What About The Youth of Gravenhurst

THE HOLLOWING-OUT OF A COMMUNITY - HAVE WE FORGOTTEN OUR YOUTH?

LOSING A SCHOOL? WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR THE FUTURE?

YOU WILL FIND RESIDENTS OF OUR SUNNY LITTLE BURG TODAY, WHO HAVEN'T GOT A CLUE THAT OUR HIGH SCHOOL, HERE IN GRAVENHURST, IS LOOKING AT A BLEAK FUTURE. NOT BECAUSE STUDENTS DON'T WANT TO GO THERE. JUST NOT ENOUGH TO MAKE IT VIABLE IN THE DISTANT FUTURE, FOR THE TRILLIUM LAKELANDS BOARD OF EDUCATION. IT'S NOT THE FAULT OF THE SCHOOL BOARD. IT'S A PROVINCIAL STANDARD FOR BOARDS OF EDUCATION, AND THE SUBSIDY THAT HAS BEEN GIVEN TO UNDER-ENROLLED, UNDER-UTILIZED SCHOOLS, IS BEING SUSPENDED IN THE NEW YEAR, IF THE NEW BUDGET PASSES. IT'S ALL VERY MATTER OF FACT, BUT IT'S ONE OF THOSE REALITIES THAT CAN'T BE SHIFTED EASILY BY BLEEDING TESTIMONIALS AND LONG-WINDED DIATRIBES, ABOUT THE WAY WE WERE. THIS IS A MODERN DAY DILEMMA THAT IS GOING TO TAKE A MODERN DAY SOLUTION.

UNFORTUNATE AS IT MAY BE, I HAVE A FEELING THIS ISSUE COULD BECOME A CATALYST IN OTHER WAYS, TO MOTIVATE CITIZENS TO TAKE BACK THEIR COMMUNITY. THERE HAS BEEN A TREMENDOUS RELIANCE ON TOWN COUNCIL TO LEAD THE WAY. NOT TAKING THE INITIATIVE OURSELVES, HAS LEFT US "FENCE-SITTING" WHILE HISTORY IS BEING MADE BY OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS. AT TIMES IT SEEMS WE'VE SURRENDERED OUR OWN SENSE OF COMMUNITY, TO LET SOMEONE ELSE DEFINE IT FOR AWHILE. TOWN HALL DOES NOT DEFINE GRAVENHURST FOR ME. AND IT SHOULDN'T FOR YOU. BUT THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HAS HAPPENED, PARTICULARLY IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS. WHEN THEY WAFFLE, AND GET MUDDLED ABOUT WHAT WE NEED, IT'S AS IF WE GET LOST IN THE SAME QUAGMIRE, FOR LACK OF A CLEAR DIRECTION TO TRAVEL.

THE POTENTIAL CLOSURE OF THE SCHOOL GOES BACK ABOUT A DECADE, WHEN WE FIRST FACED THE ISSUE OF BUSSING OUR STUDENTS TO A NEW SCHOOL IN BRACEBRIDGE. THOSE OF US CLOSE TO THE PROTEST, UNDERSTOOD THAT EVEN WITH THE VICTORY OVER CLOSURE, IT WAS AN ISSUE THAT WOULD RETURN IN THE FUTURE…….AS IT HAS PRESENTLY. MANY CITIZENS ARE UNAWARE JUST HOW CLOSE THE SCHOOL NUMBERS ARE, TO THE LINE, WHEN THE ENROLLMENT PERCENTAGE "FLAGS-US" AS "FUNDAMENTALLY UNDER-UTILIZED!" FRANKLY, THIS IS WHY TOWN COUNCIL SHOULD HAVE BEEN ON TOP OF THIS A LONG TIME AGO, AND IT'S NOT LIKE WE DIDN'T HAVE A PRECEDENT IN HAND. WHEN WE WERE GIVEN AN OPTION OF A SCHOOL AMALGAMATION, PARENTS WENT NUTS, AND WE WERE ABLE TO FILL MEETING HALLS IN PROTEST. NOTHING CHANGED WITH OUR VICTORY, OTHER THAN WE GOT A REPRIEVE. THIS IS HOW IT WAS UNDERSTOOD BY MOST OF US…..AND SHOULD HAVE BEEN BY TOWN HALL. THIS WAS NEVER A MINOR ISSUE. WHY HAS IT BEEN TAKEN AS SUCH, FOR SO LONG THAT IT DIDN'T WARRANT A LITTLE INVESTIGATION? YOU COULD PICK UP MOST OF THIS DISHARMONY ON THE STREET. STUDENTS HAVING FEWER AND FEWER OPTIONS FOR COURSES OF STUDY, BECAUSE OF THE SHRINKING ENROLLMENT. PARENTS ARE TALKING ABOUT IT, AND SOME ARE CONSIDERING SENDING THEIR KIDS TO BRACEBRIDGE INSTEAD. IF OUR BOYS WERE ABOUT TO START HIGH SCHOOL, WE'D HAVE THE SAME TOUGH DECISION TO MAKE, AND I'M JUST NOT SURE I COULD DENY THEM THE OPTIONS THEY DESERVE, ATTENDING A BIGGER, NEWER SCHOOL WITH MANY EXTRAS. ALTHOUGH I'M A STAUNCH HOMETOWNER, AND DEFENDER OF OUR SCHOOLS, WHEN IT COMES DOWN TO A DISTANCE OF TWENTY MILES OF TRAVEL, EACH DAY, WELL, I COULDN'T TELL A PARENT TODAY, UNDER THE PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES, THAT IT WOULD BE WRONG TO SEND THEIR KIDS ELSEWHERE. THIS IS THE HORNS OF THE DILEMMA. PARENTS ARE THINKING ABOUT THIS RIGHT NOW, AND I'M AFRAID WE CAN'T COMPETE. WE HAVE A TIRED OLD BUILDING THAT NEEDS AN OVERHAUL. WE DON'T HAVE THE STUDENT NUMBERS TO WARRANT IT.

