Montague school community voices need for rural investments at school review meeting

The communities that make up the Montague family of schools sent a message that instead of closures, which they have seen before, their schools need more French immersion and resource opportunities.

A crowd of about 200 met in Montague on Thursday night for the last public meeting in the second round of school review meetings.

The Montague family of schools are under review because they are under-utilized, with a range from 28 to 83 per cent. 

Value of small schools

Stacy Toms said the community is now looking for ways to solve a problem, that they don't consider as such.

Toms, along with other presenters that spoke about Georgetown Elementary, talked about the assets of the school and growth in the community, and said she is very concerned the school will close.

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"Unfortunately, in the face of these encouraging changes and the promise Georgetown has shown, the province has decided to open up the rural school debate, and leave it up to home and school groups, community volunteers and parents to propose solutions to a problem that many of these groups don't view as a problem.

Small schools are good, small classrooms are more successful, the history of P.E.I. is built on small rural schools."

Presenters from many of the eight schools in the Montague family of schools spoke about the benefits of their rural schools, like small class sizes, having a connection to the community and their peers, and good educational success.

Desire for French immersion

One of the commonly mentioned options for change was adding early or late French immersion to many of the schools. Presenters said having more schools with that option would increase enrolment because they wouldn't be sending their children outside of their zone.

Vanessa MacDonald had enrolled her child in early French immersion at Montague Consolidated School before deciding to switch back to Cardigan Consolidated so her child could go to school in their community.

"Not only does the lack of option of french for Cardigan Consolidated students deter some parents from enrolling their children in Cardigan, but also the fact that Cardigan is seen as a school that could be closed because of capacity issues."

Lengthen the time between reviews

MacDonald's concern about parents staying away from schools that might be closed was echoed by many parents.

MacDonald said the school review process should not happen every five years.

"It's discouraging to me that I will have to go through the process and worry before my daughter has even graduated Cardigan Consolidated School… To go through this process every five years is discouraging for rural schools who are trying to build and maintain the population of schools that go to their schools."

Rural schools deserve investment, opportunities

Many people said this process should not be about the money. They said there is real value attached to rural schools, and closing schools would not be worth it.

Presenters voiced their frustration that bigger schools had more resources, and said they need the same.

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Allan Glover, who has a daughter in Southern Kings Consolidated, said the areas make a lot of money for the province, and that should be reciprocated.

"Closing small schools to save a couple hundred-thousand dollars will not guarantee a better education for our children. We see a lot of tax dollars spent in other parts of the provincial government that bring less tangible benefits to our rural economy. Our students are the future of our province, they are the farmers, the fishermen, doctors, lawyers and teachers of the future."

"We need to add more resources for our children in our schools… the minister said that status quo is not an option, I say status quo is not good enough, we should build on what we have now."

Less than a month for feedback

Bob Andrews, school reorganization project manager with the P.E.I. Public Schools Branch ended the meeting by saying no decisions have been made yet, and that everything said in the meeting has been heard and will be considered when making the report.

He encouraged people who still wish to share their opinions to get in touch, either online or by appointment, by the end of the month so they can have their say.

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