ATHABASCA — It is never a good feeling to have to step in front of a board and fight for the existence of your school, but that's exactly what one mom did just last week.
At the Dec. 20 Aspen View Public Schools (AVPS) trustee meeting, Rochester School council chair Candice Jensen asked trustees not to conduct a viability study on the small, rural school, concerned that it may lead to staff leaving and upheaval for the students.
““I knew that the board was going to be talking about the possibility of a viability study being done to Rochester (School) and I wanted to go and just offer a different perspective with me being a parent and having lived here for pretty much my entire life,” Jensen said Dec. 23.
She informed trustees the school was well established after a decade of steady administration turnover and feels the current administration and teachers are deeply invested in the students.
“Just recently admin and some leadership and front-end staff were hired, that are invested in the community and looking to stay long-term,” she said. “And so, I just asked the board to consider holding off on doing the viability study, just to let this leadership team have an opportunity to establish themselves.”
The new STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics) program has proven to be a success, she noted, but the threat of a viability study could cause uncertainty and increase staff turnover leading to less stability for the students.
“They've already proven that they're committed to doing that by the STEAM Academy and if you look at the assurance survey results over the last couple of years, you can see that our school is heading in the positive direction,” said Jensen.
And maybe the school just needs some time like Grassland School, which had enrolment numbers go up after the high school portion was closed following its own viability study in 2020.
“All rural schools are struggling; all rural schools are going down in enrolment and I don't know if it's just the way our society is going,” she said. "Maybe it's cyclical, and in a couple years from now, there will be an influx of families, but we don't know.”
Or maybe, since parents can choose the school, they can consider sending their child or children to the rural school, so they get the more personalized attention that Jensen's children receive at Rochester School.
“I can talk to my kid's teacher, and they know what exactly it is that my child needs in order to succeed because there's not 30 kids, there's 10 … and my own kids are thriving,” said Jensen.
AVPS chair Candy Nikipelo commended Jensen for the presentation, noting she had done a lot of research but with the trend over the past decade being downward – from 88 students in 2011-2012 to 41 now – the viability study was triggered.
“The first thing that's going to happen early in January is (Supt.) Neil (O’Shea) will be meeting with principal Elizabeth Siemens, school council chair Candace Jensen ... and (trustee) April Bauer and they will have a meeting and Neil will go over the policy and just let everybody know what exactly the steps are,” explained Nikipelo in a Dec. 23 interview.
She noted the viability study will be done by an outside source to ensure transparency although at this point the division is unsure who it will be as the Grassland School study was conducted by Edmonton Public Schools which no longer offers the service.
“We get an outside source to come and do the viability study," she said. “And they're fact driven. So, they are getting the facts, they're getting the trends, they talk to families, they talk to students, they talk to teachers, they really do their research, and then they come up with a recommendation and that's presented to the board and the board has a decision to make based on that recommendation.”
But, she stressed, it’s only a recommendation.
“The same exact same thing happened in Grassland,” said Nikipelo. “The recommendation was to close the entire school based on the facts and the trends that were happening. Grassland was down to about 50 students (and they're) up to about 65 students right now. They're rebounding quite beautifully, actually. So, fingers crossed that trend keeps going on. Then we made the decision to keep junior high; to just close the high school.”
Nikipelo is hopeful the Rochester community will rally behind the school like Grassland did.
“I think there's also a lesson in teaching your kid that it's not necessarily that the grass is greener on the other side, but it's greener where you water it,” said Jensen. “So, let's do what we can to make this the best education experience that you can have.”
