will agree with the recommendation to move the affected students to Huron Heights.
There will, however, be implications here in Cambridge if the school board trustees approve the recommendations of the report. Preston High School stands to lose a significant chunk of its student body and while the article cited school board chair Mike Ramsay as saying that closures were “off the table” he was speaking only in the context of the consultant’s report. It would be premature, I think, for Mr. Ramsay to say at this point that closing Preston High is completely out of the question.
We must be vigilant now to ensure that the end result here is not that Preston kids will be bussed to Kitchener. I will be following up with the school board on this issue. Stay tuned.
