Westlock County council isn’t happy with the recommendation to close two of the three schools north of Westlock, but will respect the decision.
“The parents made the decision and we live with it,” reeve Charles Navratil said last week. “As a county we weren’t about to put money into keeping the schools open there.”
The recommendation from the Westlock North Task Force, which includes parents, principals and school council members from Jarvie, Fawcett and Dapp, is to close the schools in both Jarvie and Fawcett, directing those students instead to Dapp.
Public meetings have been scheduled for this Tuesday, Jan. 22, in Fawcett and Dapp to discuss the recommendation.
The task force came about as the Pembina Hills school division is facing declining enrolment in those northern communities, and keeping all three schools open was not deemed to be sustainable.
Former Supt. Sig Schmold headed up the task force, which went through a series of discussions and consultations before ultimately recommending the closures.
Westlock County council had attempted to be an active participant in the process, with councillors vocal from the outset that their preferred option would be to keep all three schools open, although councillors were not invited to be part of the task force that ultimately made the recommendation.
“Our issue is that we really want to see an elementary school from K-6 up in Fawcett, so the little people didn’t have the big drive,” Navratil said. “That was our stand when we were talking about it, and of course we didn’t get put on the task force.”
He noted the possibility of school closures is likely to have a significant impact on the long-term viability of the hamlets in the north — when a community loses its school, it becomes more difficult to attract new residents.
The most recent census in 2011 showed that Fawcett’s population had dropped from 79 to 73 and Jarvie’s had dropped from 114 to 113. While the decline in population is not huge in either of those communities, Navratil said he’s concerned what the future will hold.
“How much it’s going to hurt, we don’t know, but we do know it hurts when there isn’t a school in the community.”
The task force is scheduled to present its recommendation to the Pembina Hills trustees at the Jan. 23 meeting, which begins at 9 a.m. at the division office in Barrhead.
