About 100 people, including parents, attended an open house at the Benalto School on March 3 to discuss the future of the school and to provide input to the Chinook's Edge School Division.
The division is considering the future of the school, with trustees scheduled to make a decision April 6.
There are currently 21 students at the school, with 16 from the Benalto area, two from Spruce View and three from Sylvan Lake.
In 2010 there were 49 students, 52 in 2011, 51 in 2012, 41 in 2013, 39 in 2014 and 27 in 2015.
Declining enrolment at the school has created a situation where Benalto is now by far the most expensive school in the division in terms of cost per student.
In the 2015-16 school year, $15,918.30 will be spent by the division for every student in the school. That compares with an overall division average cost per student of about $8,000.
The decision to examine the viability of the school was made in October 2013.
The resulting school review committee is considering a number of things when examining the viability of Benalto School, including student access to quality basic education programming, the economic viability of the school, utilization of school buildings, proximity of other schools relative to busing, enrolment trends, and population demographics in the local community.
A part of the review, the March 3 open house meeting saw those in attendance given a chance to provide input on six main questions:
What might be the educational and financial advantages if the school were to remain open?
What might be the educational impacts for your child if the school were to close? What might be the social and financial impacts to you and your community?
What do we need to consider if Benalto students were to attend another school site in Chinook's Edge School Division? This question will also consider the “programming implications” at an alternative school site.
If Benalto School were to close, what should the board consider in terms of attendance areas? What busing consideration should be placed to meet the transportation needs of families and students?
What are the potential uses of the school building if all educational programming is moved to another site in Chinook's Edge School Division No. 73?
Is there anything else you feel Chinook's Edge should consider in this process?
Hundreds of comments collected at the meeting were released by Chinook's Edge on March 8. Comments (quoted) include the following:
To question 1 -
• My child has thrived in the school and he has received personalized learning. If it remains open, we benefit from this personalized learning. He has been challenged in class. The multigrade structure benefits him. Having teacher with this ability benefits him.
• Whether our child is excelling or struggling the school is able to cater to him.
• The teachers have such a passion for students. They have the ability to attend to the needs of all the kids. The educational assistants are excellent.
• The school will be open for my kids for future.
To question 2 –
• Other options in Sylvan don't appeal to us as a family. As a result, we will have to drive to meet a bus to go to another small school or even drive our children directly to a small school. This will have financial implications.
• I will have to pay for “before and after school care” and I will have to get up earlier.
• The students will have to leave their friends and get new friends because students are likely to go to different schools.
• The kids will get less sleep because they will have to get up earlier to get to other schools that are further away from our home in Benalto.
To question 3 – Class sizes, easy access to the teachers, need to find a safe place to pick up the students, taking care of students with higher needs, opportunity for music and physical education, swimming, field trips, intramural program, the personal care and attention.
To question 4 –
• I suggest that the board look at options other than busing students to Sylvan. For example, could students be bused to Spruce View. Right now, we are strong-armed into sending our students to Sylvan. This doesn't seem fair.
• Start time is a concern, especially for young students.
• The number of stops that buses make along the way.
• Would there be a consideration to bus them to the closest school.
To question 5 –
• The school could be used as a house. It is a nice property.
• This question depends on what happens to the community. If the community stays strong it could be a library or a youth centre or a fitness centre or a museum. If not, it will be a relic like the train station.
• It could be a seniors housing centre. This would just need renovations.
• It could be a private school.
To question 6 –
• Are school fees an option? For our family we might be interested in paying fees to keep the school open, to as much as $1,500 perhaps. I think families would go for this.
• The board should be concerned with the prospect of losing students to other school divisions, which will result in less funding for Chinook's Edge.
• Would the board consider parent volunteers instead of paid staff?
(All the responses are on the division's website).
Parents in Benalto conducted a survey of residents regarding the school and provided the results to the Gazette.
The parents say the survey indicates that enrolment in 2016-17 will be 29, in 2017-18 it would be 28, in 2018-19 it would be 29, and in 2019-20 it would be 35.
The school division will be accepting public input as part of the Benalto review until March 29.
"My child has thrived in the school and he has received personalized learning. If it remains open, we benefit from this personalized learning."Benalto School parent
