Monday, April 11th, Essex Council had a tour of the former HDHS. Of course anytime I enter the building I get excited about all of the possibilities and potential. I also feel regret that council did not purchase the property years ago. The former Mayor was very opposed to purchasing the building. The purchase should have happened years ago when the price was lower and the building was in better shape but unfortunately there was no appetite in the council chambers at the time. I admit for awhile I even gave up hope and lost a year to the proxy vote investigation, then another to digging deep into E.L.K.
Last Spring, I was approached by Peter Thyrring, the Headmaster of ACHS Private School saying he wanted to rent space in the former High School. I told him that would be a dream come true for me to have a school back inside the school and an anchor tenant for the Community Hub. I also told Peter that I was likely the only one that wanted the building. Councillor Caixeiro had been a strong supporter of the Hub idea when he served on council but that was a few years ago and the dynamics on council have changed. Peter and I worked on a plan to at least get him into the Harrow area so that if we made a hub he would be here and ready.
I Thought we had a 1 Percent Chance…
Until Peter knocked on my door, I had all but given up hope of a Community Hub in the former School. I felt defeated by Mayor Snively, his ally Deputy Mayor Meloche, and their supporters not being open for discussion about potential possibilities. Mayor Snively was a very vocal voice against purchasing the building both as a councillor and a mayor and everyone knows how he feels about me. I had no mechanism to influence council and my hands were tied as everything that happened around this file was in closed door meetings. I had approached the Deputy Mayor Richard Meloche during the 2018 election when he was campaigning in Harrow and I pleaded with him to buy the entire greenspace and building. I was giving him a golden opportunity to help me champion the cause and strike while the iron was hot. He said he was interested in buying the greenspace first and when the school board would list the building we could then make them a lower offer once it went to private market. A half-hearted commitment is not what our community needed. At this time the purchase price was 2/3 what we paid and the building was in much better condition. If only we could turn back time… this building and land needed to be passed from public entity to public entity in my opinion.
The School Board was Patient
I know, I know, many of us are still angry at the school board for closing the High School in the first place… I am as well. It still upsets me, especially when the new school is not even built yet as promised. The Board that made the decision to close the high school (the school board has many new members and this is not aimed at them) has done irreparable damage to our community. The building was NOT in bad shape. The School Board did NOT work on increasing enrollment and broke their promise to our community by putting us into another review far too soon. The Harrow community did NOT fight them when they closed our Junior School. We trusted them on their promise to build us a JK-12 school and not gut our community. It still hurts… but they were patient with us and spent a long time negotiating with us. Through, 5 CAO’s at the Town of Essex, one election we all tried to make it work.
There is no School for a Dollar
The Province has created policies that stop school boards from selling to agencies for a dollar…. so we had to pay market value and that stinks! During the School Board’s review in closing the school I asked the Board what dollar figure would it take to keep the school open… They did not have one. We gave them out of the box solutions to keeping it open, they would not listen. Their administration created a wish list of “needs” for the building to continue as a school and many of them were created just to inflate the report in favour of closing the school.
If Only…
If only we would of purchased this sooner the building would of been in better shape….
If only we were treated as equals to Ward 1- Ward 1 bought the old St. Mike’s school without a full plan and made it into a great community hub paired with a gym and library.
If only we are able to have a second chance, the building needs work no doubt about that but the cost to demolish would not be cheap either.
If only council could see the potential like many of us.. We fundraised for our arena, I am confident we can fundraise for this too…
If only we are given this opportunity.
