With the provincial government looking to put more emphasis on early childhood learning, an interesting program being run at Roosevelt Park Community School could very well prove to be a vital bit of research.
Roosevelt’s all day kindergarten program, the only one of its kind in School District 52 and one of only a few across the province, is perhaps exactly the kind of testing ground that province is looking for as it seeks out answers to both early education and First Nations educational opportunities.
With a school population that is heavily influenced by First Nations children’s needs and providing for a number of local initiatives within the school to foster learning, the program at Roosevelt could become a template for future educational prospects across the province.
As far as I know Conrad also runs an all day kindergarten program too because that’s where my son was going to go to school until they called us a week before school started and said because we didn’t live close enough, he couldn’t go, even though they knew our address when we signed him up there.
His mother and I were hoping to get him in there because of the program and since they called us a week before, we couldn’t get him in Roosevelt either, and had to settle for Pineridge which has turned out to be a very good school but they only run a couple hours, from 9 to 11:30.
Interestingly the Conrad full day Kindergarten is already out of the picture even tough school trustees haven’t voted on the proposal to close schools, which would mean that any full day Kindergarten program cannot be sustained because am and pm Kindergarten classes will be needed to make space for all the children going into Kindergarten.
Should Westview close next year the full day KG at Roosevelt would also come to an end
That’s sad to hear but it was inevitable that some of the schools in town would eventually close. Rupert just isn’t big enough to sustain them all and unless people want to deal with taxes being raised, they’re going to have to accept some of the schools closing.
I don’t think keeping all schools open would raise our taxes.
It’s the BC government that is underfunding our schools. Even if some close, there is still no guarantee from the government to built new schools. The current wait time for a new school here in BC is four years from the time of approval.
So what was/is the critera being used to pick a school to close?
-location
-school size
-85% capacity
-structural safety
Is the school district running a deficit or has it been projected to show a deficit?
It would seem if it is running within it’s budget year to year until there is a deficit what is the need to close a school never mind two/three. Why fix what is not broke?
Hats off to Steve Riley and his fine team at Roosevelt for doing positive things with what they had to start with years ago, plus they were faced with a pretty shitty documentry a year or so ago which I believe did not do them any justice. Once again Steve and fine team well done and keep them coming.
Just a reminder that the Board of Education for SD52 is made up of elected officials.
They do listen to the public, so if you feel strongly about any issue, there are opportunities for you to express your views.
I know at least one trustee that reads HTMF, but I doubt this is the right place to make your views known. You can always show up for board meetings, especially the public ones.
Check sd52.bc.ca for meeting dates and times. There are a couple of open ones coming up.