Beacon Hill North Community Association

Tuesday June 29, 2010
Now it is OUR turn as a community

Monday November 16, 2009
COLONEL BY UPDATE

Sunday November 8, 2009
URGENT ACTION REQUIRED : Colonel By Counts but needs your help NOW !!!!

Ottawa Citizen : Community rallies for Colonel By school

By Joanne Laucius, The Ottawa Citizen

The community around top-performing Colonel By Secondary School is rallying around the school -- even though another high school has been named as the candidate to close next September.

The Beacon Hill North Community Association, whose territory includes Colonel By, has been "examining the options" in case Colonel By and not Rideau High School becomes the one school trustees decide to close when they make their decisions Dec. 15.

The push to protect Colonel By includes exploring legal avenues, said community association president Tim Tierney, a communications strategist.

"You always want to make sure you're prepared for the worst," said Tierney, who has worked on about 35 political campaigns in recent years and last spring headed the Colonel By Counts committee.

The association has about 1,000 people on its e-mail list, hundreds more Colonel By supporters on another list and an undisclosed amount of money ready to aid the campaign.

"It's not a lot of money, but we're prepared for any eventuality," said Tierney.

Rideau High School was named by school board staff report as the school to close in a process that considered three high schools in the area, including Colonel By and Gloucester High School.

The area review committee, which consisted of representatives from the community and schools, advised closing none of the high schools. At least one date, Nov. 23, has been set aside for public input.

"I think all three high schools aren't out of the woods," said Tierney.

"You never know what might happen."

Colonel By ranked the best in the city by the Fraser Institute last spring. The school is home to the rigorous International Baccalaureate (IB) program, the only one of its kind in Ottawa's English public board. Of the school's approximately 1,200 students, almost half are IB students. Only 266 students, including 66 IB students, live within its attendance boundary, which is the smallest in the school board.

Without the IB program and transfers, Colonel By would not be viable, noted the board report.

If the IB program is relocated, the program office must receive at least a year for re-accreditation, said Tierney.

Last spring, three public meetings about the future of the three schools each attracted hundreds of parents and community members, including one meeting at Rideau High School in which more than three-quarters of those attending were Colonel By supporters, said Tierney.

Meanwhile, strategizing what to do next will be at the top of the agenda of the Beacon Hill North Community Association annual general meeting, taking place tonight at Colonel By at 7 p.m.

Among the possibilities is an aggressive campaign to protect Colonel By. Another would be fighting to keep all three high schools open without any specific reference to Colonel By.

Tierney said Ottawa-Vanier Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger, trustee David Moen and Beacon Hill-Cyrville Councillor Michel Bellemare have confirmed they will attend the meeting.

Last spring, Tierney's group enlisted comedian Tom Green, an alumnus of the school, to support the campaign. The committee also tried to track down other famed alumni, including actor Tom Cruise and rocker Bryan Adams, but was unsuccessful.

Green is still standing by to offer support, said Tierney. "He's on my Facebook group. Sometimes he'll drop me a line and ask what's going on."

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