By Tina Comeau
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com
The Tri-County Regional School Board is standing firm with its plan to reconfigure Maple Grove and Yarmouth Junior High schools this September.
Only board member Winnie Surette voted in favour of her motion to rescind an April 20 board motion to make Maple Grove a Grade 7 and 8 school and Yarmouth Junior High a Grade 9 school this fall. As the other board members voted against the motion to rescind, calls of “Shame! Shame!” came from the audience at the June 1 board meeting. Some students and parents cried.
Board member Anne Moses was out of town and was the only board member not present at the meeting for the vote.
Prior to the vote on the motion to rescind, the school board had heard 14 presentations during the public portion of its meeting. But these presentations, along with correspondence against the board’s handling of the decision, did not sway the opinion of the board members, even as one of their own implored them to change their minds.
“Please rescind and cancel this motion,” said Surette, who listed many concerns she has about the board’s decision. “Leave the town kids in town and the students from the county in the county.”
Surette reminded the board that five years ago it had decided that a reconfiguration of the two schools was not the way to go.
But when the call came to vote in favour of rescinding the board’s motion, Surette’s was the only hand raised.
At the end of the meeting parents had many questions for which the school board still does not have the answers. Many questions poised by parents centre around transportation. Where will the pick-up spots in the town be for students who will now be bussed out to the county? How many pick-up spots will there be? Will there be supervision at these spots?
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Board chair Faye Haley said the board will have those answers once a transportation report is finalized by board staff, something the board says it hopes will happen prior to the end of June.
Another major concern is the transitioning of special needs students. To that Haley said student services staff has been working “flat out” with families of special needs children, and board staff have been reassigned to aid in the process.
But people say the school board has broken it's own policy concerning allowing for proper time for transitioning of students.
The other question, which has been asked of the board repeatedly, was “What is the rush?” Why can’t the school board wait until September 2011 to implement its reconfiguration plan so that people have a year to prepare for the change, as opposed to a few months?
The board says it won’t put off the reconfiguration because of the new Yarmouth high school. If the new high school only opens in January 2012, rather than at the start of the school year in September 2011, the board says it would not be in the best interest of the Grade 9s to have them temporarily move into the Yarmouth Junior High building, only to be uprooted a few months later to move into the new high school.
But if that’s the story the school board is selling, the people at the board meeting weren’t buying it.
Like they had last month, once again prior to the board meeting people stood in protest outside the school board building, before cramming inside the boardroom. Those who couldn’t get a seat stood for two hours, or sat on the floor, listening to presentations and then waiting for the board to vote on the motion to rescind.
They hoped their presentations and letters would make a difference.
“The teachers and students of Maple Grove, as well as myself, would like to know why this decision was made without proper consultation of all interested parties,” said Trent Thibodeau, president of the Maple Grove student council. “I feel that this decision was made too fast, not saying that it could not work, I feel there should have been more time to consider all of the persons being affected by such a major decision.”
Said Grade 7 Yarmouth Junior High student Grace McGray, “There are also those who just think it’s a waste of time to attempt to fight the movement as they think that the TCRSB will not pay any attention to us since we’re just kids . . . We know that everyone makes mistakes but when you do you own up to it and do something to fix it.”
“I don’t understand why this is happening to me and why you would choose to house all the Grade 9s in the junior high who aren’t even going to be the Grade 9s that will go to the new high school,” said Grade 8 Maple Grove student Brooke Hamilton.
“Can’t you make it easier for everyone involved by giving us more time to prepare?” asked Grade 7 Yarmouth Junior High student Alannah Mullen. “Take the year to follow your own rules and get it done right. Changing your plans for the year 2011 just makes more sense.”
Parent Rachel McGray pointed out what she and others see as flaws of the school board’s process throughout this decision.
“It wasn’t made according to policy and procedure. It didn’t involve input from stakeholders. It didn’t come after all the issues were closely examined and solutions to problems found,” she said. “It does not affect all students positively. And, its implementation hasn’t been given a reasonable timeframe.”
