Welcome to the Whitby Shores Community website - a volunteer-run site dedicated to connecting residents of this beautiful waterfront community in Whitby, Ontario.

Whitby Shores School Campaign

April 25, 2008

It's official, Whitby Shores is getting a school! Yes, our kids will be able to attend their very own brand new school as early as September 2010!

Thank you to the hard work of our Trustees and Campaign members and our community. You can read the news  release here: http://ddsb.durham.edu.on.ca/Pdf/about/media_desk_pr/Press_Releases_2007-2008/five_new_schools.htm 

We will continue to update your on the latest information as we get it.

Congratulations, Whitby Shores!

 To read the most current school discussion,  please visit the School Campaign forum.

To contact the volunteers, or to get involved, please e-mail us.



Parentsource.ca


Latest News -
Note - since not much has been going on lately, we've decided to add the small school updates to the forum. Once there is something major to announce, we'll add it here. Yes, it's January 2008 and the DDSB still has no new school funding....and we're still waiting......

||September 26, 2006||

For those of you who haven't heard from me all summer, yes, we are still working on the Whitby Shores School Campaign, there just has not been much to report, until now...

Because the Municipal Elections are coming up quickly, it doesn't make sense for Whitby Shores to be present again until the new Board has been elected. However, what does make a lot of sense is taking the time to meet all of our Whitby Trustee Candidates on Thursday, October 12th at the Whitby Public Library (Main Branch) - Room 1B  from 7:30-9pm. 

This meeting is an exclusive opportunity for all Whitby Shores residents to meet our future DDSB trustees, to ask the tough questions regarding our school campaign and the state of our schools before they are elected to the Board.

If you're a Whitby Shores resident who is concerned about the future of our school, then please make sure you're there to listen, ask questions so that on November 13th, you know how to vote.

Whitby elects two candidates to the DDSB. Our current candidates are:
  • John Dolstra (current Trustee)
  • Scott Templeton
  • Anne Clements
  • Christine Winters

Please e-mail if you can make it. Hope to see you there.
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||June 25, 2006|| This may be the last week of school, but this certainly isn't the last week for our campaign for a Whitby Shores Public School.

At the last Board meeting of the school year, June 19th, we updated the DDSB with our new student projections and developer updates for Liza and Senator homes. If we combine the Board’s recent projections of 327 Full Time Equivalent (FTEs) students for Whitby Shores for 2010, and the more than 500 new residential developments planned for our area, with construction starting as early as 2007, we’ll have over 600 FTE, which will be more then enough to justify a school. Residential developments are planned for the former Whitby Psychiatric lands, Gordon and Scadding, and Gordon and Whitby Shores. See the table for details, and the map for the residential development plans.

I think it’s important for our residents to know that throughout the campaign, we’ve had very positive feedback regarding the supportive and collaborative nature of our community from the Durham District School Board. The positive relationship that we’ve been working on with the DDSB, has already gone a long way in helping our community work together with the School Board and other stakeholders in our School Campaign.

As of today, the DDSB has yet to receive their elementary school funding; it is expected to arrive by late summer or early fall. Once the funding comes in, it will be time for our community to rally together once again as we renew our push for a Whitby Shores School because although our situation is looking positive, there is still a very long road ahead of us before we can walk our kids to school.

Have a safe and happy summer and we look forward to updating you in the coming months.

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||May 15, 2006|| The Durham District School Board’s enrolment projections for elementary and secondary schools, starting from October 2006, have been released and are available at the Durham District School Board website (PDF document).

These enrolment summaries provide the School Board’s projections by class size and school from October 2006 to October 2010. If you compare these newer summaries with the older ones (available at the Durham District School Board website) you’ll get a good sense of what schools are growing and by how much.

Specific enrolment projections for Whitby Shores should be available by the end of May and will be posted here when they are ready.

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||April 3, 2006|| The Whitby Shores School Campaign presented their case for an elementary school before the Durham District School Board.

We had a great showing of community support - approximately 250 supporters from Whitby Shores attended, and that doesn't include the little ones.

There is still a lot of work to do, but we're off to a great start!

Article @ www.durhamregion.com

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About the Campaign

For those of you who were not at the April 3rd presentation, or for those of you that were but would like a recap, I’ve briefly outlined how the campaign is trying to get a school.

The main tenets of the presentation/strategy were:

  1. Whitby Shores is growing. In the next 5 years Whitby Shores will see between 400-800 new residences (Scadding Avenue/Gordon Street, Whitby Shores/Gordon & former psych lands). The school board estimates .5/child per residence. This will give us between 200-400 new students in the area.

  2. French immersion schools in Whitby are overcrowded. If Whitby Shores built a FI school, it would not only reduce the overcrowding, but it would bring students into Whitby Shores.

  3. Based on the projected numbers from the Durham District School Board (which estimate at least 300 elementary school children in WS by 2008), and given the fact that the area is still growing, and that Whitby is in need of more French Immersion spaces, the question is not whether we get a school, but the question is how large of a school do we get?
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Next Steps

  1. Get new Whitby Shores projected numbers from School Board (April/May)

  2. Get updated info on new housing developments (Spring/Summer)

  3. Present new findings to board a public elementary school meeting (May/June)

  4. School Board finds out about elementary school funding (we’re hoping this summer 2006)

  5. Continue to collect information and research and prepare new presentation.(Summer/Fall)

  6. Keep pushing to get on accommodation plan & present new findings (Fall)

  7. Get on accommodation plan (Fall/Winter?)
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