School consolidation up for debate at the School District

The prospect of large super schools replacing the smaller more neighbourhood friendly ones of today at School District 52 was the topic of a wide ranging discussion last week.

The recent release of the final report of the District Visioning Committee has been the main focus of the debate for the last few weeks, as local teachers through their union the PRDTU express their concerns for the level of education in the district and where the future may be going.

The Visioning report has called for the closure of Seal Cove and Kanata schools at the end of this current school year, with Westview school on the west side of town to close at the end of the 2009 school year.

Other topics from the report included the potential closure of Port Edward school and the movement of its students to a school in Prince Rupert, the merger of the two city high schools into one school with a junior high school set up at the school that is closed.

While those items are ones of potential controversy, at the moment its the creation of large elementary schools on both sides of the city that has the main stage, providing for many questions over the timeline of the committees recommendations and whether the decisions were already made even before the committee had finished its work.

The Monday Daily News provided some helpful background on the issue, a situation that hits home for many Prince Rupert residents. At the moment the deliberations of the Visioning Committee seem to have created far more questions than they have provided answers for.

The report leaves it to School District Managers, trustees, teachers and parents to sort out the details and figure out where to proceed from here.

Bigger is not better say teachers
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Monday, February 25, 2008
Page five

Last Tuesday's School Board Meeting saw a number of questions arise around the future of education in Prince Rupert, brought forth by members of the public, teachers and support staff.

The Prince Rupert District Teacher's Union made a presentation that outlined research they feel points to the benefit that smaller schools provide students and communities, and ultimately posed some questions to the board.

"Is the vision we have for education in Prince Rupert a large Roosevelt on the West Side and a large, possibly rebuilt, Conrad on the east?" asked one teacher on behalf of the PRDTU.

"What will the social map of Prince Rupert look like should the small schools on the east side, and possibly Port Edward, consolidate into one large school? Which schools will gain the reputation as 'rough' or 'poor'? Which will be seen as the 'elite' schools? And I encourage you to ask yourselves: 'Is this equitable?'"

The District Visioning Committee's final report was delivered to the board, which included 13 recommendations in total, the most notable being the closures of Seal Cove and Kanata elementary schools as of June 2008, with Westview to follow in 2009.

The other recommendations from the final report include studying the continued viability of Port Edward Community School, centralizing district staff at another site, providing transportation services for any families adversely impacted by changes, exploring the possibility of creating a single secondary school and a middle or junior school at one of the present secondary school sites, an expansion and development of the present alternative education program, using any district savings to enhance current educational programming, and lastly that the District Visioning Committee continue its role of supporting district change.

The question and answer period following the board meeting focused largely around the topic of transparency, with most parties wondering if the DVC decision-making process would be revealed in detail and whether DVC representatives would be available to answer questions from school board trustees and the public.

"As a brief participant in the visioning committee, it was my understanding that was never a committee that was supposed to be shrouded in secrecy," said Joanna Larson, PRDTU president. "So it's puzzling to me why these people wouldn't be invited to actually speak to their opinions or how these decisions were made. They were supposed to represent the public at large, so I would like to think if they were requested to be at this town hall meeting to answer questions, possibly to the public but at least to the board, that they wouldn't feel any reason to not be able to do that."

Superintendent and DVC Chair Eric Mercer responded that what Larson was asking for amounts to a fundamental change in what was agreed upon by participants last year when the committee was formed.

"At the outset, committee members asked us, 'Are we going to be used as a scapegoat here? Will we be held publicly accountable for the recommendations and research we've done?'" said Mercer. "I told them that no, they would not, as the final decision does lie with the board."

"That's fine, but it speaks volumes," said Larson.

School Board Chair Tina Last then said that the onus falls on trustees to ask committee members how they arrived at their recommendations, and what information they took into account.

"I don't believe it's fair to ask the two stakeholder representatives to stand up and be the public spokespeople for the majority recommendations. That's not what we asked them to do," said Last. "If some members of the District Visioning Committee choose to be there and answer questions we wouldn't keep them from doing that, but that wasn't what we asked them to do."
Other concerns were voiced around the lack of information that had been released to the public regarding the DVC recommendations.

"[The DVC has] come to these conclusions and you talk about the visioning committee doing all this research, but [they] want to put children into Conrad school and there's more structural and safety concerns there," said parent June Lewis.

"You're telling us with all this that you're trying to be transparent, but there's nothing being shared with us. That's why we're all asking questions, because there is no transparency."
Speaking for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 882, Colleen Wiens stated it was clear that closing Seal Cove and Kanata was a done deal even before this committee met for the first time in November of 2007, as maintenance workers had already been told to prepare Conrad for an influx of students in September 2008. Wiens said the reasons for closing schools were weak, and that the only reason the I.U.O.E. would even consider recommending school closures was if the district was in financial debt.

"I would hope that on (Feb. 25) when we meet again that's exactly what it's for, to make it quite apparent how the District Visioning Committee came to these decisions," said another member of the public. "So on Monday, when we see what other people saw and how they came to their conclusions, we might be absolutely satisfied with those decisions."

Tonight's special open board meeting will commence at 7 p.m. in the Charles Hays Secondary School Multi-Purpose room, when the District Visioning Committee recommendations will be looked at in further detail and school district senior staff will present the board with their own recommendations on education and facilities plans.