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COMMENT: Back to school...and school controversies

by Adrian Barnes on 08 Sep 2010
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COMMENT: Back to school...and school controversies

Some good news on the school front you've likely all heard about: Maclean Elementary has, this fall, two full kindergarten classes, which seems to point to an upward trend in future RSS enrollment. Of course, this being School District 20 under the financial thumb of BC's so-called 'Liberal' government, there's a bad side to the story as well. In the last week, according to reports, Maclean turned away four prospective kindergarten enrollees, one from Rossland and three from Warfield. The child from Rossland has since been accepted, but the Warfield kids haven't.

This situation raises a number of questions. Do parents have the right to send their kids to school where they want? What sort of choices are Warfield parents being forced to make now that their own elementary school is under threat of imminent closure? What would it take to open a third kindergarten class at Maclean if the demand was there?

Parents in Warfield, faced with the possibility of their local school closing sometime soon, are presumably thinking ahead and making decisions about where their kids will go to school if and when that day comes. It wouldn't be surprising, indeed, to find that many or even most Warfield families would choose, if forced to bus, to send their offspring to Maclean Elementary

Such a scenario would put Rossland in a funny spot. A healthy influx of Warfield children might be just what would be needed to make RSS viable in the eyes of the School Board. At the same time, this happy outcome would be accomplished at the expense of Warfield losing its own school, something we here at the Telegraph don't want to see happen any more than we want to see Rossland lose K-12.

Then again, from Trail's perspective, it's desirable that Warfield's K-7 population heads downhill, along with RSS's 8-12s--so how likely is it that any of these things will be allowed to happen?

Sound nauseatingly familiar? Questions abound.

How will these situations play out? What role will community choice play in the resolution of outstanding issues? Can the communities of Rossland and Warfield find solutions within the context of School District 20? Will ALL the communities in this area ever stop bickering and gather together in defiance of the real enemy--a provincial government that's starving the education system? Will Trail continue to seek to bolster its own declining enrollments with 'kidnapped' students from surrounding communities?

Tune in next week, and the one after, and the one after that for more. In other words...here we go again! Welcome back, kids...

Comments

I take your point and was

by Adrian Barnes on 13 Sep 2010 at about 15:37.

I take your point and was probably wrong to use the word 'imminent' in that context. My mind was on the imminent return to dealing with the underfunding issue in this district. Sorry if I created any alarm out there--things are still as they were before summer, with closing Webster as only one potential scenario. That said, one wonders if some Warfield parents, in this climate of uncertainty, are starting to make plans for their kids with this possibility in mind. It's ironic that both Rossland and Warfield kindergarten classes are growing and we're still forced to have this conversation. "Keep it in mind next provincial election", is all I can say right now.

Just wondering if there has

by D on 13 Sep 2010 at about 15:30.
Just wondering if there has been a new development that suggests Webster Elementary (Warfield) is still under threat of "imminent" closure? Obviously, there's the PFTF Part 2 document that outlined that possibility as part of scenario B; however that document was voted down earlier in 2010 in favour of starting over. Of course, Webster school is an older building, but who's to say that Warfield shouldn't just have a new school someday? Why can't decisions be based on kids, families and communities needs...and health and environmental considerations? (we don't need more cars and buses on the road, and kids benefit from the exercise walking to school). With so many new young families moving to Warfield (in part due to Rossland being less affordable than in the past) I don't like the idea of labelling school closures here as imminent threats. This is evidence of the damage that releasing the PFTF Part 2 document and Scenario B has caused. It should have never been proposed in the first place, for now the ridiculous idea seed has been planted and continues to be propogated.... Had Scenario B never been proposed, I believe there would also be much more support for K-12 in Rossland (when backed into a corner, people say things in letters they might not otherwise have said or thought...) Registration data from last year indicated Webster had the highest Kindergarten enrollment of any school in the district (I believe 46 or so...which would require at least 2 very full classes). Anyone know what the actual enrollment is now that school has started? Anyway, 46 kindergarten student registrations certainly flies in the face of the enrollment projections upon which the PFP2 document was based. Clearly Webster is showing a rise in enrollment. I hope we can maintain status quo for all schools. Students, young and old need choices...for example, whether to attend a larger school and have more courses, or attend a smaller community school for its perks.