Hugh Beaton Public School parents mobilize to keep it open

South Walkerville residents, angry at the possibility Hugh Beaton Public School could close, are mobilizing and campaigning against the idea. Dozens rallied Monday night near the school.

After being asked to move off of the school's property, concerned members of the south Walkerville neighbourhood, then packed the front lawn of a home on Chilver Road, directly across from Hugh Beaton Public School's front doors.

Three elementary schools in Windsor's city core are targeted for closure. Hugh Beaton is one of those in the crosshairs of the Greater Essex County District School Board.

Prince Edward and Queen Victoria are the others.

Matt Earish has a seven-year-old son at Beaton.

Once parents heard the school could close, they weren't willing to sit and watch that happen, he said.

"We started to have discussions with some of our closer friends in the neighbourhood and then we started to mobilize," he said.

The group started a Facebook page, a social media campaign using the hashtag  #SaveHughBeaton, and then parents hit the books, doing a bit of homework of their own.

Earish says they have educated themselves on what the funding model looks like, what caused other schools in the province to close, and what exactly is written about Hugh Beaton.

"The ultimate end goal for us is that this school stays open and this community continues to grow," he said.

Saving nostalgia

For south Walkerville's Katie Osmer, and many others who came to the front-lawn rally, Hugh Beaton is a school that has generational roots.

"I'm a Hugh Beaton grad, '98," she said. "And my parents still live in my family home."

Osmer says she even convinced her husband to move to another part of Windsor, so their children could go to Hugh Beaton. She isn't the only one who has made that decision, she claimed Monday.

"Eighty-five per cent of the people that I meet on the daily walk to school moved here because of this school," she said.

The proposed changes, should Hugh Beaton close, include its students going to John Campbell Public School.

"I don't know if you would have mass exits of people from south Walkerville because you're closing one of the reasons people moved here," said Osmer. "It could affect housing prices."

One new school would be built to accommodate students from Prince Edward and Queen Victoria.