In the end, the school closure debate would resemble what it was at the start of the year. With the originally proposed schools once again the ones on the chopping block, destined not to be joined by any other schools for the next few years at any rate.
While the last few weeks had seen the introduction of the potential closures of Westview and Port Edward Elementary Schools as a talking point, Tuesday’s School District 52 Meeting seemed to move them off of the closure list.
The Northern View posted a story on Tuesday night, outlining the deliberations of the School Board as they met to decide the fate of local schools on the closure list.
And as things would finally shake out, it will be Seal Cove and Kanata schools that will close their doors on August 31, 2008 with new catchment areas for those students to be drawn up…
Well, it’s not like they were ever going to get rid of the French immersion program. They would just move it to another school. It’s pretty arbitrary where it is now.
Westview may still close, but I suspect it will be after the election in the fall.
I think moving the French Immersion program to another school and leaving space for it to grow will be the problem.
In the past 5 years between the 2001/02 and 2007/08 school year the overall elementary student population in Prince Rupert decreased by 24% from 1669 to 1263 while the FI elementary student enrollment increased by 53% from 73 to 112. Despite the looming thread of closing Westview, many parents were already up at the school trying to get their kids into French Immersion when the registration was supposed to be on at the beginning of March. It is now postponed to March 31 to April 11. Anyone trying to get their kid into the program better register soon as all the spaces will be taken quickly.
