Ratepayers challenge naming - Lyndwood School Cover-up - Mississauga News

The Lakeview Ratepayers' Association (LRA) is calling on the Peel District School Board to reverse its decision to rename Hartsdale Public School for local trustee and Board chair Janet McDougald.

In a motion approved last Friday, directors of the ratepayers group said it's inappropriate to rename the school for McDougald, who sat on the school-closing review committee that voted to close three schools in the neighbourhood and leave Lakeview without an elementary school for the first time in a century.

"Naming the new school after one of the chief architects of this serious problem is seen as an insult to our community," the ratepayers said in a statement. "The LRA has concerns over the optics of having the trustee/school board chair who sat on the Accommodation Review Committee (ARC), which voted to close all of the public schools in our community, being honoured with the name of the very school to which all of our Lakeview public school board children must now be bused."

The Peel Board amalgamated Byngmount Beach, Neil C. Matheson and Lyndwood public schools into the new Hartsdale Public School, the name recommended by the ARC. The new school is under construction on the site of the former Lyndwood Public School and is scheduled to open next September.

At a private meeting in November that McDougald did not know about, her fellow trustees voted to rename the school in her honour.
Although she was not involved in the renaming, McDougald has been forced to defend it on behalf of the Board as parents at some of the closed schools questioned its appropriateness.

The Ward 1 and 7 trustee, who's been a trustee for 23 years and Board chair for the past 14 years, told parents at a meeting last month that she hopes they will focus on the teaching and learning in the classrooms since that's the most important part of the school, not the name.

“I see everything remaining the same. I see a new name outside the school, but inside the school I don’t see anything changing,” she said at the time.
The LRA also said it feels it's inappropriate to name a school for a sitting trustee, in the ward she represents.

The group concluded its "community letter" by saying: "We suggest that the school board reconsider their position and that the new Hartsdale Public School should not be renamed."

Comments by others - 7 - to this web-page at time of posting;

hio Jan 22, 2012 9:19 PM

... why did this article not make the printed paper

http://www.mississauga.com/news/article/1277040--nobody-asked-us-parents

Agree 2

hio Jan 22, 2012 9:13 PM

Lost in all of this is TAX MONEY wasted and ignoprance

Delegation of Jan 10: Janet was REPEATEDLY asked who represented our ward when the school name was changed. Reply "No one". Also lost is the complete waste of tax money - including the framed photo that was represented to Janet, 7000 books that will have to be relabelled, school passes, school material, bank accounts, and time that is paid for someone to do that - PLUS the meeting where the name change was decided was done on time billed to tax payers. The article online in the MIssissauga News about this did NOT make the printed paper - WHY?? http://www.mississauga.com/news/article/1277040--nobody-asked-us-parents ... and the confusion that has resulted with renaming the school OVERNIGHT in the middle of the school year... the sign on the Ogden Ave holding school still says "Hartsdale" ... and they continue to REFUSE to say WHY it was renamed in the MIDDLE of a school year!!

Agree 2

NotReally Jan 19, 2012 7:31 PM

Janet McDougald

Janet McDougald, withdrawl your name for the school. Do the right thing, please.

Agree 2

NotReally Jan 19, 2012 7:21 PM

should named by honour merit

No school should be named for someone doing their tax-paid job on a board. All the men and women have we lost fighting in the Armed Forces of Canada, and those who contribute to society without pay nor asking. We need to give our kids a school name that shines, not marred in politics.

Agree 2

Downtown Citizen Jan 19, 2012 5:10 PM

I applaud the ratepayers who are standing up and mounting this chalenge

Always good to see citizens (the silent majority) stand up and make some noise. Too may of us have been too polite, too quite. Politicians that stand behind their hubris are due the public scorning. This issue from the board makes a mockery and a farce of thier edicts that are passed down to the student population. Inclussive, accompaning, ...NOT! Instead their story (through their actions) demonstrates the opposite ....autocratic, self-serving!

Agree 6

ConcernedResident Jan 19, 2012 4:52 PM

Public shame is not enough to move this women to act

Is she that ignorant of the will of her constituents? C'mon Janet, do the right thing.

Agree 5

Fartleberry Jan 19, 2012 4:36 PM

At any time

McDougald could have stepped back and said she would not lend her name to the school. Humility is not a virtue it seems.

Agree 5

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