Grand Erie District School Board

Grand Erie District School Board
Board office location	Brantford, Ontario
Board identifier	GEDSB
Number of schools	85
2006 budget (CAD $ millions)	$235
Number of students	28967
Chair of the Board	Don Werden
Director of Education	John Forbeck
http://www.gedsb.on.ca/

The Grand Erie District School Board is a school board that has legal jurisdiction over Norfolk County, Haldimand County, and Brant County in the province of Ontario, Canada. The main headquarters are in Brantford.

History

The board was formed from the amalgamation of the Norfolk Board of Education, the Brant District Board of Education, and the Haldimand Board of Education in 1996.

In 1998, under Progressive Conservative Premier Mike Harris' government, the way public schools were funded dramatically changed. Among the changes, the province replaced local boards' power to levy taxes to fund schools with a centralized system of education grants. The new regime was accompanied by a law forcing school boards to adopt balanced budgets. These changes caused school closures in the Grand Erie Board. Burford District High School closed in 2002 after eighty years in the small town, and several communities fought successfully to maintain their community-based high schools like Delhi District Secondary School.

Current projects

The school board has received permissions and funding to rebuild the Brantford Collegiate Institute, the oldest school in the city. According to the school website, the right wing of the school, built in 1910, will be completely demolished and rebuilt save for the facade and the administrative hallway. The 1963 wing will be refurbished, but not destroyed. The project is scheduled to take three school semesters and two summers, and some of the students will be relocated to the closed-down Victoria Elementary School.

Current Elementary Schools

• Agnes G. Hodge Public School.
• Anna Melick Memorial School
• Banbury Heights School
• Bellview Public School
• Bloomsburg Public School
• Boston Public School
• Branlyn Community School
• Brier Park Public School
• Burford District Elementary School
• Caledonia Centennial Public School
• Cedarland Public School
• Centennial-Grand Woodlands School
• Central Brantford Public School
• Cobblestone Elementary School
• Coronation Public School
• Courtland Public School
• Delhi Public School
• Doverwood Public School
• Dufferin Public School (French Immersion)
• Dunnville Central Public School
• Echo Place School
• Elgin Avenue Public School
• Fairview Avenue Public School
• Fairview School (French Immersion)
• Glen Morris Public School
• Graham Bell - Victoria Public School
• Grandview Central Public School
• Grandview Public School
• Greenbrier Public School
• Hagersville Elementary School
• Houghton Public School
• J. L. Mitchener Public School
• James Hillier Public School
• Jarvis Public School
• Joseph Brant Public School
• King George School
• Langton Public School
• Lansdowne-Costain Public School
• Lynndale Heights Public School
• Major Ballachey Public School
• Mt. Pleasant School
• North Ward School
• Oakland-Scotland Public School
• Oneida Central Public School
• Onondaga-Brant
• Paris Central Public School
• Port Dover Composite School
• Port Rowan Public School
• Prince Charles Public School
• Princess Elizabeth Public School
• Rainham Central School
• River Heights Elementary School
• Russell Reid Public School
• Ryerson Heights Elementary School
• Seneca Central Public School
• St. George - German Public School
• Teeterville Public School
• Thompson Creek School
• Townsend Central Public School
• Walpole North Elementary School
• Walsh Public School.
• Waterford Public School - Ada B. Massecar Campus, W.F. Hewitt Campus
• West Lynn Public School
• Windham Central Public School
• Woodman-Cainsville School

Current Secondary Schools

• Brantford Collegiate Institute and Vocational School
• Cayuga Secondary School
• Delhi District Secondary School
• Dunnville Secondary School
• Grand Erie Learning Alternatives - Brantford, Simcoe, Six Nations
• Hagersville Secondary School
• McKinnon Park Secondary School
• North Park Collegiate-Vocational School
• Paris District High School
• Pauline Johnson Collegiate & Vocational School
• Port Dover Composite School
• Simcoe Composite School
• Sprucedale Secondary School
• Tollgate Technological Skills Centre
• Valley Heights Secondary School
• Waterford District High School

Secondary School Athletics

The secondary schools in the board play in three different sports associations. Schools in Brant County play in the Brant County Secondary School Athletics Association, Norfolk Country Schools play in Norfolk Secondary School Athletics Association, and Haldimand County schools compete in Southern Ontario Secondary School Athletics Association Zone II. Schools winning BCSSAA and NSSAA move onto CWOSSA while Haldimand schools play in SOSSA. All schools move on from there to OFSAA

