When it comes to new school announcements, it seems one in a single week is not sufficient.
The Alberta government has announced it will fund a new secondary school in Athabasca, and in the very same week, a group of local parents led by Gina Martel has begun to publicize its idea for an arts academy in the old brick school.
Granted, only one of the two school proposals has a degree of certitude attached to it, but there’s no denying that both bring an air of excitement and possibility to town.
While one hopes the euphoria does not diminish in the coming weeks, with only 30 days to finalize partnerships and cement a precise location for the new secondary school, the potential for toes to be stepped on and voices to feel edged out is very real.
Athabasca’s library board will likely feel the heat as several parties once again make the case that including a new library with the new school building is the best course of action. Parents of children attending Aspen View’s more rural schools may worry that an attention- and capital-intensive new school may have a centralizing effect on the division.
But if Friday’s announcement was a reminder of one thing, it was that a community that stands together can secure the best possible future for its children. Even when it seemed unlikely that Athabasca would be chosen for a new school (consider the well-publicized enrollment booms in urban centres that looked positioned to take the lion’s share of new school funding), local leaders and school board representatives pressed on.
There is room for differing opinions and for the airing of concerns, and so long as the key players acknowledge and validate that, undoubtedly even the pressure of tight timelines can be surmounted. After all, the greatest challenge has already been overcome.
In the meantime, proponents of a brick school arts academy would do well to watch the new school’s trajectory. Learn from the victories and the mistakes, because there will be both. Get involved in the process wherever possible, because the future of an arts campus is intrinsically entwined with the plans for a secondary school.
They say learning is a life-long undertaking, and that is as true of planning new schools as it will be for the students who attend them.
