Niagara-on-the-Lake Local received the following letter lamenting the fact that the town does not have a high school.
NOTL does need a high school! I was someone who was vocal about this 16-17 years ago when NDSS was up for closure.
I was born and raised in Virgil, attended Virgil Public School and graduated from Niagara District Secondary School. I went on to attend Western University and graduated in 2004. I am involved in my family's winery on Line 2 and am in Virgil every day yet I have been raising my family in the north end of Niagara Falls, not in Virgil/NOTL specifically because there isn't a high school here and I wanted my kids to have a sense of community with, and proximity to, a high school. The sense of community and belonging being at the centre of most of my feelings about high school, I want my kids to have the same sense of community and belonging that I felt at NDSS - the things I fought to keep in this community so many years ago.
At the time of NDSS's closure, most families were very happy to send their children to schools in St. Catharines, citing many reasons including resources that NDSS lacked. Now it has come full circle, less than 20 years after NDSS's closure, families don't want to send their kids out of town for high school, they want their kids to attend a local school.
At the time my main argument was not to send your kids to school out of town but to convince someone who had left NDSS to come back - the more kids, the more resources. And despite the lack of resources at NDSS at the time, I would say that most of my graduating class, and those in years ahead and behind me, have gone on to be successful and resourceful in their adult lives. Their experience at NDSS was likely more of an asset than an obstacle in pursuing their life goals, the same way it was for me. Many of my schoolmates now sit on NOTL Town Council as well as contributing members of the NOTL community.
The idea of a JK-12 campus mentioned in this article is something that specifically caught my attention because I remember this being pitched as a unique and sustainable option back then.
I also remember an argument about the environmental impact of bussing our teens out of NOTL - this argument seems like it would be even more relevant today with the plight against global warming as well as the current fuel prices.
How frustrating to see these families going through this when I know how hard a group of us fought to keep the school open years ago. I really hope they get their wish and that in the near-ish future NOTL kids will be able to attend a high school in their own community. It's very likely that the families who want a high school in our community now were not here at the time we were fighting to keep NDSS open. There has been a huge amount of growth in the area - that was predictable back then and yet another argument to keep the school here. I just want to let these families know that we tried really hard. We fought a good fight and I'm sorry the decision was so shortsighted that you now have to fight all over again.
Justine Lakeit
Niagara Falls
