By George!
Headway made in fight to keep Louisbourg school open
A Louisbourg group that is fighting to save the local school believes the town’s past is the key to its future.
The George D. Lewis Gateway to Opportunities Society made major headway in its battle to keep the school from closing in June after receiv- ing word that Nova Scotia Education Minister Karen Casey has approved the group’s Classrooms in the Community proposal as a pilot project next year.
Brett Hanham, vicepresident of the society (which was previously called the George D. Lewis Hub School Society), said the plan to turn the school into the “heartbeat of the community” begins with the town’s reconstructed 18th-century French fortification.
“The biggest one, and the most obvious one as well, is building up a relationship with the Fortress of Louisbourg,” said Hanham, who noted that they also have letters of intent and commitment from other partners such as Louisbourg Seafoods, the
Cape Breton
Centre for Craft and Design, the Nova Scotia Community College and Cape Breton University to use the school and nearby buildings in the town.
If the pilot project works as planned, Hanham said on a typical weekday evening the school would have a variety of activities, from adult and kids programs in the gymnasium and cooking classes in the food sciences lab, to woodworking and artisan programs on the waterfront. They would also rent out space in the school to groups that could share their talents with the students and make it an incubator space for entrepreneurs.
“This is no longer an education piece — it’s a huge community development piece that involves the school,” he said. “It’s the idea that we grow the town while offering something for the students. The end goal of everything is to generate revenue for the school but it’s evolved into this program where we’re doing that with a sense that, yes, we’re saving the school but we’re also re-energizing the town. Some of these artisan programs and trades programs will be for adults, but it’s to get adults into town, then get families in and have kids interacting, so people learn that they can stay in Louisbourg, live in Louisbourg, work in Louisbourg and have a good life in Louisbourg.”
Of course, whether the pilot project goes ahead still depends on the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board.
Board chair Darren Googoo received a letter from Casey on Friday proposing the George D. Lewis Gateway to Opportunities Society pilot project goes ahead, saying she is “encouraged and impressed by the effort put forward to address the challenge of rural education in a time of declining enrolment.”
Casey also said her department will work with board finance staff to provide funding that would offset a portion of the school’s operating costs next year as the pilot project gets underway.
Googoo said the board was meeting Monday night to discuss the issue.
“The only thing I can say right now is that as a board we’ve been asked to consider it but we haven’t had the opportunity to discuss it yet,” he said.
“It may create opportunities for communities but at the same time we have to be realistic about what we as a board can afford if we want quality education for every student across the board.”
Despite having their proposal under the hub school guidelines rejected by the school board, Hanham said the group is optimistic their project will become the model for rural schools across the province.
“This was the town of Louisbourg coming together to rally behind the school,” he said. “Louisbourg has dealt with hardships over the years and we’ve kept coming back. The fishery collapsed and we rebounded from that. Out-migration is hitting hard and we’re rebounding from that. There’s an energy here that people don’t want to see the community die, and now that we have a rallying point, everyone’s attitude is ‘OK, let’s go.’”