If students are happy at SCITS, why not leave them there?
Sir: Re: The story ‘Great Lakes sweepstakes,’ June 1 edition.
Let me see if I understand this correctly:
Fact: The Lambton Kent District School Board says the cost to reconstruct and expand Great Lakes Secondary at the old St. Clair site has risen from $16 million to $19 million, and the work hasn’t even begun?
Fact: Complete funding for this project is not in place.
Fact: The plan is to replicate what is already currently available at the SCITS site, now known as Great Lakes Secondary.
Fact: The SCITS site was deemed by the majority of the intelligent, honest, hardworking and taxpaying citizens of Sarnia to be the better choice for the amalgamated school, but this school board choose to ignore the facts, many of which were backed up with proof.
Fact: It would have cost far less to make the necessary upgrades and changes to SCITS than it is going to cost for this project.
Board chairperson Jane Bryce states, in reference to the possibility the renovated location won’t be ready by September 2018: “I believe the kids are comfortable where they are (at SCITS) and, if it’s not ready, why not move them later in the year?”
Suggestion: Well, Jane, why not leave them there? This would save stacks of money and would show honest common sense, integrity and logic.
Two good things: One, a Sarnia company is being used for the demolition (unlike Lambton College), and two, trustee Shannon Sasseville. By casting the lone vote against the demolition because there is ‘no official motion for the project itself,’ she set herself apart from the other sheep and showed she has genuine deliberation and conviction.
Prediction: things will not go according to plan, expenses will skyrocket, funding will be requested again, people will be unhappy, and upset will reign again in our community.
Summation: As citizens we need to ask ourselves, how far reaching will the consequences be?
Claudette Gasbarini
Sarnia
Sarnia expatriate still misses the green, green grass of home
Sir: I migrated to Western Canada in 1978 but have always missed my birthplace of Sarnia, Ont.
I still have two sisters living there and my father is presently living at a retirement home, so I average a visit to Sarnia about every two years.
I always look forward to returning and to see all the changes that have happened. To me, Sarnia is a beautiful city with countless things to do and see!
From sitting under the Blue Water Bridges and enjoying those delicious French fries to swimming at one of the numerous beaches, I always reminisce about the years of my youth spent there.
All three of my kids are grown now and I’ve had the opportunity to tour each of them around the sites in Sarnia.
Sooo many great memories were made there, and sometimes when I try to point out places where their “old man” hung out, I’ve had to look twice.
There is no more Murphy Woods, and no more Olivet Baptist Church, which was located beside Cathcart Boulevard School where I attended. And I tell you, all those new Tim Horton’s that keep popping up really confuse me.
Attached is a photo of one of my favourite spots, Lake Chipican.
Dan Wever
Grande Prairie, Alberta