Strong pleas made for saving schools

BY SCOTT ANDERSON
The Southwest Booster

There was an emotional end to the Chinook School Division's series of six meetings to review and consult on the futures of six Southwest School.

The two largest and the most emotional meeting was held during the last three meetings of the review meetings which were held in Neville, Admiral, Tompkins, Climax, Piapot and Richmound.

Richmound, the lone K to 12 school involved in the review process, had the largest turnout, including all school students sitting in the first three rows of a packed gymnasium.

Both parents and students were wearing shirts which had Save A School. Save A Town on the back and No School. No Kids. No Town on the front.

The most emotional part of the meeting was when student Olivia Hellman read a letter on behalf of all Richmound students.

"We don't see why this is happening? The reason we have been given is that it costs a lot of money to run a school and we don't have enough students to make it worthwhile. We don't think this is right. A school is not a business. It is not to make money or to sell a product. A school is built to educate young children's minds. It should not matter how much it costs to do so, but how well the children are being educated," she read.

Hellman noted the benefits of attending a smaller school, which include learning respect, building friendships, benefiting from one-on-one teaching time, enjoying opportunities to participate in a variety of activities, as opposed to a decrease in quality of student's lives and the disadvantage of longer bus rides.

"The school is also the heart of many small communities. If you were to close it, that would mean the end of the community ...If you really want to bring people back to Saskatchewan, shouldn't you be putting more money into the schools instead of closing them," she said.

"Think about how much people are fighting this? If people hate the idea of closing the school so much, maybe it's not such a good idea."

"Having students here was something totally different from what we experienced at the other communities. I guess it's important for the students to hear the process, the facts, and so on that the board is looking at with the review process," noted Board Chairperson Gary Shaddock following Tuesday's meeting.

Richmound, which had a student population of 66 in 2004, has dropped to 50 students this year and by 2010 their enrollments are forecast to drop to 33 students and below the established benchmarks in both K to 5, Gr 6 to 9, and Gr. 10 to 12.

It was pointed out at the meeting that there is near a zero vacancy rate in the community, and the numbers simply reflect poor timing, as there are a number of single male workers and young families choosing to make Richmound their home.

Admittedly, this makes the review a more difficult process to evaluate.

"It's something we have to consider, and yeah it makes it difficult. The board members, for the most part, all live in small communities and realize what the effect is, but we have to deal with the reality of where the numbers are. If a community indicates to us that there's a strong possibility that the enrollments will be going up, or population because of some industry coming to town, then we'll consider that. But for the most part right now we have to deal with the facts as they are right now," Shaddock said.

One consistent message from rural ratepayers at all six meetings surrounded the amount of school tax contributed by Rural Municipalities in the Southwest and despite these large totals the board is still being forced to consider eliminating grades or closing schools.

The Chinook School Division is scheduled to combine forces with the Prairie South School Division and South East Cornerstone School Division to lobby the provincial government for additional rural spending for education.

"We have to operate according to what funding and guidelines we have that's outlined, and obviously the communities in general are saying there is considerable amount of money being raised in Chinook and being sent into Regina, and it's not being spent here. so there concern is they are saying we have more than adequate revenues being collected on the property tax, so why isn't some of that money flowing back to the Southwest to help pay for some of these services?" Shaddock said.

He suggested that individuals, RM's towns and villages initiate a letter writing campaign to Minister of Learning or Minister of Finance for additional educational funding for rural regions, as current formulas aren't working.

"If the public wants to help the School Board in lobbying the government, I would suggest they start writing letters to the provincial government stating that."

Monday's meeting in Piapot, the lowest population school in the Chinook School Division with 10 students, featured both tears and anger.

Parent Tara Portz gave a tearful presentation on the impact the school has in the lives of students and the community.

"I have worked in Piapot School and served on the local school board and I think there is just no way that you can do better than our school. That is the very best reason to keep it open," she said.

"We have been told time and again by Chinook School Division and board members and staff that we should consider closing the school ourselves. We have considered it. We are not interested in closing a fine educating institution, nor should you."

She also argued that the provincial government shoulders the blame for inadequate funding, as the Southwest pays its fair share in school taxes while the province has the ability to fund education at higher levels.

"Do better for us. Go out and get the funding we deserve. You should be camping on the governments door in Regina hounding them for more money, not out here working toward closing school and disheartening people about their future."

The Climax School meeting on January 25 showed that their K to 5 enrollment numbers are scheduled to grow every year until 2010, their Grade 6 to 9 numbers drop every year until 2010. The higher elementary population would then move into the middle years grades.

The parents at Climax School presented an 11-page series of questions for the board to come back with answers for.

This requested information from all six meetings will be researched and the findings presented to the communities during a second set of community meetings in late March.

The final decision on school closure or grade discontinuance will be voted on by the Chinook School Board on May 7.

Additional submissions, letters to the board, and additional questions can be sent at any time. Presentations to the board can be made during upcoming board meetings by pre-requesting space on the meeting agenda.

Soutwest Booster