Debate heats up on possible Dr. Powers school closure
The ad hoc school review committee for Dr. L. B. Powers Public School continued deliberations on Tuesday. As the deadline for the committee’s final report draws closer, there are still many questions surrounding the perceived financial benefits of amalgamating Powers with Beatrice Strong P.S.
Sarah Clayton, one of two Powers school representatives on the committee and a financial analyst for the Regional Municipality of Durham is concerned that a proper building analysis comparing the efficiencies of Powers and Strong has not been completed.
“The provincial auditor and the ministry have noted problems with boards not using full-cycle building cost analyses and not actually making accommodations based on efficiency,” she said. “As an analyst myself, this doesn’t prove to me that we’re not going to move all these students to Beatrice Strong, close down Powers and then end up having to build a bigger school five years down the road.”
Community representative Reno Piccini seemed to agree that the analysis, as presented, appeared incomplete.
“This looks like it’s generating all this revenue when in fact it’s revenue that’s going to have to go right back into a building campaign,” he said.
Ms. Clayton also brought up the point that the board had a reserve fund of $3 million for capital projects, yet instead went with a different method of financing.
“You could have used this money, but it comes with a cost of 8 per cent based on the ministry guidelines,” she said. “Instead you went to the market where you got a debenture for 6 per cent. So you’re filling up this reserve by closing schools such as Hawkins and Powers, and filling others to overcapacity, then you don’t even use the money.”
“That’s true,” superintendent of administrative services Joe Hubbard replied. “I think the board is being economically wise in doing so. At a better interest rate, the board can pay off a capital project in a quicker amount of time. This generates more money to be available for more capital projects.”
“My question is, can you consider not putting more money into this reserve account when you don’t need it, when you can go to the market at a cheaper rate?” Ms. Clayton asked. “Why not just leave Powers alone and go out and debenture a new school that you think you need to build?”
“That makes the assumption that we don’t need the money,” Hubbard responded. “We do need it, and we need to have money flowing by way of new pupil place grants. As enrollment declines, that means revenues also decline. Based on the number of projects the board has funded to date, albeit at a better interest rate, it still needs to generate continued revenue from new pupil place grants to offset declining enrollment and ensure that we have the money in the future to pay off those projects.”
Erin Brown, board trustee and chair of the committee, objected to the inference that the board was considering closing Powers merely as a “cash grab.”
“Nobody wants to close schools,” she said. “It needs to be made clear that we wouldn’t be doing this unless we needed to close schools. If you look, as an example, at the trustees that have been removed from power and replaqced by a government supervisor, they are going through massive school closures right now; more than we would be.”
The Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board invites and encourages the public to attend review committee meetings. The next meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 26 in the Dr. Powers School library. Public input meetings are scheduled for Thursday, April 3 and Wednesday, April 9 in the Powers gym.