Well, tonight we had our big meeting. The board is considering closing our school and so this meet was for the board and the trustees to get feedback from the parents. There's a huge can of worms to open!
I arrived a little late...so things were already underway. Phil Carleton was reading the document that had been sent home to parents that was the background on everything. There was a big table where all the trustees were sitting. Then on the other side of the room was the superintendent and the Area Director and some other CBE employees. In the middle of the section where all the parents sat was a big podium with a microphone...which all seemed a little foreboding to me of how this was an us against them scenario...and least that is how it looked.
I had actually been on the parent committee that came up with some scenarios for the trustees to consider. The scenario they chose isn't one I wanted - but it does make a lot of sense. I've been one that hasn't had a great opinion of our board - but being on this committee really changed that. I found them to be very interested in listening to parents. I'm sure it would have been much easier to just meet as a board and make the decision. The journey was a little rough! We met bi-monthly for almost 18 months to work on this whole proposal. A LOT of work went into it.
I was a little nervous about this meeting because I would imagine it could get quite emotional and angry. However, everyone really did a pretty good job at staying sane. I was impressed at the people that attended from the board. All the big guns were there. Each of the trustees were there, the Superintendant was there, the area director was there, and a number of other CBE employees were there. The superintendent responded to a number of people that spoke and I thought he gave some thoughtful and sensitive responses. I had hoped there would be more parents there though. One year they changed class configurations after 3 weeks of school. The place was packed for that meeting. Parents were REALLY upset to have their kids class changed. You'd think having the school potentially close would bring out at least as many people. I'd say it was about on par though.
The concerns seemed to boil down to a few things: people don't like their kids being bussed and they'll be bussed further with this proposal - and they feel like this is being rushed and not enough consultation has happened. That kind of drove me nuts. We've made a real effort at our school to keep parents informed one all of this every step of the way. We invited anyone who wants to participate to be on the committee. We put information in the newsletters and talked about this issue at practically every Parent Council meeting. Three years ago when our numbers were continually declining we tried to put together a bit of a marketing committee - but we couldn't seem to drum up enough interest to get it off the ground. Suddenly people are very interested. Go figure
I actually am hoping this change does happen. I have really loved many things about Jill's school - but I can see that this change is warranted. I do support the trustees in ensuring that school's are not under utilized. This is our fourth year at this school and our 3rd principal. We seem to be a launch pad for new principals to move on to bigger schools - and that gets old. We also seem to see quite a bit of turnover in the teaching staff. I think that most teachers prefer to teach the same thing from year to year - and that is a rarity at our school...and so teacher's seem to transfer out and go to a bigger school. The new school will mean about 10 more minutes on the bus for our kids...so I'm not very concerned about that. I've talked with the principal of the potential new school a few times and and she seems quite on the ball. I think all in all the change will end up being a positive one - if it happens that is. I can't see how it won't though.
April 17 is the big decision day. I think I'll go to that meeting.
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