East Wheatland in the midst of Phase 2 of school restructuring

Manny Everett 

Times Contributor

 

Residents and members of the communities of Gleichen, Hussar, Rockyford and Standard are continuing to muddle through the East Wheatland school situation. 

With the future of their schools up in the air, Golden Hills School Division (GHSD) board in the latter part of 2011 held Marketplace meetings as information sessions for community members in each of the areas. 

Now GHSD is in the middle of the second phase of their study, whereby, as part of the continuing process towards the development of a solution for the East Wheatland area schools, a working group has been formed with four people representing each school community. 

These 16 working group members have been and will continue to meet throughout January and February to consider the information and investigate various options and potential solutions for East Wheatland schools.  

Though this group will not be making any final decisions, they will be reviewing the information from the marketplace meetings and investigating the viability of a variety of possible solutions. This group will also be sharing information with their broader communities and helping to collect feedback through surveys from parents and community members throughout the East Wheatland area. 

The hope, from the GHSD board, is that through this process of investigation and feedback, some clearer options will emerge that can be seen to have the potential for support of parents in all the East Wheatland communities. This will allow Golden Hills to proceed to the next planned phase of the process. At that time, by way of another public meeting – similar to those held in the fall – Golden Hills would present the best options and receive feedback prior to a decision by the Board.

Updated progress reports from this committee will be posted on the GHSD website (www.ghsd75.ca). Names and contact information of the 16 group members will be posted on the website as well. If people would prefer to email the working group please send emails to workinggroup@ghsd75.ca. E-mails to this address can be sent to the entire group or to a single individual.

In the weeks ahead GHSD (with the help of the working group) will be surveying parent and community members and informing them of some of the various possibilities in keeping with the promise of transparency and what is in the best interest of the children in the East Wheatland.