WHEN WE MOVED TO SEGWUN BOULEVARD, IN GRAVENHURST, IN THE FALL OF 1989, THE WEREN'T MANY KIDS ON THIS STREET. OR ON THIS BLOCK. CERTAINLY NOT AS MANY AS WE HAD HOPED FOR, TO PLAY WITH OUR LADS, ANDREW AND ROBERT. WITH SOME EXCEPTIONS AND A FEW FAMILIES THAT LIVED IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD TEMPORARILY, IT HAS BEEN MOSTLY A BALLYWICK OF OLDER RESIDENTS, WITH GROWN-UP KIDS AND GRANDCHILDREN VISITING OCCASIONALLY. I CONTINUE TO BE MESMERIZED BY THE SHRILL CALL OF THE LOON, THE ENCHANTING SOUND OF WIND RUSHING THROUGH THE TALL PINES, AND THE BIRD CALLS IN THE LOWLAND HERE, WE CALL THE BOG. BUT THERE IS NOTHING SO LIFE-ENHANCING, AND JOYFUL IN THIS NEIGHBORHOOD NOW, THAN THE SOUND OF CHILDREN PLAYING. WHAT A PLEASANT TIME TO BE ON THIS BLOCK OF URBAN-RESIDENTIAL HOMESTEADS, AND SEE YOUNGSTERS AT THE SCHOOL BUS STOP AT THE CORNER. HOW UPLIFTING IT IS TO HEAR OUR YOUTH RUNNING UP THE STREET, CYCLING WITH CHUMS, AND ROLLING THEIR SKATEBOARDS UP AND DOWN THE SMALL RISE OF ROADWAY, ADJACENT TO OUR HOUSE. THE SOUND OF YOUTH IN THE ART OF LIVING-WELL, IS WHAT US OLDTIMERS NEED, TO FEEL INVIGORATED AGAIN. I WISH THESE KIDS HAD BEEN AROUND IN THESE NUMBERS, WHEN ANDREW AND ROBERT WERE GROWING UP. NOW SOME OF THESE KIDS TAKE MUSIC LESSONS FROM BOTH BOYS, AT THEIR GUITAR SHOP IN THE FORMER MUSKOKA THEATRE BUILDING, ACROSS FROM THE OPERA HOUSE. SO I GUESS THEIR PLAY-DATE WAS JUST A LITTLE DELAYED, BECAUSE I CAN TELL YOU, ANDREW AND ROBERT ARE LIVING LIFE-AS-RECREATION, WITH AN ACTIVITY THEY HAVE TRANSPLANTED FROM THEIR OWN CHILDHOOD, INTO A MODERN MAIN STREET BUSINESS. THEY WERE MUSIC FANCIERS EARLY IN THEIR TEENS, AND HAVE BEEN GOING AT IT EVER SINCE. I CAN'T DESCRIBE TO YOU, HOW INCREDIBLY HAPPY SUZANNE AND I ARE TODAY, AS PARENTS, THAT OUR BOYS THOUGHT ENOUGH OF THEIR HOME TOWN, TO INVEST THEIR FUTURES HERE. THEY BOTH SAW POTENTIAL IN GRAVENHURST FROM A YOUNG AGE, AND COULDN'T WAIT TO GRADUATE SCHOOL, IN ORDER TO SET UP THEIR BUSINESS. THEY TURNED DOWN NUMEROUS OPPORTUNITIES TO RENT STORE-FRONTS IN BRACEBRIDGE, WHERE THEY SPENT THE FIRST YEARS OF THEIR YOUNG LIVES. IT DIDN'T TAKE MUCH DISCUSSION, TO KNOW, THEY WERE BOTH GOING TO BE HAPPIER IN GRAVENHURST, CLOSE TO THEIR SCHOOL CHUMS, AND MATES,……FRIENDSHIPS THEY'VE MADE, BEING ON THE PERFORMANCE-END OF THE LOCAL MUSIC SPECTRUM.

