A Bluewater District School Board (BWDSB) trustee is voicing opposition to a couple projects in Tara and Flesherton.
Trustee for Brockton and South Bruce Derrick Long says he and two others on the board are opposed to the removal of trees to put in a new parking lot at Arran-Tara Elementary School and to install new portable classrooms at Macphail Memorial Elementary School.
- Bluewater School Board To Remove Trees At Arran-Tara Elementary School For Parking Lot
- BWDSB Looks At 11 New Portable Classrooms
Long says the board’s decision to cut down the trees at Macphail is “perverse.”
“They want to cut down a kindergarten forest that was planted 35 years ago by an inspiring teacher and students and community members,” says Long.
He says the board did not consult with parents and families at either of the schools for the projects.
Long says while the portables the board is looking to install at Macphail school is a temporary fix to address the rising number of students, the school was designed to be extended.
He says there were plans to attend the recent board meeting on March 19 to propose alternatives to removing trees. The meeting, however, was cancelled as a result of the weather.
“With 1,200 signatures on a petition, has extremely clear and much better suggestions,” says Long. “The delegation will be offering more than one alternative and I know one of those is, I believe on another side of the school, there is a section that would be positive to put the portables and there are alternatives that are much better than the idea of clear cutting mother earth.”
At Arran-Tara, BWDSB Communications Officer Jamie Pettit previously confirmed while about 20 trees will be removed for the new parking lot, students will be planting more trees than the ones removed.
Long says this move is short-sighted.
“The kids who no longer will be able to go to the outdoor forest learning space, I don’t know how much solace they are going to take in knowing that if the trees are cut down, possibly their own children, we would hope their grand children might someday be able to enjoy the shade of those trees,” says Long. “To plant seedlings or saplings and hope that for the next five, 10 even 20 years that they will be anything of a positive option to the current ideal situation of a learning forest I think is quite ridiculous.”
