Whitbourne Elementary closure saga continues with public meeting in St. John's
Parents claim busing students 55 minutes to Dildo unacceptable
The English School District's Board of Trustees tabled a motion to close Whitbourne Elementary in June 2017 at a meeting in St. John's on Wednesday.
It's just the latest turn in a roller coaster ordeal for parents, who now have another year of fighting ahead if they want to keep their children in the classrooms at Whitbourne Elementary.
The school was originally slated to close this year, with a plan to bus students to Woodland Elementary in Dildo. However, parents fought the closure in court, where a judge shot down the board's decision to close the school.
At Wednesday's meeting at the District Conference Centre on Strawberry Marsh Road in St. John's, the board presented another motion to close the school, which it will vote on Sept. 20.
On Wednesday, the board gave parents and other stakeholders access to all documents and information that it felt was required for a closure decision to be made, which was something that hadn't been properly done before and resulted in the judge to quash the closure just 10 days before in court.
Friction and frustration
The meeting seemed to get off on a contentious note, with one parent interrupting Board chair Milton Peach during introductions by saying "whatever, get on with it," to which Peach replied by asking to keep the meeting professional.
"Wipe that smile off your face too," the man shot back.
Wanda Cumby, whose son goes to the school, said after the meeting she doesn't want to see a school with such a good special needs program be shut down.
"This is crazy, I don't know what they're doing. Our school is viable, our school has numbers," she said.
"My son has disabilities, he's going to have to be on a bus for, not 65 minutes like they are telling you, but more like an hour and 25 minutes. For a four-year-old in kindergarten, that's a long run."
Colin Ralph has one child in the school already and another set to start kindergarten in the fall, and said his biggest frustration with the whole ordeal is the timing of it.
"Ten days after a Supreme Court judge rules in our favour to keep Whitbourne Elementary open, noting serious flaws in their school review process, here we are," he said.
"It makes you wonder. I feel the board are just trying to get this done before they get booted out."
Saving money, improving services
Milton Peach, chair of the English School District responded by saying he gets why people don't want to see Whitbourne Elementary close.
"Whenever you go to close a school there's always emotion and we as a board respect and understand that those emotions run high," he said.
"However we have a capacity issue in that area in that all those students could easily be part of one school."
Peach said by combining the two schools the school district can pool resources and money, and he said infrastructure issues such as Woodland having an upgraded electrical system are also factors.
"At the end of the day we have 80-plus students at Whitbourne and 180-plus at Woodland, and so putting them together still does not make a big school," he said.
"But in our view it increases the educational opportunities for students, and because of that we felt we need to move forward."
With files from Krissy Holmes