The Westlock North Task Force — a group of school council members and administrators — has proposed shutting down Jarvie School and W.R. Frose School in Fawcett and creating a single, “Lighthouse” school in Dapp.
Is the decision being rushed?
The idea was first presented in January after a year-long prep project was completed, and Pembina Hills trustees have since been answering a flood of questions.
A public debate about what the next steps should be has been taking place with trustees for the last 30 days, but is that enough time to consider the recommendations?
Questions still remain. What is the total cost of a one-school solution? Will the Dapp School see an expansion at their facility? In addition, how will it impact school sessions and classroom sizes?
While it’s nice to see trustees engaging the community and keeping the discussion public, instead of going behind closed doors, we have to wonder whether one month is actually long enough to digest all the information.
The school board is only accepting comments, questions and recommendations from the public until Feb. 22 and a decision will be made at the board’s next meeting on Feb. 27, which oddly enough is slated for Jarvie.
Our recommendation would be to keep the public forum open for at least another two weeks, maybe even two more months, to give both the community a chance to speak up and to remind the board it is accountable for its choices. Even if the task force’s recommendation is accepted, no school, as far as we know, would be shuttered by this September — the process of closing Jarvie and W.R. Frose would be done over a couple of years.
So, what’s the rush? As one of our letter writers this week aptly states — closing a school, or in this case two, is a permanent decision. Is one month enough time to make a decision that will impact those communities for eternity?
Dapp, Jarvie and Fawcett will never be the same, for better or worse, if two schools are closed.
That fact cannot be argued.
So we ask again, what’s the rush?
