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14 - The Oakville Beaver, Friday January 30, 2009 www.oakvillebeaver.com Public board could eliminate Lakeshore Woods school By Tina Depko OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF The fate of a public elementary school in the Lakeshore Woods subdivision could be decided at the Feb. 4 meeting of the Halton District School Board. At that meeting, trustees will be asked whether they want to permanently scrap plans for the school. The proposed school, which would be located on the north side of Shell Park in southwest Oakville, was originally part of the board's long term accommodation plan for 2008-13. Trustees voted in July 2008 to exclude the project from this plan. This decision enabled the proposed school to be added back to the accommodation plan down the road. However, the recommendation that will be tabled at the Feb. 4 meeting would close to the door to any future build of the school. There is no time deadline for trustees to make a decision on the issue, but Steven Parfeniuk, superintendent of business services ...for our Veterans Merry Maids is a residential cleaning company that has been serving the Oakville community for over ten years. Our professionally trained, bonded and insured staff has cleaned over 53,000 homes. Merry Maids of Oakville has a long standing relationship with the Department of Veteran's Affairs. We provide residential cleaning and by using our provider number we are able to bill Veteran's Affairs directly. This way, our Veteran customers can enjoy a clean home without worrying about paper work. As a token of our appreciation, we are offering all our new veteran clients a gift card from Zellers, Wal Mart, or Tim Hortons when they sign up for regular service. It is our way of giving back to those who gave to us. *Merry Maids is also able to bill insurance companies directly. That means that if you're entitled to cleaning services through an insurance claim, we will come and clean your home and we will bill the insurance company directly. With Merry Maids you can relax, it's done. with the school board, asked trustees to make a decision sooner rather than later for the sake of the community. "One way or the other, the decision that trustees make around the area... will inform the 2009-2013 long term accommodation review process, as well as inform the community, so we won't have a situation where we potentially have a site and we go year by year by year and not build on it," said Parfeniuk. The land for the proposed Lakeshore Woods school is currently owned by New Province Homes Ltd., which has appealed to the Ontario Municipality Board to develop a subdivision on the site. However, New Province Homes Ltd. is unable to move forward with the subdivision until the board makes a final decision on the school. A major factor in staff's recommendation not to proceed with Lakeshore Woods School, which is proposed as a possible dual track school, is enrollment numbers. There is currently about 400 total excess spaces in several southwest Oakville public elementary schools, according to board staff. Accommodation problems would occur if the 400 to 500 capacity Lakeshore Woods school was built, as excess spaces would increase, said Parfeniuk. Compounding the issue is that enrolment is expected to decline in this area over the coming years. The end result could be programming problems. "We should manage those pupil places in a diligent way to ensure students have access to good programs and services," Parfeniuk said. Transportation is another factor considered in the recommendation. Currently, all students in the Lakeshore Woods area are eligible for transportation. While building a school in that area would mean fewer of those students would be bused, students currently walking to several other schools in the southwest area would need to be bused as a result of school consolidation. Parfeniuk said that if trustees are not prepared to make a decision on the issue now, he would like them to make one by March 2010. "Administration made this recommendation, but administration would be happy to proceed in another direction," he said. "In terms of informing the community of the intentions of the board around capital in the community, I personally would like to send that signal by 2010." Another aspect of the Lakeshore Woods project is that a Program and Accommodation Review Committee (PARC) process would need to be done before the school was built. Director of Education Wayne Joudrie said there would need to be some revisions to the PARC process before one was enacted for Wards 1 and 2. Staff did highlight one advantage to building the school. Parfeniuk said that since most schools in the area are more than 20 years old, maintenance costs are higher than those for newer schools. If a new school was built, it could reduce these maintenance costs, as other older schools could be closed. Don Vrooman, the trustee for Wards 1 and 2, said he did not support scrapping plans for the Lakeshore Woods school so the land could be developed for a subdivision. He said it reduces options for future accommodation reviews. mmaids@bellnet.ca 905-847-2210 TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE FEDERAL HOME TAX CREDIT up to $ IN TAX SAVINGS 1350 Helping you build some of the best things in life... right in your own backyard. , FULL LANDSCAPE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION , EXISTING POOL RENOVATIONS , PREFERRED FINANCING AVAILABLE , NO COST FINANCING FOR 1 YEAR