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Hundreds march to support
historic Wells Street School
They turned out in droves Monday night in an attempt to save Wells Street Public School.
An estimated 400 concerned citizens gathered with their children at Aurora's town park to gear up for a march to a special trustees meeting.
They heard the rally cry from organizers that the school built in 1892 is a cornerstone of the community and essential to the revitilization of the downtown. Then, with police escort, and led by a bagpiper, they marched through the streets to Dr G W Williams Secondary School for the meeting.
However, since many people just came for the rally, their numbers had dwindled to about 200 people when they handed trustees information kits on the steps of the Williams.
All 12 York Region District Board of Education trustees showed up for the meeting.
Inside the cafeteria it was a very polite and orderly procession of people who ventured up to the microphone to appeal to the trustees’ sense of community.
A notable change, remarked one of the trustees, from the confrontational presentations in most of the other meetings.
Wells was deemed unsafe by the school board two years ago and was closed.
Subsequent consultant reports claimed it would cost up to $10 million to demolish the school and re-build it.
That was the most expensive of three suggested options.
Another option, in the $5 million range, would basically fix the school. And $8 million to basically gut it.
Trustees listened for two hours as about 24 people spoke passionately about how Wells is an integral part of Aurora's education history and a safe place for kids to walk to school. Most had children who had attended Wells or were wanting to. "Just tell us what we need to do to save our Wells...It's a unique school, we need to find a unique solution,” said organizer Beverly Norton. “You need to think outside the box." Since speakers were supposed to confine themselves to three minutes each - three got up and declared they would give their time to Kate Revington who then spoke for almost 15 minutes about the value of Wells to the community.
She noted how parents were impressive, constant volunteers at the school raising thousands of dollars, helping teachers, organizing the library, forming reading clubs and helping with field trips.
She admonished the school board staff for its report to keep Wells closed.
"As stakeholders, we object to the lack of respect with which board staff has treated our community,” she said, “and find it wanting with its carefully calculated numbers and convenient projections, it confuses effects with causes, its view is narrow and shortsighted, ours is not."
Later, Kate's 17-year-old son, Robert, told trustees they need to consider parts of the report that call for Wells to be earthquake proof since Aurora is not on a fault line.
He also brought some levity to the meeting by inquiring if it should be made volacano proof as well. On a more serious note he said the school board's own mandate could easily be fulfilled if it considered its own $5 million option since it met the Ministry of Educations' formula to fix vs. rebuild rule.
Jane Reeves of CAWS (Community Action for Wells Street) also questioned reports from the school board staff.
She quoted last week's edition of The Auroran in which seismic, building expert, Andy Godschalk accused the staff of fear mongering regarding the condition of Wells.
"As a committee, I think we have the right to request an independent jury to provide a more objective view of the current state of the school,” she said. “I would think as a democratic society we should have that right to have an objective peer review done, This is a huge issue, it's not just about Aurora, and I think that as a board, this is your chance to shine."
She sought answers for the next meeting on July 6th.
There's one more meeting after that on September 14th before the trustees are due to decide the fate of Wells on September 24th.
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