No reminder needed

Dinn says he’s already pushing for a Paradise High School

By Mark Squibb \ May 5, 2023

There’s a blue binder in Topsail-Paradise MHA Paul Dinn’s office marked ‘Paradise School.’

That binder is full of ATIPPA requests, news stories, letters addressed to Department heads, and documents Dinn has collected over the years relating to a high school in Paradise — or more accurately, the lack of one.

Members of Paradise town council met with MHA’s Dinn and Sarah Stoodley last month to discuss the matter, and following the meeting, several councillors encouraged residents to lobby Dinn, Stoodley, and fellow Paradise area MHA David Brazil for a new school. Mayor Dan Bobbett assured residents council would be holding the Members feet to the fire regarding the issue.

It was that comment that sparked Dinn to remind council that he has been pushing the issue for some time.

Dinn said he contacted the Town last September asking for a meeting after the Liberal government announced “out of the blue” it would be building a new school in Portugal Cove- St. Phillips – despite construction of a new school in that community not being on the school board’s Capital Request priority list. The number one item on that list is a Paradise High School.

“The Town came back and said they would like to include the other two MHAs, and they scheduled it for October, and then in October, David Brazil had a health emergency,” said Dinn. “And so, the meeting was postponed, and nothing happened until we met two weeks ago.”

Dinn said the meeting was fine, and that he and council are in agreement the town is in desperate need of a high school, but nothing concrete came of it.

“Coming out of the meeting I thought we would leave with a plan of action,” said Dinn. “I have no problem with people saying, ‘Call your MHA.’ But I’m not sure that that’s the right answer.”

Dinn said he had hoped to meet with council before the Province set its 2023-2024 budget so that a plan of sorts could be presented to government.

“The intent was to get something on the table ahead of the budget so government could say ‘Yea’ or ‘Nay,’” said Dinn.

Whether having that meeting ahead of the release of the budget would have made a difference, is impossible to say, he allowed. Dinn said he wants to see a combined ‘full court press’ by  council, government and parent advocacy groups in Paradise, Conception Bay South and Mount Pearl.

“We need a high school in the district, and I think it will require a collaborative effort,” said the member. “We’re past studies.”

He argued that parents from neighbouring communities need to be involved as well, as the lack of a Paradise high school affects the whole region.

“If we have a high school in Paradise, then class sizes in Holy Spirit High and Mount Pearl Senior High go down, and those kids get a better education as well as access to more extracurricular activities,” said Dinn. “What I would like to see is the parents of Holy Spirit and the parents of Mount Pearl Senior High form a collective group that can help push the issue and be more vocal. Because it’s not just one municipality being affected, but the two neighbouring ones as well.”

Technically, the Province approved construction of a high school in Paradise back in 2016, but the project was deferred by the government of the day and subsequently delayed ever since.  

An agenda from a school board committee meeting dated January 2017, one of the many documents housed in Dinn’s blue binder, shows that replacement of Coley’s Point Primary, the retrofit and demolition of a Gander school, and construction of Paradise Intermediate were the only projects given greater priority than the Paradise High School in 2016. Those other projects have since been completed.

“When a new school in Portugal Cove- St. Phillips was announced in the budget, I said, ‘Well, what’s happening to our school which was top of the priority list?’ Maybe it’s political, because that’s the district the premier lives in,” allowed Dinn. “You can attribute that. But for me to understand the decision, when the people at NLESD don’t understand the decision, it’s tough.”

Dinn, who sat on council during the planning stage of Paradise’s new intermediate school some years back, said that in the past year he has met with representatives of the school board and the Department of Infrastructure, but has yet to get a meeting with the Department of Education.

“This hasn’t sat idle on my desk,” said Dinn. “This is something I’ve been pushing. I’ve asked questions in the House, and I’ve presented petitions in the House.”

And that will continue, he added.

“This is a necessity,” said Dinn. “Given how fast government works — bureaucracy moves at a snail’s pace — it’s something that we’ve got to stay on. It’s one thing that’s always been on my radar and I’ll continue to bring it up… You can’t give up on the issue. And there’s no other solution in my mind, and in many other’s minds, than a high school.”