Don’t waste your time

Even though I am only a stones throw away from graduating from UPEI in the spring, it does not seem all that long ago that I graduated from Kinkora Regional High School in 2013.

In the wake of the Public Schools Branch review of Island schools, I am relieved to hear that my beloved high school was not recommended for closure. I know firsthand that KRHS is the heart and soul of Kinkora, and it would be a real travesty if the community was ever to lose it.

For me and many others, however, the disturbing part of the recent review was the recommendation to complete a study investigating the merits of rezoning Grade 10 to 12 students to Three Oaks Senior High, Kensington Intermediate Senior High, and/or Bluefield High.

During my four years at KRHS, I was the first stop on in the morning and the last stop off after school, turning a 15-minute commute into an hour. I spent two hours every day for four years, just sitting on a bus. I often think of what else I could have accomplished in my youth with all of that time.

I could have just as easily went to Bluefield High, the bus passed my house every morning 15-minutes earlier than my own. A French Language School Board bus to Summerside went even earlier than that. My point is that I can already tell you that rezoning will not improve student transportation to school as this Category II Study intends to investigate, it will only prolong it. You need not waste your valuable time and resources on this futile endeavour.

Ryan Murray, UPEI Student, Augustine Cove