Elementary schools in Norfolk County

• Boston Public School is a 200 student sixth grade feeder school to Townsend Central Public School and Waterford District High School.
• Courtland Public School is a feeder school to Valley Heights Secondary School and Delhi District Secondary School.
• Delhi Public School (to grade 6) and Windham Central Public School (grades 7 and 8) are the 350 student feeder schools for Delhi District Secondary School. Windham Central recently closed in 2009 making Delhi have students K-8.
• Doverwood Public School is a 300 student feeder school to Port Dover Composite School.
• Elgin Avenue Public School is a 450 student feeder school to Simcoe Composite School and Waterford District High School.
• Houghton Public School is an eighth grade feeder school to Valley Heights Secondary School.
• Langton Public School is a 250 student eighth grade feeder school for Valley Heights Secondary School.
• Lynndale Heights Public School is a K-8 public elementary school located in Simcoe, Ontario.
• Townsend Central Public School (grades 7-8) is located outside of Waterford in Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada. Bloomsburg Public School, W. F. Hewitt Public School and Boston Public School graduates are sent here to enroll in the seventh and eighth grades.
• Waterford Public School is a public elementary school in Waterford, Ontario, Canada. Like Bloomsburg Public School, this school is also a feeder to Waterford District High School.
• W. F. Hewitt Public School is a public elementary school in Waterford, Ontario, Canada. It is a feeder school to Townsend Central Public School.
• West Lynn Public School is a K-8 school located in Simcoe, Ontario, Canada. Following grade 8, students attend Simcoe Composite School for high school.

Located within the Grand Erie District, but not part of the public school system, is the Old Colony Mennonite School, a private co-educational school for German Mennonites in the community of Langton, Ontario, Canada. The school teaches kindergarten through the eighth grade as in a typical parochial school. Due to its "Old Colony" name, Old Order and Conservative Mennonites tend to dominate the campus. High school students usually go to Valley Heights Secondary School but recent changes in the school board's policy has opened up all secondary schools in Norfolk County for the eighth grade graduates.

The following schools are now closed:

• Nixon Public School was located in Simcoe, Ontario.
• Port Dover Public School served Port Dover, Ontario, and was a feeder school to Port Dover Composite School.

Closed schools

Walsingham Public School was an elementary school that educated in grades K-8, formerly located in Walsingham Township, that was closed because of funding cutbacks and declining enrolment. The school was a feeder school to Valley Heights Secondary School. Due to the nearby presence of the Old Colony Mennonite School, which taught the local German Mennonite population, it had to attract students from both the northern and southern parts of Walsingham.^[1] Musician Geoff Suderman-Gladwell taught here.^[2]

North Public School is a defunct elementary school in Simcoe, Ontario, Canada that taught children from kindergarten to sixth grade. This school was once considered a feeder school to Elgin Avenue Public School. The school was established in the 1928. At that time, North Public School included the seventh grade and the eighth grade but they were eliminated in governmental cutbacks caused by a decreasing birth rate starting in the 1970s.

Windham Public School was closed in 2009. Students now attend either Delhi Public School or Teeterville public school, making both schools K-8 (formerly K-6).

Two of the schools located in Paris, Ontario, Bethel and Queen's Ward schools closed during the 2009-2010 school year and were replaced by Cobblestone Elementary School.

Forestville Public School is also a defunct public school which taught students in the Forestville, Ontario area.

References

1. ^ "Profile Canada information". Profile Canada. http://www.profilecanada.com/companydetail.cfm?company=2535493_Walsingham_Public_School_Walsingham_ON. Retrieved 2008-07-04. 
2. ^ "The Cohort Group (Grand Erie District School Board)". Bath.ac.uk. 2001-11-26. http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/module/brockma.pdf. Retrieved 2008-07-04. ^{[dead link]}

Bibliography

• Inventing Secondary Education: The Rise of the High School in Nineteenth-Century Ontario, R. D. Gidney and W. P. J. Millar, McGill-Queen's University Press (May 1990), ISBN 0773507876
• Stacking the Deck: The Streaming of Working-Class Kids in Ontario Schools, Bruce Curtis, D. W. Livingstone, and Harry Smaller, Lorimer (January 1, 1992), ISBN 0921908113
• Special Education in Ontario Schools, Ken Weber, Highland Press (1999), ISBN 0969306172

External links

• Official site