Back on the front burner in capital

As students prepare to head back to school next week, the bricks and mortar of the public school system is about to move back into the public spotlight. This will be a very different debate than what took place last year, when a report prepared by the Public Schools Branch suggested underutilized schools in Georgetown, Belfast, St Louis, Bloomfield and St. Jean Elementary in Charlottetown be closed. After holding a heated round of public hearings, the board of directors of the Public School Board recommended Belfast, Bloomfield and St Louis close as part of a provincewide rezoning. The ink was barely dry on their recommendations when Premier Wade MacLauchlan announced no schools would close. This time around, the Public Schools Branch will be tackling how to deal with six Charlottetown area schools that either exceed their student capacity or will be in the near future. That list includes Charlottetown Rural and Colonel Gray high schools, Queen Charlotte and Birchwood Junior High schools and Spring Park and West Kent Elementary Schools. Parker Grimmer, who is the director of the Public Schools Branch, said the door is open for a variety of options including rezoning, adding additional capacity to existing schools or building new structures. The Town of Stratford has accepted the challenge to think big. Mayor David Dunphy, who will not be seeking re-election when town voters go to the polls this fall, recently unveiled the town’s vision for a 65-hectare education and recreation campus in the Island’s third largest municipality. The plans include both junior and senior high schools (both with a student capacity in the range of 800 students), along with an arena and sports fields. At the moment, that is nothing more than a proposal and if the schools did proceed they would have to gain approval from both the Public Schools Branch and the province and then be placed on the priority list for school construction. Grimmer said the next step is to gain feedback from the public over the next several weeks. The branch will offer an online survey until Sept. 7 and will follow that up with meetings Sept. 5 at Charlottetown Rural to discuss the intermediate and the senior high school options and the following night at Spring Park to discuss options for the two elementary schools. He explained all of the options currently on the table will be fully explained and then will have an opportunity for input and ideas. The three members of the board of directors - Susan Willis (who is also the deputy minister of education), Dale Sabean and Harvey MacEwen - will be presenting their recommendations at a meeting Sept. 13 at West Kent Elementary. No changes are expected for the current school year and the report conducted by the board does not lay out a timetable for any changes. Rather it pledges the board will “strives to work with all stakeholders to create the best learning environments for our student population.” Andy Walker is an Island-based writer and commentator. His column appears every other week

in the Journal Pioneer.