Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

Regina has been recognized, by the real estate market, as one of the top destinations for movers within Canada. Housing prices are setting records, and I don’t predict an end in sight even with the disaster in the United States housing market. Yet even as more people move here, and with many more expected, there are school boards who have a loser mentality. They can’t imagine growth in the province, and are stuck on planning for a decline that will not come in the next ten years. We will see the opposite trend in population growth [and student enrollment], from the one they are planning for!

Real Renewal is organizing an effort to stop the destruction of more than a dozen city schools. It’s frustrating how little value the people who want the schools closed, place on facts and evidence. So I don’t hold high hopes that they “get it” when they are presented with a big petition, but since this is a peaceful country that’s the best way known to club someone with the facts between election dates.

Petition to the Regina Board of Education
The Regina Board of Education has proposed a plan to close 12 elementary schools and two high schools in Regina,
increasing the number of students in each school and leaving some neighbourhoods without a public elementary school.
In addition to the school closures, the board proposes to spend $96.5 million to enlarge remaining school facilities to
accommodate up to 50 per cent more students, as well as up to $1.68 million annually to bus the students.

We, the undersigned, oppose this plan for the following reasons:
• enrollment statistics the Board has presented as rationale for the school closures are grossly inaccurate;
• the assumption of declining enrollment in the current climate of our city is dated and inaccurate;
• the Board has overlooked the evidence that children learn better in small neighbourhood schools;
• the Board has failed to consider the value of these schools to students, communities and local economies;
• the proposed plan has a disproportionately negative affect on disadvantaged students and in particular aboriginal
youth;
• the proposed plan limits geographic access to French immersion;
• the Board has failed to consider the environmental and health impacts of increased busing;
• the Board has failed to consider the effect that increased busing and school closures will have on sustainable
communities and urban renewal within the city of Regina.

The Board has not publicly responded to written questions and concerns submitted to the Board at public meetings
(including but not limited to the above concerns).
Therefore, we, the undersigned, petition the Regina Board of Education to immediately impose a moratorium on school
closures.

Further, we call on the Board to reject the current plan and to initiate an independent third-party review, using the Ontario
Ministry of Education’s pupil accommodation guidelines as a model. Such a review would be overseen by a joint boardcommunity
committee that would address the above concerns and present a revised plan for public consultation.

Name | Address | Signature

Please return completed petition by Saturday March 8 to the Groovy Mama shop 3100-13th Ave., Ph. 347-2229.

Tags: closure, regina, school

This entry was posted on Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 12:25 pm and is filed under Saskatchewan, news, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Recommend this Post at ProgressiveBloggers.ca