As almost everyone is aware, Blyth Public School is scheduled for closure next June.
The Avon Maitland School Board has a legal right to do this to our community, regardless of the fact that it will have a devastating effect on our economy, our society, our property values.
Their senior staff have indicated openly that they don’t care about this. The community is of no concern to them.
In the ARC process, Blyth was not fairly represented. There was no Blyth business person involved, no Blyth councillor involved, and the general community was not invited to any of the public meetings, and we had no representation on the School Board.
Not that any of that mattered in the end, because the school board had made all the decisions long before the ARC committee was formed.
We have collected several hundred names on a petition, not only to save BPS but to put a halt to these closings of many small towns’ only schools across Ontario. Almost all of the business places on Blyth’s main street have petition forms ready to be signed by any Resident of Ontario. The age of majority barrier does not apply to petitions in Ontario. We have a lot of signatures already but we are looking to exceed our entire population.
We believe this is possible because the behaviour of Avon Maitland is so unfair, arbitrary, undemocratic that the people of Huron County and elsewhere are up in arms, just as they were a few decades ago when Clinton Hospital was slated to to close in much the same way. Clinton Hospital is still open and operating. That is proof against the nay-sayers who say we are fighting a lost cause. We have to convince the Ontario legislature to make some very significant changes.
A Blyth with no school will become a burden on the entire township. We will not be able to to sustain the many great attractions of our village without the young people who will no longer move here.
WE CANNOT AFFORD TO LOSE OUR ONLY SCHOOL!
Brock Vodden representing P.A.S.S.
A group of Ontario communities opposing the closures of small rural town schools