What exactly must the community of Louisbourg do?

I’m sure that individual members of the Cape Breton Victoria Regional School Board (CBVRSB) are following the rules and doing their best within the framework that guides their decision-making.

I also know there are some intelligent hard-working people there and since I’m not at that table I have no idea what the discussions have been.

But I certainly hope that there has been a fulsome, engaging, heart-wrenching debate about the decision to close the doors of George D. Lewis Elementary school in Louisbourg next month. I hope school board members understand the scope and impact of these decisions. I hope they have explored every possible avenue to avoid this decision.

And if they haven’t they still have seven weeks to make things right because they have a community that is doing its utmost to respond to a serious threat.

No, it’s not a hurricane or an earthquake that is looming but rather it is a threat even more potentially devastating.

On behalf of their community, these individuals have gotten up from their kitchen tables and sofas and given their time, energy and commitment to do what needs to be done to help secure their future. They have done the research several times over, developed creative forward thinking ideas, brought government and community partners to the table and received commitment from both (which is no easy task).

And it seems as though they are doing all of this work in a void – one that comes with silence and a lack of honest, deliberative communication from the school board.

I’m perplexed really. I would think that the school board would be all over this idea and would be helping the process. If there is a timeline problem then modify the timeline. If there is a budget shortfall then tell the community what the shortfall is and give them the opportunity to secure those funds. Celebrate the efforts, hard work and creativity of this community. Is that not what we educate our population for?

I think of the Bay St. Lawrence community centre at the northern tip of our island. Some brave citizens moved into the closed down school building, claimed it and developed a community centre. No one dared to throw them out.

They lost their school and their children have to go elsewhere but at least they kept the building as a space for life to go on in that small community. This is an amazing story of determination and frustration with the lack of cooperation and collaboration between those we elect to represent us (which includes school board representatives) and the true needs and aspirations of the community they represent.

Do we now need to do that in Louisbourg where the bigger threat in this current dismissive approach is what it does to discourage future community engagement?

Well, Louisbourg, I commend you and you deserve better. It looks to me as though you have jumped through the multitude of hoops only to have this result. How discouraged you must feel?

But don’t let it get you down. You have done all the work but as so often it seems, at least in Cape Breton, we end up having to make it a politicized situation. So be it. Call all of them in – the MPs, MLAs and the mayor. Call the Pope if you must. I have no doubt that your community will make this a successful venture and a model for other rural communities in Nova Scotia and beyond. Janet Bickerton Sydney