For many in this community, the recent news that the Bluewater District School Board (BWDSB) has submitted a business case to the Ministry of Education for a new school in Meaford will be a cause for an emphatic ‘we told you so’, as from the moment Meaford’s $29.6 million dollar ‘super school’ opened in 2021, combining students from two elementary schools and the high school into one building, virtually everyone I spoke to suggested that the school was not large enough, and would exceed the 1,044 student capacity in no time at all. That is exactly what happened.
Many at the time were confused with the decision to close three schools and combine them into one school serving grades kindergarten through Grade 12 in one building.
While then Principal Kevin Wilson told The Independent in September of 2021 during the new school’s grand opening that, “It was a bit of a challenge to find room, but we did. We’re full…but you don’t see any portables out there yet,” it did not take long before portable classrooms began appearing in order to accommodate students in a brand new school that was already operating beyond its intended capacity.
Today, just four years after the opening of the new ‘super school’ there are eight portable classrooms, student enrollment exceeds 1,200, and by the 2029-30 school year, the school is expected to be operating at 128 percent of the school’s intended capacity with a student population of more than 1,340.
We Meafordites have known since the building was opened in 2021 that it would not be an adequate size to house Meaford students in the years to come, particularly after we saw an influx of new families during the pandemic years, as many small communities experienced at the time.
I recall one friend with school-aged children telling me after the new school was opened that it was “already packed”, and that there was no way the new school would be adequate if Meaford’s population was to grow, even a little.
So while we once had three public schools in this municipality, two elementary and one high school, today we have one ‘super school’ that is bursting at the seams, and features eight portable classrooms after just four years of operation.
The school board sold the former high school building on Eliza Street, as well as the former Meaford Community School on Cook Street, and the former St. Vincent Euphrasia elementary school on Grey Road 7 was closed and demolished after the construction of the new ‘super school’.
In their business case, the BWDSB said that the Board could use the property at 87 Aitken Street, the location of the former high school’s athletic track, a property which the Board has retained for possible use as a location for a new school. The new school would include child care space in collaboration with Grey County.
The news of a potential new school in Meaford is fantastic news for many, particularly parents of school-aged children. But it is also a frustration for many, who will quickly remind that just a few short years ago we had three schools operating in this community, and then we were told that combining the three schools into one building for students from kindergarten through high school was a better plan, and now we are being told what we already knew, that one ‘super school’ is not enough.
Meaford’s current school, Georgian Bay Community School (GBCS), cost nearly $30 million to build, and that was four years ago. We have all seen the many reports on the ever increasing cost of construction in the post-pandemic years, so if a new school is to be built in this municipality, it won’t be cheap.
You won’t find many that would argue that with capacity already exceeded, and with eight portable classrooms already in use, that Meaford needs an additional school. But then most of us didn’t think the new ‘super school’ was large enough from the day that it opened. It wouldn’t be overly cheeky to suggest that by the time the province approves a new school, if they do, and one is actually built, which could be five years from now, that new school might also be bursting at the seams by the time it opens.
To all of the parents who have complained to me over the past four years about the inadequate size of what is now our only public school in the municipality, you were of course correct. The Board has recognized that Meaford’s school, already beyond its intended capacity, will only become more full in the years to come, and so the need for a second school has been identified, and a business case has been presented to the ministry for consideration. There are no guarantees, and the solution for the years to come might very well be more portable classrooms, but you can only add portables for so long before a new school absolutely must be built.
Should a new school ultimately be built, my hope is that the principal of that new school won’t have to echo the words of the principal of the day when Meaford’s new ‘super school’ opened its doors just four years ago in September of 2021, “We’re full…but you don’t see any portables out there yet.”
