At the Artesian school in Spring Valley, about 70 kilometres southwest of Regina, there has never been a librarian. All the staff pitched in to keep the library up and running.
Then, as the staff dwindled to four, they found themselves required to pitch in to keep everything else up and running as well.
“As the school got smaller, it just got a bit too much,” said principal Linda Sempel.
These days, thanks to one Spring Valley parent, the library is back in shape.
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Diane Forman comes into the school a couple of afternoons each week to catalog books, put them back in their place and even to help teach kids to read.
“(The staff) have so much to do,” said the mother of two, “I thought I could just give them a hand.”
Artesian school, like many others, relies on these helping hands from the community. Schools have always needed parents to help with “frills” like sports and field trips but with less education money to go around, parents now are playing a vital role even in providing core services.
Some raise money for computer or sports equipment. Some, like a group in Maymont, Sask., 90 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon, share equipment with the school.
There, the community is building a complex that will adjoin a new school in the town. Instead of building a separate concession-stand kitchen for the complex, the community group will put their kitchen in the school for the students to use as a home economics room as well.
Community co-operation
“You rub my back and I’ll rub yours,” is how parent and fund-raiser Cheryl Gray explains it.
Tom Mowbray of the Manitoba Small Schools Association has been involved with his children’s school for a long time. He said there is usually just a small core of parents willing to get involved with the local schools.
“People pay taxes, then think ‘Why should I have to volunteer too’?” said Mowbray.
With schools needing more and more help, he said, that mindset must change.
“We have to get out and do things ourselves.”
