A whopping annus horribilis!

What exactly is the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board thinking?
Over the past year they have held illegal closed door meetings for which they have been admonished. They have spent money to punish whistle blowers among their ranks only to find out the whistle blower had done nothing wrong. They have allowed ARCs (accommodation review committee's) three of them to work in solitude on three different areas of the city without any reference to co-ordination. Indeed the terms of reference for these ARCs may have been lax based on the way the Provincial funding winds are blowing. Surely when these ARCs were set up the Board Trustees and staff were aware that we had been in a significant economic downturn for several years with no end of misery in sight for world economies which impact on us as a country in general and the property tax base in particular. Surely they must have known the dollars would not be there no matter what was recommended. And yet we have ARCs now recommending the closure of a minimum of two Secondary Schools on the mountain with the construction of a brand new one on the south mountain (ummm I remember Southmount, do you?). In the lower city we have recommendations that close an iconic Parkside in Dundas, Sir John A. MacDonald in the core, and the heritage building that is Delta Secondary while constructing a brand new high school in the downtown core. The third ARC is contemplating the shutting down of a pair of iconic schools at Highland and Ancaster Secondary and constructing new ones. All of this costing 128 million dollars today (you know the price tag never comes in under budget, always over) for the construction of four new facilities by 2015.
Come on. What is everyone smoking? The money isn't there and won't be especially after the scary Drummond report comes out. And finally to wrap up their annus horribilis this Board soldiers on with a deal with McMaster University that allows the destruction of the current Board of Education Headquarters allowing a move to the central mountain where I am told the Ward Councillor doesn't really want them, at Cresmount, nestled behind strip malls off of Upper Wentworth and surrounded on three sides by residential neighborhoods. Outside of some employees slipping out on their lunch break to do some quick shopping what does one suspect will happen when the day is done for the employees of this new sprawling (typical urban sprawl from the 70's) two story building? I would suggest they will drive straight home many through those residential streets. Their economic impact outside of tackling Timmies in the morning will be zilch. Meanwhile downtown the new construction will generate revenue from building permits and person hours on the job and will bring an extra 50 white collar workers  offsetting  losses to the mountain but is that a long term economic impact? Not really.
I have a few questions if you don't mind.
Have we really explored all options to keep the Board of Education downtown? I don't think so since the downtown Councillor Jason Farr has launched an idea for a second tower on city hall property. Was that contemplated a year ago when the Board was searching? I think not. Understand the history of this Board and it's Separate School Board brother who have more often then not worked in isolation from other jurisdictions because that is their mandate which they aggressively protect.
Would keeping 350 white collar workers in a refurbished and possibly expanded existing building be a boost to the downtown especially if McMaster worked out a different location deal to move 4 hundred workers to the core? Absolutely. Could McMaster negotiate directly with the city about a second tower? Why not?
Could McMaster work out a deal with the Board of Education to take over the footprint of Sir John A.? Why not?
Indeed since Bob Young has hijacked the football stadium from the West Harbour couldn't McMaster with the help of the City's remedial monies move four hundred people onto a site overlooking the West Harbour only minutes from Jackson Square and Copps Coliseum? I think so.
I'd like to know right now what the heritage community thinks about losing one of the city's iconic sixties buildings. As I recollect they sure didn't want city hall going anywhere so where do they stand on the Board of Education headquarters?
Some final thoughts.
One board trustee suggests and we quote from today's Spectator Jessica Brennan of Dundas, "I appreciate the concern of people who want to keep us downtown, but to move away from the actual idea now would be dishonourable to the process of planning and thinking and community engagement we've had up until now".
Really? What is dishonourable to process is launching a flawed process with flawed thinking in the first place and whatever happened to it's never too late to change your mind especially if you're  changing your mind to get something right. Finally when will the citizens of Hamilton wake up to the fact that a very closely knit group of people who are hardly ever challenged at the ballot box and who control in excess of 566 million tax dollars have in their hands the fate of your children? They have shown in the past that they cannot read trends correctly or even more frighteningly have been misled by staff into false decisions  (remember Southmount, Sir Wilfred Laurier and the windowless schools at Sir John A. and Scott Park). When will they be reigned in?
I hope it's soon for the sake of families who currently attend Highland, Parkside, Ancaster, MacDonald, Sherwood, Delta and Sir Allan McNab.The only thing missing from this annus horribilis, is a castle on fire.