Regards,
John Brassard
Councillor Ward 7
City of Barrie
Central Ontario's Premier Waterfront Community
www.johnbrassard.

THE FOLLOWING LETTER WAS SENT FROM RESIDENTS TO THE SCHOOL BOARD

I have recently learned that The Simcoe County School Board is planning to
clear cut a section of mature, deciduous forest, on the edge of Bear Creek
High School, in order to construct a practise soccer field. Some pertinent
issues arise with respect to this plan:

        1.      In an age when environmental issues are justifiably important, this plan
flies in the face of growing public awareness and sensitivity. Not only are
these trees essential to the flora and fauna residing within this local
ecosystem, they provide topographical and psychological beauty to the entire
community. Furthermore, the forest moderates temperature, provides oxygen,
reduces ambient carbon dioxide, and controls erosion. For example, it takes
25 trees to provide oxygen for one human.

        2.      Following through on this plan will be an egregious waste of taxpayers'
money.

        First, Bear Creek High School has a regulation size football field, which,
in my opinion, is currently under utilized.     I can see the field from my
back windows, and while the field is certainly used, it does not compare in
usage to that   of another school I'm familiar with, that is Innisdale High
School. I know this because my son attends special ed at        Innisdale, and
whenever we go over there, the field is crammed with students in various
activities. Bear Creek NEVER    has that many kids on its field at once. At
best it's used for a few hours a day, by a small number of students, and
often not every day of the week. My son confirms that the field at Innisdale
is always used so thoroughly.

        Second, there is an existing soccer field, within walking distance of the
school, at Bear Creek Park. To use this field   would not be a foreign
concept for the school since their students already play baseball there.

        Third, the existing football field was recently resurfaced in Spring, 2005,
at a cost of hundreds of thousands of   dollars, not including its regular
maintenance costs. Apparently, someone in the school system doesn't want to
"overuse" the field now that it's been resurfaced. This seems ridiculous.
What are they trying to protect the field       from? Footprints? Browner grass?
People actually enjoying it? It can't be that they are afraid of creating
such a rapid    deterioration of the field that it may become unsafe. If so,
are their maintenance and scheduling plans so incompetent       that their only
solution is to use our tax dollars to demolish an ecosystem? Where is the
cost benefit analysis to        prove that the current alternatives are
unfeasible?

        Fourth, ANY staff and/or consumer of the Simcoe County School Board will
tell you that there is a chronic need for       money and resources at the
classroom level. Intra and extracurricular programs are constantly being
curtailed and/or        eliminated, and teachers are always using their own funds
just to operate daily in their classrooms. For example, my      son is enrolled
in the gifted program, but we are at a loss to distinguish how this program
is different or enriched.       In one class a teacher gave him extra work and
tests, which had nothing to do with enhancing his special needs,        interests,
or abilities, and seemed totally arbitrary, ad hoc, and essentially amounted
to adding quantity rather than  quality to his curriculum. Other
"enrichment" activities included only a couple of field trips, which of
course cost     extra money. In his music class, he struggled to learn on a
donated French Horn, which barely functioned and was    missing all of its
plating, and which the teacher said would be discarded at the end of the
semester. I cite these  examples simply to illustrate some of our
experiences with a system which, I believe lacks balanced funding. How many
times have you had to answer the door to school kids selling muffin mix and
candy bars to supplement the meagre funds       the schools receive? Multiply our
experiences with those of every other public school family in the city, and
under   these circumstances how can ANY area high school justify spending
hundreds of thousands of dollars on a luxury like an    extra field, when one
already exists on the grounds, and when a reasonable public alternative
exists within walking   distance? Furthermore how many other high schools
have two fields? I dare say not many if any at all.

        Finally, The Simcoe District School Board's Environmental policy states
that they will, " PROMOTE the retention and     development of natural
landscaping and wildlife habitats on board property where feasible ". Since
this field will be      used for only a few daily hours, by a only small
population of the school, for less than 5 months of the school year,
depending on the weather, it's patently unreasonable to destroy something so
precious to the entire community and the        environment for such limited use.
Our natural resources are much more valuable than that. Otherwise, what
lesson are we   teaching our children about the stewardship of our money and
our earth?

Why should the Simcoe County School Board be allowed to use our taxes for
whatever they please? Just because the money is in their budgets doesn't
mean they shouldn't be held accountable, ESPECIALLY given the current state
of affairs. As a taxpayer and a person deeply concerned about our
disappearing natural spaces, I urge you to safeguard both our money and our
unspoiled green spaces, and when this ill-conceived and narcissistic plan
appears before council for site plan amendment approval, that you truly
represent the taxpayers, and JUST SAY NO!