Holy Cross parents rally to save St. John's junior high school
Declining enrolment puts inner-city school in the crosshairs
Parents of students at Holy Cross Junior High in St. John's are rallying after a proposal by the English School District to shut the school down.
About 50 parents attended a meeting Thursday night to discuss a "school system review process" that could see the 160 students moved to another school — Brother Rice.
Carol Dwyer, who has a son in Grade 9 at Holy Cross, said parents are concerned about losing a neighbourhood school, and believe enrolment could be boosted by increasing the catchment area.
"We realized there were about four neighbourhoods within walking distance that are being bused to another school," she said. "They have to pass right by Holy Cross."
The school, on Rickett's Road in the centre of the city, has strong ties to the Froude Ave. community centre, said Dwyer.
"We don't want to chance losing that as a community partner because they do provide tremendous services to the school," she told the St. John's Morning Show on Friday.
Loss of extracurricular, tutoring
"Having children bused to school may limit their ability to attend extracurricular activities,..and tutoring," said Dwyer.
"At Holy Cross there's so many programs that kids can take advantage of and it's no problem because I mean they can all walk home."
Getting to Brother Rice on time could also be an issue, she said.
"If they're not able to catch the bus at an early hour for an 8:20 start, what's the absenteeism rate going to be?"
Dwyer said the parents feel there has been little support for Holy Cross. A late French immersion program has not been expanded to include Grade 7 students, she said, and students from a nearby elementary school are are being assigned to other schools.
The school district has said its review will look at other options, including an upgrade of Holy Cross, but it has to provide a strong academic program and consider the need for repairs to an aging building, as well as demographics.
The board of trustees will meet Saturday, March 5, to discuss the options.
Dwyer said parents will fight to keep Holy Cross open, as the proposal works its way through the system.
"One of the things that is a concern is that we have unelected school board trustees making the decisions," she said.
It's not the first time the school district has looked at closing Holy Cross. A motion in 2011 was defeated, and the board voted to close I.J. Samson Junior High.