Better Farming February 2017

Better Farming

February 2017

Follow us onTwitter

@BetterFarmingON

RURAL

SCHOOL

CLOSURES

Although not currently earmarked to close, the Desboro

school does have board-identified capital deficiencies that

work against its future.

“We recognize that ... our kids will be sitting on a bus

for some amount of time, but we think one-and-a-half to

two hours is too long,” Majesta said during a Saturday

afternoon interview in the kitchen of their brick farm-

house. She is an elementary school teacher currently on

parental leave.

The longer the bus ride, the greater the risk of highway

accidents in dangerous winter weather for which the

region is known. Time spent with relatively little adult

supervision also potentially exposes children to undesir-

able acts, such as bullying. Transport time interferes with

extracurricular activities and part-time jobs. Long dis-

tances between home and school also hinder parental

participation in events such as breakfast clubs or Christ-

mas concerts.

“The longer the kids are on the bus, the less ready they

are to learn when they get off, if they’re hungry and tired

and maybe kind of grouchy,” said Majesta.

The possible loss of Chesley’s high school program also

complicates the future of the Bluewater board’s highly

touted Specialist High Skills Major Agri-Business pro-

gram at a time when it’s increasingly important to encour-

age candidates to learn about promising new develop-

ments in agriculture, Wayne said. Chesley’s agriculture

curriculum provides participants with workplace training

in first aid, livestock medicines and hazardous substances.

The program received a 2007 Premier’s Award for

Agri-Food Innovation Excellence and allows graduates

advance standing in first-year agriculture programs at the

University of Guelph. In 2016, agriculture teacher Dennis

Watson received the prestigious Tommy Cooper Award,

presented annually by the Grey and Bruce County federa-

tions of agriculture, for contributions to agriculture.

Bluewater school board officials have promised to

preserve the agriculture major program even if general

high school programs shift away from Chesley. School

trustee Marilyn McComb is among the few Bluewater

officials to speak publicly during the review about the

need to preserve the program.

In an e-mailed response to a

Better Farming

inquiry,

McComb cited the region’s agricultural importance. A

livestock barn, a greenhouse and maple syrup processing

facilities are all part of the existing program which relies

on community financial support from the Kinsmen club

and area farmers. Participants also benefit from work

placements on area farms and in agri-businesses and from

the use of area farmland for cropping.

“It is crucial that the students have access to a barn,

preferably in Chesley, and that students interested in

pursuing a career in agriculture have access and transpor-

tation to this program from wherever they live,” McComb

said.

“It gets complicated; there are questions,” Wayne Elder

said of a continued agriculture program in the absence of

a high school in Chesley. “The fact that we have this

agriculture program which has been ... recognized by

the University of Guelph, has won all these awards and

runs every year. (But) we just don’t feel that it has the

same viability either on its own or in another location,

and I’m worried that in the transition it will get lost in the

shuffle.”

The local community has mobilized in an effort to

save the Paisley Central School.