Parents speak up
School board urged to focus on student services.
COXHEATH — At least two parents at a meeting to discuss the future of Cape Breton schools said they wish the process focused on improving student services, rather than fixing capacity and money problems.
Earlier this month, the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board released a report called Looking Inward, which provides a background to an upcoming consultation process that will examine the possible impacts 32 different scenarios will have on the delivery of programs and services within its jurisdiction.
As part of the release of that document, the board is also holding 10 information sessions highlighting the document. The next meeting will take place tonight at Memorial High School in Sydney Mines at 7 p.m.
Jennifer Petrie, who has two elementary school-aged children attending East Bay Elementary, spoke up during the meeting on Tuesday evening at Riverview high school.
Petrie said she was interested in learning more about the process as her children’s school has been up for review by the board for the past four years.
“The entire report talks about capacity, just capacity,” said Petrie. “With all those scenarios I never heard one reference to ‘ We are going to do this in an effort to maintain programming standards’.” Board consultant Jim Burton said the document is focused on building capacity issues due to the fact that school board money is being used to maintain excess capacity.
“That will have an impact because there will be fewer teachers and fewer program opportunities,” said Burton.
Lori Fortune of East Bay said she has three children in the school system and is concerned about their future.
“I just wanted to be informed,” said Fortune. “It was a lot of information to digest tonight, but tonight it just seemed like it was more numbers than anything else.”
Fortune said she is anxious to see how the process unfolds this fall, as the board is planning consultation sessions and focus groups for further community input.
According to board figures, when the Northside-Victoria and Cape Breton regional school boards amalgamated in 1996, there were 24,567 students enrolled in both boards.
Today, that number has fallen to 13,977 in the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board, a drop of 43 per cent in 17 years.
There has also been a decrease in the number of schools, from 100 at one time, down to 51, with 54 schools closing over the past 16 years.
Paul Oldford, director of operational services for the school board, said the problem of declining enrolment is projected to continue. “The bottom line of all this discussion is what we’re doing today we cannot sustain,” said Oldford.
The report is on the board’s website, www.cbv.ns.ca/welcome.
The list of scenarios is on the Post’s website, www.cbpost.com/FlyingPage/4910/School-board-scenarios.