PORT HASTINGS- The Strait regional school board has voted to close one of its schools and is moving ahead with reviews of three more.
Last week, the board continued to move forward with reviews for H.M. MacDonald school in Maryvale, Rev. H.J. MacDonald in Heatherton and Canso Academy and voted Monday night to close St. Mary’s Education Centre in Sherbrooke.
At the board’s regular monthly meeting last week, members heard from parents representing H.M. MacDonald and Rev. H. J. MacDonald. About 35 members of the public were in attendance for the meeting.
Patti Hansen-Ketchum, who spoke on behalf of H. M. MacDonald school in Maryvale said she views the review process as a social justice issue. She said the 93 Primary to Grade 6 students are currently well served and the school should not have been on the list to begin with.
“The process is flawed in that they’re not weighting the criteria, they’re not scoring the criteria and they’re not making the data that that they’re using for decision making available to the public,” she alleged after the meeting in which the board decided to move ahead with the next step in the process.
Because the school has fewer than 100 students it presently receives an annual $150,000 grant from the province and in April 2009 the provincial government committed $3.48 million to the school for renovations. Antigonish MLA Maurice Smith advised the parents that the commitment stands.
She said the review of the school sends a mixed message to the province about the board’s commitment to using that funding for students. Hansen-Ketchum also spoke to the school’s high level of achievement, ongoing accreditation process and low operating costs in arguing against the continued review.
Speaking in defence of Rev. H.J. MacDonald in Heatherton, Denise Delorey said a lot of the items the board listed as deficits are among the benefits of a small rural school. With a current enrolment of 65 students, the school also receives the $150,000 provincial grant as a small rural school.
Board staff noted that, if moved, the Primary to Grade 6 school population would benefit from greater access to guidance services which Delorey said is unnecessary because in a small school every teacher is a counsellor and older students keep an eye on the younger children.
After the meeting she said she was disappointed the board members didn’t reconsider taking the next step.
“We feel that the board members are not representing the people who elected them into their offices,” Delorey said, adding the parent group she is a member of hopes to work with the parents from Maryvale to contest the possible closure of the small schools. She also touted the school’s music program, parental involvement and school board psychologist, whose office is at the Heatherton school.
Eastern Antigonish representative Frank Machnik said it is unfair to consider closing viable Antigonish County schools while the board continues to add to central office staff. He also spoke to the closures of Riverview Consolidated School in Guysborough County and Framboise Consolidated School in Richmond, both of which closed with few students.
“What is good for one community, I say is good for the other,” Machnik said.
With East Richmond representative Francine Boudreau absent for the meeting, the board voted 6-5 in favour of ordering impact assessment for both Antigonish County schools.
The board also voted in favour of continuing the review process for Canso Academy, which has 80 current students. No party spoke in defence of the school before the board voted 9-2 in favour of ordering the impact assessment.
Following the decisions to continue with the reviews Superintendent Jack Beaton said the board, which received the lowest budget increases for school boards in the province the past two years, is reviewing schools for financial reasons.
“The board’s not putting schools under review because they’re bad schools. There is a serious declining enrolment issue in the Strait region, as there is across the province. In the county of Antigonish we lost 1,000 students in 10 years and the question is how much space do you need in Antigonish County and across the region to educate the students that we have and the students that we will have in the future, and that’s what the board has to consider very carefully,” Beaton said.
He also noted that despite the declining enrolment in Antigonish County the square footage of the area’s schools has remained the same since 2000.
Beaton and board chair Mary Jess MacDonald commended the parents for sharing their concerns with the board.
The parents have committed to continue to fight the review process.
On Monday evening the board held a public meeting in Sherbrooke to hear from the public and vote on the issue of closing St. Mary’s Education Centre and moving the school’s population to the nearby St. Mary’s Academy.
The review process for the school began in April of last year when the board received an identification report from staff that stated the students may be better served through the creation of a Primary to Grade 12 school at the site of the existing St. Mary’s Academy building with an estimated 3,000 square foot expansion, in addition to interior renovations through the Department of Education Additions and Renovations Program.
Board members voted 8-3 in favour of creating a Primary to Grade 12 St. Mary’s school, upon completion of necessary renovations/additions.
Eastern Guysborough representative Rosalee Parker was not present for the vote, which was opposed by Antigonish County members Frank Machnik and Richelle MacLaughlin, and West Guysborough representative Kim Horton.
Monday’s decision was the final step in the process for the Sherbrooke school.