BOYLE — March 6 proved to be a busy night for Village of Boyle councillors, when Aspen View Public School (AVPS) representatives stopped by for a meet and greet with one of the division’s new faces, and to discuss further facility and asset sharing opportunities.
During their regular meeting, mayor Colin Derko and councillors had a robust dialogue with AVPS superintendent Constantine Kastrinos and board chair Candy Nikipelo around the bounce back from COVID, enrolment numbers, and pathways to collaboration between AVPS, the village, and the wider community.
“We’ve talked around this table —quite a few times — how important the school is in a lot of ways,” said Derko. “School is important in the obvious: for education. But it’s also important for our communities … it builds communities. It builds futures.”
Enrolment number
Kastrinos was formally introduced to Derko and fellow councillors by long-time Boyle local Nikipelo. Nikipelo and Derko spoke of attending Boyle School themselves, and Derko expressed pride when Kastrinos mentioned the school’s reputation across the division.
“You know what’s great about Boyle school, is that everybody wants to come to it from the area,” said Kastrinos. “The main reason is that Boyle School offers a very good product in terms of what kids can do in school, and opportunities that they have.”
Currently, 244 students are enrolled in the K-12 school. While the total is down two students from last year’s numbers, Kastrinos said the trend in the community is a promising one. “If you look at the (Grades) 10, 11, 12 numbers, they’re smaller than the K, 1, 2, 3, 4 numbers, so we’re growing from the bottom end which always signifies future growth.”
“That’s really encouraging,” said Derko in a March 8 follow-up. “It’s always easier to focus on the challenges, or maybe the things that aren’t so positive, but I know that Boyle has a lot of positive things.
“I’m really happy with Aspen (View’s) numbers, their attitude, and their commitment to Boyle,” he added.
Community supports
Kastrinos noted although many of the main symptoms of the global pandemic have long ended, much of the division’s efforts continue to centre around COVID recovery.
“There are still echoes, if you will, of what happened for a couple years where we were alienated from each other,” said Kastrinos. “I don’t want some of those practices that were isolating to continue. We really want to get back into the groove of getting back in-person.”
“COVID was very difficult for the kids,” agreed Coun. Pat Ferguson. “There’s probably a lasting impact, or a hangover with it.”
Nikipelo expressed similar sentiments to Ferguson and Kastrinos.
“The effects of COVID are going to last for years and years and years, because we have a group of kids that missed out on the first two years of their schooling, so they have a lot of catching up to do," Nikipelo said.
In addition to day-to-day classroom efforts to support literacy and numeracy learning, such as a providing a high ratio of educational assistants to teachers, Aspen View is making moves to offer broader supports to more than students.
“What was highlighted for us as educators and families, (as) communities, during COVID was that schools really are the hub for a lot of the wrap-around services and supports that happen in communities,” said Kastrinos.
Together Talk, a program offered in Boyle School and a number of others throughout the division, is one example of community-wide supports offered. Students and their families can take advantage of the counselling services as needed, without needing to search beyond their community.
Another of AVPS’s major taking points was opening pathways for increased joint use of division facilities. Kastrinos again highlighted the strong tie between school and community he’s noticed over his 25-year career in education.
“I’m used to coming from a place where the school is being used by community members for different things,” said Kastrinos. “We’re willing to create joint-use partnerships where people can sign up to rent the school or the gym for different functions,” he said, adding rentals would be at no cost.
Housing
Kastrinos also touched on a subject getting lots of attention at municipal tables in the region: housing.
“We have young teachers that would like to make Boyle home,” said Kastrinos, who noted the the difficulties of renting before buying in a rural setting. “Teachers are creatures of habit, and if you get them into a community where they like to be there and they put some roots down, they’re never going to leave,” he added.
Councillors voted 4-0 — Coun. Mike Antal was absent — after the presentation to schedule another meeting with the school division to further discuss housing and other cooperation opportunities between the parties.
When it comes to housing, Derko said solutions are at the top of council’s priority list.
“We’ve got those challenges with many professions,” said Derko. “We want to make sure we’re addressing all industry; the hospitals, the schools, and housing in general.”
“We talk about it at our ARED (Athabasca Regional Economic Development) committee as well, we’ve talked about it in our Tri-council meetings, so it is top of mind for all of us.”
