Despite the very short time frame allowed, the subcommittee formed to review these proposals has carefully studied the white paper, sought input from the membership, attended public meetings, met with the Halifax District School Board, studied written submissions prepared by interested parties, and offers the following comments as a result of these efforts:

We recognize the need to change in response to a changing environment, and welcome and embrace thoughtful and meaningful improvements to the current education system, such as are currently being introduced through the Halifax District School Board's strategic planning initiative.

PTA's in Halifax have worked hard and successfully with the Halifax District School Board to increase parent and community involvement in our schools. Any change introduced into the current board structure must not undermine this intensive community involvement, and the meaningful improvements we are already working together to achieve. A more moderate and measured approach to amalgamation would allow these benefits to be retained, and built upon in the context of a larger board if necessary, while at the same time introducing the needed changes which the white paper seeks to address.

A single school board serving over 57,000 students and over 5000 square kilometres is simply too large.

This will work against the stated objective of the white paper, to open the doors of our schools and take advantage of the tremendous expertise, energies and interest of parents, teachers, students and the community. Parents and community members want direct involvement at both the school level, and the board level, yet this proposal will create a board structure which is too large and too remote to effectively involve these players in board level activities and decision making. The experience of other jurisdictions has been that boards this large begin introducing additional layers of bureaucracy and barriers to communication and involvement, and hidden inefficiencies. When boards become this large, efforts usually begin to split them into smaller, more manageable boards.

More time should be allowed for the development of a third option for the three current boards in the County of Halifax.

Over one third of the school age children in Nova Scotia representing the most diverse set of conditions and interests in the province are affected, yet the white paper presents them with only a single option. While amalgamation may present benefits to these children, it is not obvious at this time what these benefits may be. The three affected boards, the parents and the communities should have a greater opportunity to work out options which will benefit all children in Nova Scotia. We are very seriously concerned that the haste with which responses have to be prepared, and "third options" developed, will result in dividing our communities against one another, since adequate time for the development of an understanding of each other's interests and viewpoints has not been allowed. The urgently needed changes, including the creation of a francophone board, and the restructuring of small boards experiencing financial problems, can be introduced now. These are just as feasible with or without amalgamation in the metro area.

Proceeding too quickly, and creating a board which is too large, threatens unique and valuable programs developed and delivered in the City of Halifax.

The City of Halifax faces unique challenges because of its inner city and immigrant populations, and its high concentration of special needs children who have come here because of the availability of hospitals and services. The responses to these needs over the years are models of excellence in education. Our citizens have also demanded high calibre regular programs. Because of the size of the student population, it has been possible to deliver these programs on a cost-effective basis. There is a clear willingness to share and build upon these programs. Moving more slowly and creating smaller boards than the proposed 57,000 student population would allow for the survival and even expansion of these programs, but their very existence would be threatened by the sudden and precipitous introduction of an oversized board which would be crushed under the very weight of its own size.

Amalgamation will create additional burdens and confusion in an already stressed system.

All boards in the province are faced with the reality of reduced funding, and making do with less. In the metro area, amalgamation will be more complex and difficult than in other areas. The value added by the change must be carefully evaluated and weighed against the cost and impact when we are struggling with these other challenges.

We have not been presented with a full and accurate accounting for the costs and benefits of amalgamation.

When this question was raised at the public meeting on March 20th, it was indicated that it was not possible to accurately measure these costs, or the resulting benefits. We do not agree. Cost/benefit analysis is a well established discipline. Meeting the objectives of accountability and public involvement demands an objective analysis, and clear, full public disclosure, so that the public can participate in this decision making on an informed basis.

We are still not reassured that the intent of amalgamation is to improve the education of students in this area, as opposed to taking funding away from students in Halifax, with all of their special needs, in order to redistribute it to the rest of the province.

We are wholeheartedly in favour of the equitable distribution of funding. However, the funding formula, as it is currently structured, provides some cushioning to the smaller boards to offset their difficulties in achieving economies of scale. The economies of scale achievable by a larger board are built into their funding already. Since all three metro boards are already large enough to be achieving as much as it is possible to achieve from economies of scale, few if any savings will result from amalgamation of the metro boards. If, as the Minister has stated at meetings in other centres, boards outside Metro can expect funds to be diverted to them as a result of amalgamation of the metro boards, this can only be achieved by taking funding directly out of the classrooms of our children.