County denies land re-designation for GHSD

A request put forth by Golden Hills School Division to re-designate approximately 20 acres of land to community service was denied at a public hearing March 25.

County councillors made their decision in front of a packed house at the Travelodge, where residents expressed their concerns or hopes for a school to be built on the land.

“Of course we were disappointed,” said Ron Kenworthy, chair of the school board. “We’ll be discussing that at our board meeting April 13.”

This meeting will be used to discuss what the board will do next. The board was planning to build the East Wheatland School on the site, which would be a stand alone kindergarten to grade 12 school that would draw students from Gleichen, Rockyford, Standard and Hussar.

The board was planning on closing the schools in these communities and busing kids to the new school.

This was the second public hearing, held to discuss the re-designation of land. The first was recessed by the GHSD after they were asked to provide the county with some additional information.

GHSD was asked to discuss their area plan for the site, such as how the school would be placed on the site and how they would deal with water and waste water.

They were also asked to discuss how roads would be impacted and potential busing routes for students, along with parking and emergency evacuation plan in case something was to happen.

The board was also asked to explain the statement “New School or No School” and stated that with declining enrolment, surplus space and the current buildings that need maintenance are on a low priority list from the Alberta Government.

Kenworthy said during the meeting, that consolidation is essential and the board will not compromise school programs for old buildings.

Kenworthy did note that the Minister of Education Dave Hancock has said that a brand new building in East Wheatland is a priority because it is a good business plan for the board.

“We tried to address comments for what the meeting was for and that was the suitability of that site,” said Kenworthy. “We tried not too revisit, as we had the first time, anything to do with the boards decision.”

Four members of the public made presentations, one in favour of the re-designation and three against.

Then, 14 members of the public made their comments known, also speaking for and against the proposal.

Many of the comments made, were about whether community schools should be closed, something Kenworthy thought was not in line with the hearing.

“I thought that a lot of the comments made during the meeting both by the audience and councillors had to do with the boards decision and it should have been more towards the county decision which was what the hearing was supposed to be about,” he said.

Ben Armstrong, Wheatland County Reeve said any public meeting is a chance for the public to voice their opinion of the matter at hand.

“Some of it maybe wasn’t the right place for it,” said Armstrong. “Some of it was school issues, but when you have public hearings you hear everything. You don’t want to stop people from speaking as long as they’re not being belligerent.”

County councillors had their chance to voice their concerns after the public had their say. 

Alice Booth was concerned about wheather the capital funding from the province would come through, while Glenn Koester was concerned about bus routes.

Shirley Reinhardt asked about how much municipal reserve the school board wanted, and Berniece Bland wanted clarification about the plans for evacuation and what would happen if the students were stranded there overnight.

Before the vote was read, the county’s planning department had indicated that GHSD had met all the criteria required for an Area Structure Plan and that additional concerns raised would be addressed in the future such as traffic, water and environmental at a later date.

A recorded vote was done and five members of county council opposed the re-designation, while Bland and Armstrong were the only ones to vote in favour of the request.