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Grassland School to undergo viability study

The Grassland Community School will soon be undergoing a viability study as the result of a motion made by the Aspen View Public Schools' Board of Trustees at their regular meeting Nov. 7.
20191108-Grassland School Viability-01
Grassland Community School.

The Grassland Community School will soon be undergoing a viability study as the result of a motion made by the Aspen View Public Schools' Board of Trustees at their regular meeting Nov. 7. 

Trustee Dennis MacNeil moved to instruct administration to conduct a viability study in reference to Aspen View's Policy 15. Policy 15, according to a report from Superintendent Neil O'Shea, refers to a school closure. 

"It identifies a number of conditions that cause the Board to consider a school closure or partial closure," O'Shea said. "One of the conditions is when enrolment numbers in a school or portion of a school decline below a certain level.  

Policy 15 requires the Board to annually review enrolment numbers based on the September 30 count." 

He said that at Grassland School, enrolment thresholds are not being met. 

"We currently have 36 students from Grades 1-6 at Grassland School, and our policy says that 40 is the threshold," O'Shea continued. "For junior high students, 30 students are required or 20 students in any two grades. We only have 11 students from Grades 7-9, and that is well below our threshold." 

He added that the threshold for the senior high school level is 30 students. 

"At Grassland there are only nine high school students attending at this time," O'Shea said. "We do know that there are a few students who are attending school in Boyle, it would still keep us under the threshold under Policy 15 even if they remained in Grassland." 

He added that it represents a decrease of about 31 students as compared to how many were enrolled at the school three years ago. 

"There were 91 students at Grassland School for the 2016-17 school year," O'Shea continued. "In 2017-18, we dropped to 81, to 61 in 2018-19 and this year we dropped to 60." 

He said there could be a variety of reasons why the school could be seeing a decline in enrolment. 

"Some could be attending school elsewhere such as in Boyle, Plamondon or Athabasca, while it could be that we are not seeing enough kids begin school to replace the ones who have graduated," O'Shea explained. 

"I do feel that a review is in order given the numbers currently at this school," MacNeil added. "I would say that we could be looking at least at a partial closure, where only certain grades would be affected." 

O'Shea said the first step in a complete or partial school closure would be to look at the numbers. 

"(The administration) would then present a viability study that would be presented to this board with a number of options for discussion," he continued. 

Aspen View executive assistant Tammy Ledieu said they examined the minutes from previous meetings regarding some viability studies that have been done in the past. 

"There were discussions, but no motions other than to accept the studies as information," Ledieu said. 

Trustee April Bauer said that the way enrolment is looking at Grassland is very concerning. 

"It does not look like they will be reaching double-digits for a three-period spread for quite some time," Bauer explained. "Every grade from K-11 is in single digits right now, and it continues to trend very poorly. I think if we can look at Kindergarten and see them between 10-15 students, I think that we may potentially put off a viability study." 

She added it would also be a good idea to see what the community thinks and feels about this now. 

"Having the study does not necessarily mean we are going to voting in favour of a partial school closure, but it does give us information and a broader picture of what is going on in the community," Bauer said. 

Grassland Community School was first built in 1957 and opened in 1958.

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