Grassland high school students will attend Boyle School

ATHABASCA - Grade 10-12 students from Grassland are on their way to Boyle School next year after a decision by Aspen View Public Schools trustees last week.

It wasn’t the original motion trustees gathered to discuss at the April 8 special meeting, conducted via digital meeting software and broadcast live on YouTube for the public. Up to 28 viewers were counted at one point as trustees voted down the original motion to shutter Grassland School’s Grade 7-12 programming, opting instead to include only the high school grades.

Aspen View superintendent Neil O’Shea gave trustees an overview of some of the work that has been completed in the last two months since trustee Tom Mykytiuk made the original notice of motion at the division’s Feb. 6 meeting.

O’Shea provided information about the third-party viability study of the school that started the board down the path to consider the changes to the make-up of Grassland School.

Trustees heard about the student engagement session that took place March 5; the community meeting held March 11; delegations to the board; along with staff and other stakeholders’ feedback. O’Shea finished up with his recommendation to the board, which was to pass the motion to make the school a K-6 facility.

Trustee April Bauer called the input from the students “very mature” and “well-thought out.”

“It was an excellent source of information for us,” she said.

Trustee Dennis MacNeil agreed, adding, “I think the job that was done collecting this information was extremely valuable and hearing from the students was more than valuable, it was crucial.”

Bauer also praised the 90 or so Grassland residents who attended the community meeting to discuss the topic saying they were respectful and articulate and asked good questions.

“That was one of my very first public meetings as a trustee and as a community member and I was glad that we all made the trip to Grassland to participate in that. Since I’ve been a trustee this is probably one of the biggest decisions we’ve had to make and I think it was important that we were all there together,” said trustee Anne Karczmarczyk.

Board chair Candy Nikipelo said the public consultations were about more than just school board policy, but that the trustees were truly there to hear from the community.

“I can’t stress enough how important it was for the entire board to hear that,” she said. “To hear that feedback and to hear the emotion from everybody, this community is a very, very proud community, and I wouldn’t have expected anything less.

After a lengthy presentation from O’Shea and comments from all the trustees, it started to become clear the majority were going to vote against the motion, with only trustee MacNeil speaking in favour of it.

“My initial feeling is that closing both the junior high and the high school portion of the school is a one-time process. My biggest fear would be if we left the junior high open and had to go through this process again in two years. It would be extremely detrimental to the Grassland community,” he said.

Trustee Donna Cherniwchan also pointed out there are two other smaller K-9 schools in the division, and that was working out, but MacNeil questioned their viability as well.

“My fear is that if we do not keep (Grades) 7-9 at the school, K-6 will not last very long,” said Cherniwchan. “I think there are probably families who have junior high students and if those students went to another school, they would take their younger siblings with them.

“The viability report made the recommendation to close the school … I think that we want to consider making the school viable and in order to do that I think we need to look at the junior high option.”

Chair Nikipelo commented that rural sustainability is a theme that comes up again and again, in all the board’s discussions and decisions, saying it would be a disservice to the community not to keep the junior high open.

The whole process was an eye-opener about the fragility of small communities like Grassland, she said.

“We need to keep our rural communities as strong as possible … I want to see the community remain viable. The school is the heartbeat of that community. Every school is the hub of its community, but the family support and community support in Grassland has been so strong.”

Trustee Mykytiuk had an opportunity to speak to his motion before it was voted on and he too spoke in favour of the K-9 option. He said he made the motion initially with the thought that revisiting the issue to close the junior high in a couple years was too much of a risk.

“What I’m hearing from the trustees is that there is a willingness to accept that risk,” he said. “Based on that and base on the community input, I certainly would reconsider my motion.”

Trustees voted unanimously to defeat the original motion, 7-0. Trustee Cherniwchan then put a revised motion forward to close the school for Grades 10-12, which also passed unanimously, although trustee MacNeil had dropped out of the meeting due to Internet connectivity issues.