'We certainly have not made any decisions': Pat Mella on P.E.I. school review

Public meetings associated with P.E.I.'s school review have wrapped up, but Pat Mella says no final decisions have been made about which schools will be closed.

Mella is one of three members of the Public Schools Branch board of directors tasked with making decisions based on a school review released Jan. 10 that recommended closing five Island schools: Georgetown Elementary, Belfast Consolidated, St. Jean Elementary in Charlottetown, St. Louis Elementary and Bloomfield Elementary.

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Mella spoke about the process Wednesday night on CBC News: Compass. Here's some of that interview:

Have any final decisions been made?

We certainly have not made any decisions. That's the honest truth.

So it's not already a done deal, and the public meetings were just a formality?

That's absolutely not true. I was given this assignment to go over these recommendations and to make decisions based on those. There is no pre-arranged plan. This is something that we're working our way through and we're going to make decisions and we're going to make them public and that'll be it.

What is the most pressing issue in Island education?

Creating a better balance throughout the province. That could be a better balance within a family of schools or a better balance across the whole province.

What kind of balance?

It used to be we would just teach the whole class and they'd all have to catch up or fall behind. Now you have to have special programs because there are a lot of children who need individualized help and the province is going to have to address that. So that's part of what the reasoning is behind trying to equalize the programs so we can fund other programs that are necessary.

What's the rush?

People might have felt it would have been better if they had a little more time to prepare, but there are some issues and inequities in the system right now that really need to be addressed, likely for September. That's not to say that all of the recommendations are that immediate. We've got a ton of information. I'm not sure that if we had more time we would have had more information.

Did you expect this much passion from the public?

Probably not. I, of course, knew that there would be people upset with some of the recommendations. And perhaps reading into some of the recommendations, an urban-rural divide or whatever, but I think for the most part people have been reasonable and accepting of what we're doing at this stage.

How has the process been for you?

It's been stressful at times, but it's been very encouraging because we've had a lot of excellent presentations. It is so encouraging to think that there are that many teachers, staff bus drivers, parents also committed to the education of their kids.

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