At their special meeting earlier tonight - the Board of Education for School District #27 (Cariboo-Chilcotin) initiated a process which could see the Board declaring a number of schools in Williams Lake and 100 Mile House closed by early 2013 and formally closed on June 30th, 2013 as follows:
100 Mile House:
* Close 100 Mile Jr Secondary
* Close Buffalo Cr Elementary
* Reconfigure schools into K-8
* Reconfigure Peter Skeene Ogdene into a Grade 9-12 School
Williams Lake:
* Create 1 Grade 7-12 "two campus" school
* Close the following schools:
i) Glendale Elementary
ii) Kwaleen Elementary
iii) Wildwood Elementary
* Schools in the Chilcotin and in Horsefly/Likely will see no closures
Public Consultation on this plan will commence in early October with a final decision by the Board at a meeting on Jan 22, 2013
As of a result of the above -- the Board of Education (SD #27) agreed unanimously to the following motion:
THAT the Board of Education invoke the 90 day school closure consultation process in accordance with Policy 1711 for the following School District No. 27 (Cariboo-Chilcotin) schools being considered for closure 30 June 2013:
100 Mile House Jr. Secondary School,
Buffalo Creek Elementary School,
Wildwood Elementary School,
Glendale Elementary School, and
Kwaleen Elementary School.
There will be a workshop in Williams Lake on Tuesday, Oct 2nd at 6:30pm at Williams Lake Secondary and then on Thursday, Oct 4th at 6:30pm at 100 Mile Jr Secondary
Also on Oct 23rd - 6:30pm at PSO Secondary in 100 Mile House and Oct 25th - 6:30pm at Columneetza Secondary, the public will be asked to respond to the following questions:
What are the challenges? What are the benefits? What would you do differently?
For the Board's part - SD #27 Board of Education Chair Will Van Osch says:
“it is flexible, though we do have rationale for why we came to this proposal but again we are open-minded and we want to make sure we hear everybody’s input and there’s always room for reconsideration.”
Local Teacher Union President Joan Erb says that she is shocked by the proposals and is gravely concerned about the reconfiguration changes and what impact that will have on teachers'
Background Documents:
a) Initial Options Report - view here
b) Timeline from now - June 30th, 2013. view here
c) Board Presentation from SD #27 Staff - view here
d) Story from the Rush/Wolf - view here
Finally - for myself, these school closures, if fully implemented, will have implications on Williams Lake and the Cariboo Regional District and I hope Mayor/Council - Williams Lake and CRD Area 'D' Director Deb Bischoff, CRD Area 'H' Director Margo Wagner and District of 100 Mile Council will choose to get involved individually on the possible school closures.
Also - should Glendale Elementary closed by June of 2013 - there is the question if the public will still have access to the Studio Theatre? Should they not, the City and region would most assuredly be deprived of Performing Arts for a considerable amount of time as there is currently no plans on the books for a new Performing Arts Centre in contrast to Quesnel who is planning a new Performing Arts Centre as part of the North Cariboo Multicentre
SBF
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