Ivor Dent School seen as test case for mergers
Nearly four years ago, the superintendent phoned Rundle Elementary School principal Lynn Schlacht with a difficult question.
What would families in her northeast Edmonton community say if the district closed and merged aging, underused schools in the area, Edmonton Public Schools superintendent Darrel Robertson asked her.
“If they were going to just announce, ‘Oh, we’re closing these schools,’ then people would be upset. But if they were replacing them — we’re not leaving you high and dry to go somewhere else — that would be well received,” Schlacht said.
On Tuesday, that consolidation plan came to fruition as around 400 students from kindergarten to Grade 9 first stepped into Ivor Dent School in Beverly. Schlacht and her cheerful staff greeted and hugged students and their families as they walked across colourful chalk welcome messages scrawled on the front path.
“I’m so excited,” Edmonton public school board chairwoman Michelle Draper said, before holding the school’s front door open for students. “We had to think of new and creative ways of addressing that (aging) infrastructure issue.”
Meanwhile, Rundle and R.J. Scott elementary schools and Lawton Junior High, which closed in June, house some community organizations. The school district is looking for tenants for the buildings, which were constructed in the 1950s and ’60s.
Many are watching Ivor Dent closely, as it serves as the test case for public school consolidation in mature neighbourhoods.
Last March, the provincial government announced funding to consolidate students from three rundown schools into a modernized K-9 Highlands school.
In the last 18 months, school district staff have met with people in Westlawn, Britannia and Rosslyn neighbourhoods to seek input in how to best consolidate older public schools into new or updated buildings. The district has requested money for those projects from the provincial government.
Previous public school consolidations, where students from closed schools were sent to other old buildings, were met with frustration from families.
“We’ll be watching this,” Lorne Parker, executive director of infrastructure with Edmonton Public Schools, said of Ivor Dent. “(The community) embraced the concept of a consolidated school, and we have every reason to believe that other communities will want to replicate that model.”
Edmonton Catholic Schools also tried a consolidation when a new St. Brendan school opened in fall 2016, replacing St. James, St. Kevin, and old St. Brendan buildings.
“It’s a success, because students get very modern instructional spaces, and more programming choices in the school,” said Boris Radyo, Edmonton Catholic Schools’ assistant superintendent of educational planning.
Although the Catholic district initially aimed to include St. Gabriel school in the consolidation, parents protested, and the school board listened, Radyo said.
FULL-SERVICE SCHOOL
Brothers Zechariah and Noah Leigh-Modi were fidgeting with excitement to enter Ivor Dent School on Tuesday morning. It was welcome news to learn their former school, Rundle, was being replaced.
“I was happy, because we needed something new. That school was pretty old. Really old. I was excited to see what it would look like inside. And I wanted to meet new people,” said 11-year-old Noah, who’s in Grade 6.
“I hope there’s a nice library and a nice gym. And nice classes,” said seventh-grader Zechariah.
Victoria Matthews, who moved to the Beverly area a month ago, was delighted to discover a new school opening nearby for her daughters to attend.
The family moved to Edmonton from Leduc to be closer to the hospital, where nine-year-old Lauren Venus goes for scoliosis care.
Matthews said it gives her peace of mind to know her older daughter, 13-year-old Christianna, will be in the same building.
“We couldn’t be more excited for it. We’re used to going to the older schools that are a lot different, and separated, and now these two are able to stay together for another year,” Matthews said.
In addition to rolling glass walls, a bright kitchen and dining area, and student lounge areas in the halls, Ivor Dent School has dedicated space for a success coach, mental health therapist and the Family Centre, to name some.
On a district list of socially vulnerable schools, R.J. Scott and Lawton were No. 1 and No. 2, with Rundle not far behind, Schlacht said. The school will serve some children who live in poverty, and many English language learners and refugees. Basing extra services in the school will help make it a community hub and a place families hopefully feel comfortable turning for help, she said.
The school’s namesake, a teacher, principal, scholar and mayor of Edmonton, would have approved, his son Charles said, admiring the building.
“He celebrated diversity himself,” Charles Dent said. “I think he would have been very proud.”