Save Arbor Glen

Pat had a long discussion with city councillor David Shiner on Feb 28 about revitalization program. Thanks Pat for your great effort ! The following is the note I received from Pat.

Hi Everyone,

I have had a very busy morning discussing the revitalization/consolidation issue.

I was contacted by Rita Hebert from Councillor Shiner’s office. On behalf of Councillor Shiner she thanked us for the binder and was very impressed with all the work that went into it thanks to Candy. Although the Board of Education is not a Municipal matter Councillor Shiner is not in agreement that any of our schools be closed and has spoken on this matter before Council. He does not understand why closing any school that has a 75 to 80% enrolment should even be considered, particularly when development is ongoing throughout Willowdale and schools will be needed. Councillor Shiner has met with Mari Rutka and has expressed his views on this matter. After discussing a number of other issues Rita asked if she could pass on my phone number to the Bayview Glen Ratepayers Association and I agreed. She also gave me the phone number of Arlene Leonoff who belongs to the Pineway group.

I then spoke at great length to Arlene and their group have been extremely active over the last week. They have been working with a representative from …ooops! can’t read my notes, I will have to find out the name of the group later … and with the lady who wrote the letter in the Mirror from Lillian P.S. Like us, the Pineway group feel they should not be working alone as this matter concerns all of Willowdale. They are trying to contact as many schools as possible perhaps through the School Councils so that we may speak with one voice. The Pineway Group have had numerous meetings already and are having another next Tuesday March 6th at 32 Weatherstone at 7.30. They would like as many as possible from our group to attend. Unfortunately, I already have a previous commitment on that night so I can’t go. It would be great if others from our group attends this meeting. Please try to make it.

The group is very upset with the Board and Mari Rutka as they feel that since they are elected to represent us, they should be coming up with better alternatives than “Plan Z.” Like us, they have sent numerous e-mails to Mari and are not happy with the answers they have received.

The group have also tentatively booked Earl Haig for Tuesday March 27th and hope that many parents and community members will make it a priority to attend. The Board will not be invited but they have already lined up speakers to speak on the issue of “Plan Z.” They will be inviting the Press to attend and report what is said. I have agreed to distribute flyers in the area as the Pineway group have a contact who will print them free of charge.

Arlene has already sent a note to our Blog.

As I mentioned, I spoke at great length with both Rita and Arlene and they each had some excellent points to make.

Please speak with your neighbours, parents and friends on this issue and together we will make our collective voices heard.

Regards.

Pat

Candy’s note on Feb 19 to the concerned parents and community members:

First of all thank you so much for your tremendous support during these past weeks. The signatures and comments we received proved that you care very much about our community and it is your wish to keep Arbor Glen.

As indicated in our earlier note to Mari Rutka, the information binders which contain our petition (about 200 signatures!) were presented to Mari Rutka last Thursday, and David Zimmer, MPP last Friday. While we are still awaiting feedback from Mari (who no doubt is being bombarded with notes from concerned parents), David is very impressed and indicated that this is a very successful lobbying! Thanks again everybody for doing such an excellent job within a very short time span.

In order to keep the momentum going, we would need your help, to continue to fight to keep the school open by:

1. Attending the school council meetings and putting yourselves on the agenda in advance so that you might speak at the school council meetings.

These meetings are usuallly conducted at a convenient time for the parents to attend. The reason to put yourselves on the agenda in advance is that it is sometimes quite a busy schedule and they may not allow anyone to add to the agenda if you have not told them in advance.

I spoke with Ms. Bauer this morning, she said a flyer will be going out shortly regarding the school council meeting in March at which time Mari will come. According to Ms. Bauer, usually the agenda is very loose, so we need your input to collect ideas about what to put on the agenda in the next few weeks. We need the agenda to be ready a week before the meeting. We will send out the notice regarding the meeting once the date is known. Please do come to the meeting to show your support. There is child care support on site. Even if you don’t prepare to speak, please just show up to demonstrate that we care!

According to the Revitalization Program schedule, recommendation to the school board will be made in April. Therefore this meeting is the last chance we have to voice our concerns before any recommendation is put forward. As published in North York Mirror on Jan 31, 2007, at another ward meeting regarding Drewry Secondary School, Mari “assured concerned parents the program would not relocate without their support” . We want to make sure that we are given the same assurance in this meeting. (We’ll take this as the first item on the agenda).

David Zimmer mentioned that it is at these school council meetings where decisions are made, therefore we need representations there going forward. According to Ms. Bauer, the executive positions were all taken up currently. The next election will be in September. We will nominate the parent representatives, probably from our core group, to run for the positions in September so that our voice can be channeled through to the school board and ensure that we have a say in the decision being carried. Do come out and vote for them. Details will go out at a later date.

2. Lobbying the trustee by sending e-mails once or twice a week by different persons

Wonder if you’ve heard the name of a game called “ROUND ROBIN”, i.e. each team member takes turn in playing in the match.

Each week one or two from our group will be selected to be our presenter of the week. A note will be sent by the core group to the presenter to let them know the date/week they are required to send out a note, it will be from your email address with your own signature. If you have ideas of what to present, great! Send it to our core group for our comments, and perhaps refinement if so required. If you don’t have an idea, the core group is here to help. We can feed you with ideas and even the email content – just let us know what your preference is.

Send your note directly to Mari Rutka, copy David Zimmer MPP and David Shiner, the councilor (we are getting clearance from his office if he agrees to be copied in, though he said his hands are tied, I’m hoping he may be able to influence somebody in the decision making as I heard that he is very keen on local issues), bcc the core group.

You will forward response from Mari to the core group for distribution among the group, anybody can chime in with their response to Mari. The core group can also help to feed your response.

We have quite a no. of people on our list currently. So it may take probably each person once or twice a year to be the presenter.

This way everyone is given a chance to speak for themselves, with the help from the core group for ideas, comments, editing, etc. Everyone can be involved and be able to contribute while being fully supported. (If you have a concern about using your email address/not comfortable sending out notes in your own name, you are welcome to nominate a neighbour. However we do encourage you to send this in your own name as this is a good learning experience for all of us to know how to get involved.)

We have to keep in mind that this is just the beginning. This will help us not to forget the cause, while ensuring that we are not forgotten by Mari. Taking turn will give each of us a chance to take the lead without getting exhausted.

The more notes Mari Rutka receives the more she will take notice. It carries more weight if it comes from individuals. It can have similar ideas but coming from different voices count. Do copy David Zimmer and David Shiner (once we get the clearance) in your notes.

3. Rolling out a blog site so your ideas can be collected effectively

One of our core member is kind enough to offer his expertise to set up a blog site so that ideas and comments can be published, with the core group’s co-ordination. This is a very effective way of expressing ideas without being bogged down from strands of emails and cross communication which can be confusing at times.

Once we have more information on this, the core group will notify everyone when and how it can be utilized.

As Mari indicated, it may take years for this to evolve. We need to get involved so that we can influence how it is going to evolve.

Again, you are such a wonderful group to work with, I am so proud to be part of it. Let’s bring out the best from our group and make sure our voice is heard.

Best regards,