Jackman-Atkinson: Is the easiest solution the best?
- Details
- Published on Thursday, November 1, 2012
By: Kate Jackman-Atkinson
myWestman.ca
The Beautiful Plains School Division (BPSD) is in an enviable position, significant growth in the Neepawa area has meant that enrollment in the division is rapidly increasing.
Enrolment at Neepawa’s schools has grown so much that the division is asking the province for a new school. The problem is that this rapid growth is only happening at Neepawa schools.
At the Eden elementary school, J.M. Young, enrollment has been steadily declining and the school only has enough students for two classrooms for the 2012-2013 school year. It’s a similar story at Brookdale Elementary where they have three classrooms. Both of these schools used to teach 100 or more students a year. The actual capacity of Eden School is approximately 8 classrooms plus a gymnasium, offices and a computer room as well as a large school playground.
In the BPSD’s new five-year capital plan, their top priority is a new middle school for Neepawa. It’s clear that enrollment in Neepawa schools is exceeding the schools’ capacity, but little has been done to tell ratepayers that the division has examined all options before asking for a new school, or that a new school is best for the division as a whole.
In Eden and Brookdale, the division has two nearby schools, already in use and with excess capacity. Everyone I have talked to who has gone to one of these small schools has very fond memories of the experience attending those schools offered to them. Realistically, with declining enrolment, their future is in jeopardy and parents whose children attend these schools worry about their future, they don’t want to lose them. These are good schools and still have a lot to offer students.
Making better use of existing facilities and helping to ensure their continued operation is an important consideration and the public has yet to be told if this has been considered and if so, why it was abandoned in favour of a new school.
While the initial cost of a new school would be paid for by the province, that doesn’t mean that it’s free; upkeep and maintenance will fall on the division and ultimately, our shoulders as rate payers. An additional school means additional maintenance, things like cutting the grass in summer and clearing the snow in winter, the new school will have to cleaned and periodically repainted. All of these are extra costs and they are already being paid for at the underused schools.
Moving students from Neepawa to Eden and Brookdale isn’t nearly so easy as building a new school, but would make use of resources which are already built, already being used and already being maintained.
Making use of existing facilities has an added benefit, an immediate solution to an immediate problem. The division is already facing a shortage of classroom space and building a new school is a multi-year process. What is going to be done in the years it will take to plan, tender and build a new school? The division isn’t even guaranteed that the province will approve their funding request, then what?
Yes, it would be easier for students and staff in Neepawa to have another school for them in Neepawa. But I think we lose some perspective living in a small town.
Yes, students would have to be bussed, but students all over are bussed. Students in the country are bussed into school in Neepawa. I grew up in Toronto and I spent at least a half an hour on a school bus to get to my elementary school.
That is, until I reached grade 6, my final year at that school. The contract with the school bus company only provided transportation until grade 5. In grade 6, even if you had a younger sibling in the school and the bus was stopping at your house, you couldn’t get on it. In grade 6, I took the subway to and from school, that is, when I couldn’t convince my parents to drive me.
Businesses all over are having to find ways to improve their efficiency and do more with less, I’d hope our government agencies are trying to do the same.
