Relief in West Prince
St. Louis businessman Larry Drouin was breathing a sigh of relief Tuesday the day after the Public Schools Branch rejected a recommendation to close the elementary school in his community.
“We’re going to keep our status quo and the parents are going to be happy and the kids will be happy,” Drouin reflected.
He had lobbied area businesspeople to challenge the closure recommendation but admitted he was worried about how the Public Schools Branch board would vote on the recommendation.
A second school in the Westisle Family of Schools – Bloomfield Elementary – was also recommended for closure. The board of directors rejected that recommendation, too.
The Public Schools Branch trustees did agree with recommendations that Georgetown Elementary and St. Jean Elementary in Charlottetown close, but Premier Wade MacLauchlan and Education Minister Doug Currie held a news conference Tuesday to announce none of the schools on the Island will be closing. MacLauchlan acknowledged Islanders’ input.
“We have listened to Islanders throughout this process. It is clear that Islanders across the province feel strongly about their schools and have a great deal of passion for their communities.”
He said government wants to channel that passion, and support the challenge Islanders have given themselves to grow their communities, local economies and populations.
He also promised new supports for students and the establishment of regional economic development councils.
JJ MacNeill and her husband Peter, who run the Foodland store in Bloomfield, have two children attending Bloomfield Elementary. A third child gets to start at Bloomfield next year while their oldest graduates to Hernewood.
MacNeill said her daughter is “beyond excited” that Bloomfield is staying open. Otherwise she would have been the only one of her group of friends transferring to Alberton next year while the rest of them would have gone to O’Leary. Keeping the school open is good from a business perspective, MacNeill acknowledged. She commended the United Home and School groups and the Bloomfield Home and School for their stance. “They did an amazing, amazing job presenting at the meeting. They were phenomenal, just the information and the facts they had, and their arguments were backed up so solidly,” she said.
She thanked the board of directors for listening with an open mind.
“I feel they took in the information and really made an educated decision.”
Drouin was relieved to hear the St. Louis school would remain open, “because, in 10 years from now there would be nothing left around here.” Mindful that closure could come up for discussion again in the future, he agrees with government that it needs to step up and assist small communities and rural businesses with job creation to stop the out-migration of young workers and grow the local population.