Unionville H.S. no longer for elite students?
Unionville H.S. no longer for elite students?
Markham
December 04, 2008 10:20 PM
Parents decry changes to Arts York program
Simone Joseph
A group of parents vows to keep fighting changes to Unionville High School’s specialized arts program, even as they admit some may label them ‘elitist’.
“It is not just for us but for the kids going to the school in the future,” said Dave Ruuskanen, whose daughter is in Grade 11 at the school.
The parents’ main beef with the expanded system now in four schools instead of two, is that rather than the Unionville school continuing to select the best students from across York Region, it will have a much smaller pool of students to choose from since students will have to apply to the local arts school in their area.
‘Watered down’The parents worry this will decrease the quality of students attending the program.
“They have watered the program down,” said Jennie Bangay, who has a niece at Unionville High School.
Today, York Region’s top teenaged artists are known to attend Unionville High School.
“It is a bit elitist but that is where it got its greatness,” Mr. Ruuskanen said.
Unionville High School has turned out well-known graduates, including Hayden Christensen, known for playing Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars movies and Adam Brazier, who has starred in major roles in such productions as Aladdin, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Mamma Mia and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Woman in White as well as productions at the Stratford and Shaw festivals.
While Mr. Ruuskanen believes the idea of introducing the arts program into new high schools is wonderful, he thinks the board should have consulted with students and teachers before making the changes.
He believes the school’s top-notch reputation will be eroded with the expansion of the program.
“You are diluting talent in the region. The school won’t have a concentrated skill level.”
Under the old system, if Unionville High School’s Arts York students applied to university, the arts program carried a lot of weight and got students into respected arts programs, a situation some parents worry will change under the new system.
Braedy Alcorn, a Grade 12 student in the visual arts program at Unionville, said she was horrified by the changes the board is making.
The school’s cache is its reputation and calibre of student, a standard she believes will go down if the school can only select students from the local area.
“When I heard, I was appalled,” she said. “Arts York is the best thing that ever happened to me. So many people feel the same way. The thought of other kids not having the chance to grow the way I did is disgusting.”
Jacques Amelard, whose daughter is in the vocal program at Unionville, explains the parents are not against expanding the arts program but would prefer the changes be done differently.
Some parents would prefer York Region’s arts program be set up in a similar manner to the board’s sports programs, with several schools targeting high-performance athletics, and one flagship sports school — Bill Crothers Secondary School — for top athletes.
Unionville should be the flagship school while the others would develop an arts specialty over time, such as drama or dance, Mr. Amelard said.
In October, the board released a new strategy to deliver specialized arts programming for public secondary school students throughout the region.
Over the next two years, specialized instruction in dance, drama, music and visual arts will be expanded to include four high school locations; one in the north, east, west and central areas of York Region.
The main arts high schools in the York Region public school system have traditionally been Unionville High School and Newmarket’s Huron Heights Secondary School.
Due to demand for arts instruction across the region, the board decided to expand the arts program to Vaughan’s Westmount Collegiate Institute last year and Richmond Hill’s Alexander Mackenzie High School next year.
“Our goal is to enhance, expand and develop arts instruction across York Region,” said York Region District School Board spokesperson Ross Virgo. “The board has no intention of diminishing or reducing the calibre of arts instruction available in any arts high school,” he said.
The group of parents is looking at different political options, including sending more letters and making more phone calls to the board and the ministry of education.
Mr. Virgo acknowledged the response to the board’s changes has been mixed.
“We have parents who feel they ought to have been involved in the decision to expand the program,” he said. “We have had ongoing feedback from Arts York program parents who continue to feel their children are entitled to a pre-eminent program at Unionville High School and other programs ought to be second-tier programs. That is not the approach we want to take,” he said.
“All students with talent willing to demonstrate their passion for art ought to be entitled to the same calibre of arts instruction regardless of which high school they are attending,” he said.
Mr. Virgo also pointed out that while some parents are disappointed by the changes, others are thrilled by them.
“We have received feedback from parents and kids (who plan to take advantage) of arts classes close to home and are gratified by the opportunities they will have,” he said. “We have a large number of excited students, especially those attending high school for the first time.”
Mr. Virgo explained the benefits of an expanded program, include greater access to a specialized arts education for a larger number of students across the region.
But for many parents attached to the old arts regime, the change represents the end of an era.
The issue of cancelling board-supplied busing to the Unionville high school also set off a firestorm of opposition among some parents. While the school board used to provide busing, it plans to phase out this service.
“It is unfair to change the rules in the middle of the game,” Mr. Amelard said.
A group of parents hired a lawyer to fight the cancellation of busing.
The parents and the board settled out of court when the board agreed to make this year a transition year where bus service for Unionville students would be restored but then eliminated in the 2009/2010 school year.
Trustees understand the desire of these parents to have individualized bus service for their children, but continuing the bus service would have been “costly, (with) long-term implications for taxpayers”, said Diane Giangrande, chair of the York Region District School Board in a press release.
“Many students across York Region face similar circumstances of residence and proximity to school. The board cannot justify continuing to provide door-to-door transportation for a particular group of students, outside the terms of its policy concerning high school student transportation,” she said.
Consistent with policies in other Ontario school districts, York Region secondary students living in areas served by public transit are required to make their own way to school, the press release said.
Another parent complaint?
Trustees have not taken the time to consult with parents on the major decision to change Unionville’s arts program.
“They work with staff, make backroom decisions, won’t keep the public informed. Many meetings were held in secret,” Mr. Ruuskanen said.
The governance of the arts education program is the responsibility of board staff, not trustees. This has not changed, Mr. Virgo said.
“We do consultation with parents on a variety of issues,” he said.
In November, the board announced it would be establishing an arts advisory council to advise the school board on the development of arts programming at the four high schools offering arts studies.
The committee will meet at least three times a year to offer advice on the operation and administration of programs in dance, drama, music and visual arts.
The advisory board has limited use since it was formed after important decisions had already been made, Mr. Ruuskanen said.
—With files from Kim Zarzour