GHSD wants explanation from County
Amy Gregson – Times Reporter
After being denied a land re-designation by the County of Wheatland on March 25, Golden Hills School Division wants an explanation.
The school board met as a whole April 13 for the first time since the public hearing to discuss their options, and decided their first step is to ask why they were turned down.
“We don’t understand why they would say no when apparently we met all the criteria that was asked for,” said Ron Kenworthy, chair of GHSD school board. Comments made from the board about the decision were all of disappointment. Many were unsure how the county could deny GHSD when all requirements were met, and said they felt like the decision wasn’t made based on the land-use.
The school division was asking for a re-designation of the land so they would be able to build the new East Wheatland stand-alone school.
The planning department of Wheatland County said at the meeting that GHSD had met all the requirements they needed for the application.
The centrally-located school would house kindergarten to grade 12’s and would replace Standard School, Central Bow Valley, Hussar School. Grade 9 to 12’s from Rockyford would also attend.
The board still wants the stand-alone in a central location and will not go back and revisit the decision.
“After years and years of study, this is what the board has come up with and just because someone says ‘no you can’t have a piece of land’, doesn’t preclude all the work that went in making this decision,” said Kenworthy.
GHSD wants the school to still be located in the same general location as first proposed, near the junction of Highway 561 and 842, because of it’s central location to all the communities it would serve.
“We know that if it’s in a different location, say if we put it in a town, then people from the different communities may not go there,” said Kenworthy.
A new school is an urgent matter for the school board because of the deteriorating conditions of the current schools and the declining enrolment in the rural communities.
“People are choosing other alternatives,” said Kenworthy.