Shock, outrage follows school closure announcement

Parents and politicians alike are outraged that the Kamloops-Thompson School District might close 11 elementary schools and bring back junior secondary schools.

Parents with children in rural schools appeared the most upset when interviewed by The Daily News on Tuesday.

Closures in Vavenby, Savona, Westwold, Pinantan and Logan Lake would mean bus rides of an hour or more for some students and tear the heart out of the community, parents said.

“I’m nervous, I’m angry, and I don’t know what to do,” said Tracey Benedict, president of Westwold’s parent Advisory Council.

Benedict received several phone calls from parents Tuesday morning worried about the school’s fate. She, like the others, is concerned about what will happen during the next year.

Administrators have said the landscape of the school district will remain unchanged come September, but the first round of closures could occur by fall 2010.

Benedict said she will not put her five-year-old child on a bus for an hour and a half trip to school in Kamloops. And she cannot afford to drive back and forth to the city every day.

She could move her youngest child to an elementary school in Falkland and take her two teenagers to high school in Vernon, but that still means time in a car.

“Would we go to Falkland? Would we go to a neighbouring district? I don’t know,” said Benedict.

The feeling was mutual for PAC presidents in Pinantan and Savona. Carla Butcher of Pinantan said she was sick to her stomach when she heard her school might close. Many parents had tears in their eyes.

“It’s been a real shocker,” said Butcher.

Like Westwold, the school in Pinantan is small, with only 45 to 50 students. But the building is a gathering point in the community.

“Without the school, the community will never be the same. It’s the core of the apple,” she said.

If the kids ride the bus to town, they will leave Pinantan at 7 a.m. and not return until 4 p.m. Butcher believes that’s too long a day for children.

The parents are already discussing alternatives. Some are talking about forming a home-schooling group in the community, said Butcher.

Savona PAC president Julie Reimer said losing the school will be a devastating blow, especially after Ainsworth announced it will stop production at its sawmill earlier this month.

“It’s just one thing after another,” she said.

Reimer believes the closure will lower property values and convince young families not to move to town.

“It will upset a lot of people,” said Reimer.

At least one parent with children in the secondary system is upset at the possibility of junior secondary schools.

“I would be totally unhappy with that,” said Maria Morgenthaler, who has a son in Grade 8 at Sahali secondary. She is also president of the school’s PAC.

She said it’s disruptive to have a child go to one school for three years and then move for the last two. The plan is for NorKam and South Kamloops to host grades 11 and 12.

“I like Sahali. We chose Sahali. That’s where we want our son to be,” she said.

And she believes it’s a waste of money to revert back to junior secondary schools when the district abandoned them a decade ago.

The report became a political issue Tuesday, with Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Terry Lake commending the school district for facing a huge challenge head on.

The district was designed for 18,000 students, but declining enrolment has reduced the population to about 13,000. Lake said other school districts face similar problems.

“They (school boards) have to make decisions as to how to best utilize their budget,” he said.

“You can’t escape the fact there are fewer kids in the district.’

But New Democrat leader Carole James sees the report as the end result of poor funding on the part of the B.C. Liberals.

“Not only is it a lack of funding to education, but it is the downloading of costs to school boards,” she said, citing the province’s carbon tax.

In difficult economic times it’s important to invest money in fundamental programs and services. “To me, education and health care are fundamentals,” said James.

School district Supt. Terry Sullivan fielded phone calls from the public and media throughout the day Tuesday. He said the comprehensive nature of the report means people will need time to absorb it.

Sullivan said it is too early to say when the process will begin in regard to the closures and amalgamations. But trustees meet again July 6 and he suspects a plan will begin to form then.

He commissioned the report last June and tasked a committee to assess every building in the school district in September. That report was completed June 17 and presented to the public during a school board meeting Monday.

The report said enrolment has been on the decline since 1997 while funding has remained flat at $5,851 per students for the last three years. That has resulted in budget shortfalls of about $3 million annually.

If all the recommendations in the report are followed the district will save $3 million annually, the document said.

jhewlett@kamloopsnews.ca

Comments

Be the first to comment!