The Manitoba government’s decision to halt further school closures except under exceptional circumstances has offered a glimmer of hope for parents and communities fighting to save their schools.
Val Caldwell, a councillor for the Rural Municipality of Woodworth and member of a parents group fighting to save Kenton’s Kindergarten to Grade 8 school, welcomed the proposed changes to the Public Schools Act announced by education minister Peter Bjornson recently. Kenton is one of 13 schools previously under threat of closure in the province.
“We’re not unreasonable people. We just want to find ways to keep the school viable so that we can keep it open,” said Caldwell.
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“All we want is a fair chance to keep our community viable and keep our little people at home.”
Parents and community leaders leading the drive to save the 30-year-old Kenton facility had pulled out all the stops to save their school, she said. They proposed a reduction to a 15-student, K-5 program, and planned to fill up some of the space in the school originally designed to hold 150 students by opening up a day-care centre. In the future, they hope to add a public library or family resource centre.
“There are certainly lots of different viable ideas,” said Caldwell.
However, last week the Park West School Division voted 5-4 against their plan, and postponed to May 21 a decision calling for the school’s closure. Reports in local media said that the board might still consider a revised proposal, but would seek more information on the moratorium’s implications on funding before making a future decision.
A study by Caldwell’s group found that it would cost about $22,000 a year to keep the facility open. The school division put the figure at $70,000, she said, but suggested that their numbers were based on average cost estimates, not day-to-day expenses.
One thing is certain: if the school were to be closed, children would have to be bused an additional 22 kilometres to nearby Hamiota.
She noted that in the future, if Hamiota’s school goes on the chopping block as part of the division’s plan, the nearest option would be Shoal Lake, a 100 km round trip.
Caldwell said that for a five-year-old child, a 90 minute daily commute would result in more than just hours of boredom.
“You can’t spend as much time with your kids if they get home exhausted at 5:30, then have to be in bed by 7 p.m. so that they can be up again by 6:30 a.m. and on the bus at 7:30. It doesn’t allow a whole lot of family time.”
Towns attract families
The government’s proposed moratorium makes sense, she added, because small towns are making a comeback. While a decade ago the trend was for people to pack up and move west, the opposite is now true.
“We are not a dying town. We just had a new family with two kids moving back from Alberta who bought a house.
“If you can’t offer a school and quality child care, then there’s no reason for young families to move to your community. Our school is the last one left in our municipality,” said Caldwell.
Ray Johnson, chief executive officer of Park West School Division in western Manitoba, said that closing the Kenton school and busing students farther down the road would not result in significant added fuel costs.
“The cost of diesel and transportation is an issue. But specifically, in the Kenton situation, there are no additional miles when you close a small school and bus everybody in one direction,” he said, adding that high school students are already bused to Hamiota.
However, Johnston said that Bill C-28, which proposes to limit bus rides for students to less than one hour, means school divisions will be forced to hire more drivers, put more buses on the road and spend more on diesel to keep daily commutes less than 60 minutes.
The education minister said that government would provide funding to keep schools open.
“Having local public schools is vital to the quality of the total educational experience, especially for young children. Schools also play an important role in communities, especially in rural areas, as gathering places for social and cultural events, athletics, community meetings and adult education,” Bjornson said, adding that underused facilities could house child-care centres or meet other community needs. “To determine the most effective ways to use these buildings to serve their communities on a long-term basis, we will consult with school divisions about the regulations.”