On Saturday, the local business community put on an Easter celebration that struck a chord with me……with us generally. While Suzanne had to pitch-in at the boys' shop, because Andrew had to work at the Opera House, I hung around the store-front, watching the large crowd gathering at the parkette, where the White Pine cafe used to sit (before it was destroyed by fire). It was at about eleven on Saturday morning, and I spent about an hour and a half, reading the paper, and watching out as the crowd began getting even more substantial. It was an Easter fete, that brought out families. It was that perfect mixture of parents, grand-parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and yes, lots and lots of kids. I could hear the music and there was no mistaking the liberating sound of laughter and merry-making. If ever there was an inspirational moment, on our main street, it was to see and hear what family fun can do, to color the black and white of day to day business, with the bright shades of youthful exuberance. To see the comings and goings of the young families of this community, was truly uplifting and exciting, in fact, because it is the one serious deficiency we have had for quite a few years now, on our main street corridor. Fewer and fewer reasons to make uptown visits. Take families away from the centre of town, and we all suffer from the lethargy of a failing dynamic. If anything can kill off a downtown, it's a lack of infusion by young families who live here, but shop elsewhere for a variety of reasons…..some obvious, some not so clear. So it was heartening to see so much enthusiasm in the heart of the traditional, historic main street, as it was in the past. What did it all cost? I'll tell you one thing, it was a small amount to pay, "in kind," to restore confidence, we want everyone to come back to the street where it all began.

The one reason we decided to throw our support behind the revamped Gravenhurst Winter Carnival this year, is that we saw how its directorship, and their values, seemed different than the philosophy held by past committees which ran the Muskoka Winter Carnival. As far back as 1972, when the Carnival got its start, the emphasis was on bringing tourists to the area during the winter season. I've researched this extensively, and I think its great failing over the long-term, was that it always seemed to be removed from local citizens. Muskokans were supposed to run the carnival, staff the events, tend the beer venues, and look after the tourists' every need, without feeling particularly welcome themselves. This is how it began, but also one of the reasons it ultimately failed. The locals got fed-up catering to visitors, for the benefit of the business community. This revamped Gravenhurst edition of The Winter Carnival, is local-friendly, and encourages Gravenhurst families, and citizens generally, to be a part of a winter-time fete. It's just as tourist-friendly as ever, but there is a warm hometown essence to it, that shows a responsiveness to the local need for recreational opportunity. It's going to take a few years, and some more trial and error, but the directors are on the right path to imbedding the carnival, as a family oriented celebration, in the midst of a Muskoka winter. When I suggested to Andrew and Robert that they try to come up with a Winter Carnival theme song, it was based on this idea, that hometowners should be building this event…..….first and foremost, for the recreation of the families who give this community its life-force. With the help of singer Dani O'Connor, and Aaron Binder, Ray Parsons, Jon O'Connor, Andrew and Robert Currie, the "Skokie Song" was created, and donated to the Winter Carnival Committee, to help promote the weekend event. The song on YouTube had well over 2,000 hits. Best of all, they had fun preparing the song, and performing it live at the opening ceremonies in the Opera House square. What an electric evening, on a stormy winter night, perfect for introducing a made-in-Muskoka festival with an orange and brown "winter otter." It was good to see so many youngsters and young parents, braving the elements, to support a local initiative.

