Golden Hills School Division holds marketplace meetings

Manny Everett 

Times Contributor

 

The Administration of GHSD held marketplace-style information meetings in the four communities of Gleichen, Hussar, Rockyford and Standard as a second step toward arriving at a solution to the schooling issues in East Wheatland. 

Between the four communities, well over 245 registered for the meetings, with Standard having the largest turnout of over 150 concerned parents and community members. The marketplace-style allowed for people to ‘think outside the box’ when sharing ideas with an open mind and be creative.

Superintendent Bevan Daverne presented a 30-minute information session at the beginning of the evening. The information dealt with the current situation in East Wheatland. 

A very challenging problem of declining enrolments, old buildings and a ‘School of Choice’ legislation, whereby parents can choose to send their children to a facility that isn’t their designated school, has hurt rural schooling. 

Currently there are 306 resident students in the East Wheatland schools combined (K-12). This number does not reflect those students now going to other schools in Strathmore, Drumheller or Bassano.

 The participants then were numbered off to discuss three predetermined questions developed by the Board of GHSD with facilitators. Recorders were provided by GHSD at each table. 

The first question dealt with the information presented and whether people had comments or questions about the evening. The general consensus throughout the East Wheatland area was ‘finally, a transparent venue for people to gather together that should have been done 10 years previously.’

The second question asked “how happy are you with what you have?” Every single community replied that they were ‘happy’ with their schools and teachers. Most are still vying for a K-6 school in each community and understand that something needs to be done with the resident high school students. Parents are beginning to realize that a high school in the smaller centres really doesn’t seem to be an option anymore as many from the communities of Hussar, Gleichen and Rockyford are already sending their children to Strathmore or Drumheller. Distance and travel times on busses for the little children remains a main concern for many parents. Mark Skibsted from Rosebud area gave kudos to Mrs. Karen Smith who is the principal for the schools of Hussar, Rockyford and Standard. He says, “she has done an amazing job with the administration of the three schools and she cares about each of the students and staff.”

The third question dealt with recommendations. “Given what you have heard, what recommendations do you have for us (GHSD)?” 

The recommendations varied from bulldozing half of the school buildings to double the utilization rates of the schools to “having each of the communities take over their own maintenance of the school buildings and properties and allowing GHSD to just manage and finance the education part of the equation,” said Pam Seely from Rockyford.

“Overall the meetings went well and they (the meetings) are a start,” according to Superintendent Daverne, who understands the difficulty that is in front of the Board in deciding the future of the rural schools. Decisions need to be made by February of 2012.