Aspen View Public School Division Superintendent Neil O'Shea and board vice-chair Anne Karczmarczyk attended the Town of Athabasca's regular council meeting Nov. 5 to discuss the possibility of the establishment of a separate school in the community.
The school division wished to inform the Town about their concerns if such a school is approved and noted that funding would be impacted should any student leave the public side and attended the Catholic system instead.
"It's a constitutional right for minority ratepayers, whether they are Protestant or Catholic, to establish a separate school division," O'Shea said. "There was a group of parents who sent a Letter of Intent to the Alberta government in September to establish a separate school in the area."
He added the next step was for the parents to work with Lakeland Catholic School Division out of Bonnyville to go through the process.
"They are going within the borders of the historic Athabasca School District that encompasses most of the town and establish that they are a minority within Athabasca," O'Shea continued. "What this means is they have to conduct a census across every residence within the town and to actually find out if they are Catholic or not."
According to the steps provided by Alberta Education, the census is then presented to the ministry, and then a community meeting would be held.
"The meeting is chaired by Alberta Education, and representatives among the parents and the Lakeland Catholic School Division will be allowed to make a presentation," O'Shea said. "But the public board is not allowed to make a presentation at the community meeting, which leads us to our attendance at this meeting. It allows us to let the public know that we know what is happening, and that we do have some concerns about the process."
He noted that the division has already seen a decline with 70 fewer students from the previous year and has expressed concerns if future students leave the public system for the separate one.
"Aspen View and Athabasca are not growing at all, but are declining," he continued. "We do not see the establishment of a separate school system as a healthy move if some of schools are already seeing a drop in enrolment."
O'Shea said some of the elective programming they offer like drama, band and industrial education might be affected if a separate school system is offered.
"We believe that choice comes with a cost," he said. "More choice of school systems for parents could mean less choice for students, because more options mean less people staffing them."
Karczmarczyk said when they talk about programming, they are also talking about academics as well.
"A lot of the opportunities we have in Athabasca is because we have a full class," she continued. "We don't have to mix classes as a result, and lots of our smaller schools struggle with that due to their small sizes. I look at (a separate school establishment) as fracturing our programming."
Coun. Rob Balay asked what the voting requirements are once the census is completed and the Catholics are identified.
"Twenty-five per cent would need to show up to vote, and 50 per cent plus one of the turnout is required for it to proceed," O'Shea confirmed.
Coun. Dave Pacholok moved to accept the presentation as information. The motion carried unanimously.
Aspen View also made a presentation regarding separate schools to the members of Athabasca County council Oct. 31.
Athabasca RCMP Quarterly Report
Athabasca RCMP Staff Sgt. Paul Gilligan also presented a quarterly report on how crime statistics are looking at the end of the first three quarters of 2019 as compared year-over-year.
According to statistics provided to council, robbery has seen a marked increase from one to eight, uttering threats dropped significantly from 22 to 9, while motor vehicle thefts also dipped from 17 to 11.
Mayor Colleen Powell asked Gilligan what the difference between a theft and a robbery was in terms of statistics.
"Robbery is when you use force or intimidation to take something from somebody," Gilligan answered. "The marked increase is likely due to incidents involving drug traffickers and drug addicts down at the Grand Union Hotel area."
"Lots of statistics are down, while others seem to be up," Pacholok said. "My question is are we winning or losing our battle against rural crimes?"
Gilligan said much of the crimes committed are usually the same offenders returning to the streets after doing their time.
"We have about 20 prolific offenders living in the Athabasca area," he continued. "If we did not have those people to deal with over and over again, these numbers would be much different."
He added that the area is very lucky to not have much for violent crime within the community.
"Overall, if property crime is taken out of the equation, we are doing well in our battle against crime in general," Gilligan said.
The statistics also showed that so far this year, the detachment only had 193 prisoners, as compared to 297 in all of 2018.
Council then passed a motion by Coun. John Traynor to accept the report as information.
Moonlight Madness Parade
Council also passed a motion by Coun. Ida Edwards that approves the route for the Athabasca District Chamber of Commerce Moonlight Madness Parade, subject to approval by Alberta Transportation.
According to an Oct. 23 email from Chamber president Todd Dutchak, the route will still be the same as in past years.
"(The route starts) from the riverfront, then goes south on 49 Street to 49 Avenue, then west to 50 Street, then north to Highway 55, and then back to the riverfront," Dutchak said in the email.
The Moonlight Madness Parade starts at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 29, followed by the fireworks at around 9 p.m.