When I occasionally, and emphatically author blogs about the perils of losing the High School, in the precarious under-enrolled half-decade ahead, it is because of the damage that would be caused, to the true and self-regenerating dimension of community life and times. It would be much as if putting a block of wood tight against a spinning wheel, and leaving it there in perpetuity. While it comes down to a matter of policy for the board of education, relying on statistics and projections to determine the school's fate, and its fiscal realities as an under-utilized school, it seems a weak retort to hit back with a motherhood defense, that our kids should go to school where they live. There is a cycle of life here that requires a free flow, from kindergarten to the outer bounds of the victory lap, where Grade Thirteen used to dwell. I have talked with quite a few young parents, over the years, who do not wish to bus their kids off to Bracebridge. It was the molten core of the argument, a number of years ago, when we almost lost the high school, when a proposal was entertained to build a super school in Bracebridge. We were able to keep our school by the thinnest of margins. Young families came out to the protests, to defend the school, for the sake of their youngsters, who wanted to complete the cycle of education in their home town. And there were those others, who for personal reasons, thought it was a marvelous idea, to have the use of a brand-new school. Today there are numerous families who have sent their kids off to school in Bracebridge and other locations, because of perceived disadvantages of our small, older school. This is their right to do so. At the same time, it is one of the problems contributing to declining enrollment at Gravenhurst High School, which is a problem many school boards around the province must deal with today. It is certainly not just a Gravenhurst conundrum. But it is our burden to carry, and ultimately resolve. This time, it will be much more difficult to argue by emotion, without corroborating fact. Of this we find ourselves at a great disadvantage, and it is difficult to blame the school board for following protocol. I might not like it, but there are a lot of inevitabilities I don't care for, that I'm forced to live with. We simply don't have enough high school age students to fill the building. Only partially filling those classrooms, at this time of austerity measures by the province, leaves us quite vulnerable.

We have spent a lot of tax dollars, over the past twenty years, encouraging retirees to live in our town and region. We have spent very little, trying to encourage young families to move here. As it was council's mandate for many years, to facilitate developers of senior-compatible neighborhoods and retirement facilities, they had little concern about allocating time and resources, to make sure we didn't become too old for our own good. This is exactly what happened. While we have greatly benefitted from the infusion to the economy, from the retirement developments and citizens, without youth in this town, we shall not be able to rebound the way we always have, from the days of those first hand-hewn pine shanties (full of wee bairns) onward. I didn't like it here, when the only shuffle I heard, was from my elderly neighbors, taking out the weekly garbage. Mixed in, should have been the joyful laughter of a toddler, playing with a rubber ball. And forcing the elder statesman to pick it up, and for gosh sakes, throw it back. The cycle. It's what keeps a community vibrant. If our high school is closed, we stand to lose any great and lasting potential of this youthful contribution to our way of life. Our town will be seen as a retirement community generally, and young families will find it infinitely more convenient to move north or south. It will hurt every restaurant, and business that relies on student employment to survive, because they'll find opportunities elsewhere.

It may just appear a little glitch in our future, by the casual observer. Armed with some hardcore stats, and projections however, it will show just how wrong it has been, to have sat for so long, on that fence, wondering what we should do. Having our cycle of education services interrupted in such a fashion, would prove a determent to just about everything we cherish of our home town life. It might be an accounting issue to someone at Queen's Park, but it is a motherhood issue on home turf. This future initiative to save our High School, must be driven by those in elected office, as this depends on legal protocols and solutions, versus the usual emotional arguments that carried more weight before….than we can expect today. It is also, very much a case, that young folks in our town, take an interest in this issue, as it is their future hinging on political will, and government legislation.

Even if it is an issue that comes to fruition in five years time, it does not diminish whatsoever, the necessity today, of developing a strategy to deal with what is imminent if enrollment continues to decline. As I've written about many times in the past six months, it is imperative that our town council, realize the serious consequence to economic development, of a future decision to close the school…..whether two years down the road, or sometime in the next decade. The only hope of saving it, comes from the gumption of our councillors, unwilling to surrender what still characterizes us as a family community. If we want to encourage economic development here, it is a pretty big hole in the plan, when you can't promise the folks attached to a re-locating or new industry, that we have schools for the kids, you plan to bring along. But first we have to determine the will of council. I know a number of councillors have read my previous blogs on this issue, and that there are concerns being raised at town hall, about this potential. I'm glad of this fact. Yet it is still necessary, you see, to know how many of the council membership, supports maintaining our high school, as opposed to those who may be either indifferent, or supportive of the proposal to shift our students to a new school, with many more options and advantages, in another town. I want to think it would be an unanimous vote, to save our high school, but this has yet to be determined. It is not a priority yet, and with the exception of small news clips in the local newspaper, it's also appears a lesser priority for investigative reporting. So there's a chance that we're going to under-weigh the impact of this issue, because it seems too distant and low-key to worry about.

I was the first letter writer, to commence a challenge of the school amalgamation ten years ago. I'm doing it again. Hopefully, it will raise some interest in the right place.

Estimate, if you can, how long it would take, and how difficult the journey, to re-establish a high school in this town, in the future, once ours is officially closed. It's far easier to keep the one we have! Can we though?