PRESENTATION TO RPS BOARD MEETING JUNE 21, 2011 I want to thank the Board for the opportunity for our Committee to make this presentation. We have asked to come before you to bring attention to the progress of our petition; to provide an update on the proposal to turn Athabasca into a Community Hub School, and to ask for a moratorium on the disposal of the Athabasca School building. Before I address those three issues, I want to briefly reiterate our position regarding the Board’s decision to close our community’s school. I must say that we are even more convinced now, than we were before, that that hasty decision was counterproductive financially, educationally and in almost every way this issue can be viewed from. We believe that it is never too late to change your mind and we continue to ask you at this late date to reverse your decision to close our school. On a personal note, my grandson has been on a waiting list all year long at Athabasca School to begin preschool classes. He is now on a waiting list at Connaught and we are told that students from the Connaught area will be accepted first. While I don’t disagree with that policy, it does make me wonder, “where is OUR area now?” We are bringing forward new ideas re Athabasca School for your consideration and we are hopeful that you will strongly consider them during your biennial review of the ten year plan . We ask that you follow the lead of other jurisdictions in Canada and put a moratorium on school closures in Regina. We also ask that you follow the lead of school boards such as the Prairie South School Division who have developed a small schools policy and have assured their school communities that their efforts will be to work with them to keep their schools open and viable. It would be great to have a Board that came to a school community such as ours to cooperatively find ways of enhancing the school to keep it open rather than citing it for closure and ensuring its demise.
(2) When new schools are opened, we believe that it makes sense to discuss a long term plan of how the community can fill in around the natural ebb and flow of the student population as the neighbourhood ages and then returns once again to one of homes full of young families, such as is now happening in River heights. We are somewhat heartened that your new Director of Education is coming from an area and a province where there are some progressive and imaginative solutions being implemented, including the development and support of community hub schools. We also note that both the Vancouver and Edmonton Public School Boards have placed moratoriums on school closures as they “seek to further understand the issues and impacts surrounding school closures.” We hope to work together with your Board to help affect such positive changes in Regina for all of our students. I want to draw your attention to the petition that we have been circulating, and continue to circulate , throughout our community. I have enclosed a copy of the petition for your information. As you can see, the intention of our petition is much broader than just our concern for our own school. We are continuing to work our way through our community with the petition and intend to forward it to you for your biennial review this summer and fall. We have so far collected nearly 400 signatures which amounts to almost that many households in our community , which is a very significant portion of our community. We are receiving a very positive response on the doorsteps as we canvass our fellow citizens. I am going to ask another of our Committee members, Gordon Chubak, to speak to our request for a moratorium on the disposal of our school building. My name is Gordon Chubak. I am involved with the committee dedicated to saving Athabasca School. The motion I wish to put before the board is as follows: That the Regina Public School Board delay the disposition of Athabasca School and surrounding property for a period of at least one year. (This would allow time to complete the study from the U of R. This study is needed to confirm or deny the future viability of a community hub facility which may include a community school.)
(3) And finally, I want to provide an update regarding our proposal for Athabasca to continue as a Community Hub School. We want to thank the Community Research Unit of the University of Regina for providing the funding to allow us to hire our researcher, Dianna Graves, to provide the research for this project. Ms. Graves is presently meeting with members of our community to ascertain what programs and services they would find attractive in such a school. She is also researching innovative ways that school boards in other jurisdictions in Canada and the U.S. are meeting the challenges of having schools continue to be the hub of communities. I am not an academic so I do not intend to expound on all of the virtues of a community hub school. Needless to say, a sense of community is very important for any neighbourhood and a community hub school is something that strengthens that sense a great deal. The final product of Ms. Grave’s work will presented to the Board for consideration during your biennial review. Before closing, I want to say how much we appreciate the tremendous support and assistance that we have received from the Real Renewal organization. The positive leadership of this organization has been invaluable to us as we struggle to keep a school in our neighbourhood for our children. We trust that your Board will consider, seriously, the contents of our presentation, and the information that we are yet to deliver, and that you will keep an open mind toward the requests and suggestions that we have brought forward. Once again, thank you for this opportunity, and we look forward to moving forward with you to ensure that all children in Regina continue to be able to walk to school in their own neighbourhood. Sincerely, Bob Hughes, on behalf of the Save Athabasca School Committee
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