The Issues We Are Really Facing

To carry out an effective sector review, we should look at the greater issues of the community:

1. The needs of inner-city children, usually from hard-working low-income families, may be different. These families may face more barriers and may have fewer opportunities. Closer co-operation with social agencies may be desirable. These students probably need more attention and more resources if they are to have a fair chance with students in more affluent areas. A better chance will save money an improve lives in the long run if it reduces future social problems. Lower enrollments enable teachers to know the students better, affirm and support them better, and help their specific needs. A case can be made for different standards and objectives for inner-city school viability. Educational objectives and community needs should take priority over real-estate/property concerns. "Sector Planning: should be a little more sophisticated and customized than just drawing lines on a map and assigning spaces.

2. Nearby neighbourhood schools are important so inner-city children have less distance to travel through a more complex environment and so low-income parents don't have unnecessary transportation costs.

3. Most of these schools have enough resident students in the area to meet existing enrollment targets if local students attended neighbourhood schools. Some go to special-program schools for a variety of reasons. The open-boundary policy also sees students going in various directions. If local parents, especially new residents, had more information about programs offered at their local schools, more of them might choose to send their students there. Some of them probably think that the older schools might be inferior in some way.

4. The City and the School Board should be planning in harmony. If the City wants preservation of affordable family housing and renewal of older areas, they should be prepared to help preserve schools in the area. Perhaps they have neighbourhood functions or small project offices that could be sited at neighbourhood schools without disrupting school operations. They might even save money by renting space in the schools instead of building their own or leasing commercial space. Perhaps they could offer affordable bus passes to students at inner-city schools and thereby attract more students to fill the inner-city schools.

5. In spite of the recession the Alberta government seems to have billions of dollars to benefit corporations by paying for high-voltage power lines and expensive carbon-capture and sequestration projects. We hear that the deficit is only going to be about half of what was projected. The Premier has taken credit for having set aside contingency funds for leaner times. With a lower deficit, there should be more money left in these contingency funds to re-establish reasonable education funding that would avoid these cutbacks. We have presented a petition to the Alberta government asking more help for inner-city schools. What has the School Board done to argue the case with the government and fight for a good education for our children?

6. The School Board should be in touch with various cultural groups to see if new Canadians have needs that could be met by customized programs at some of our inner-city schools.

7. Adequate daycare or after-school care might be a boon to many working families. They could drop the children off before going to work and pick them up after work, secure in the knowledge that their children were adequately cared for during the entire workday. Childcare facilities at affordable prices (perhaps on a non-profit basis) in or near enough to the schools might be explored as a way to make the schools more attractive.

8. All neighbourhoods go through stages. The community is built and the new families clamour for schools. Half the students are grown by the time the schools get built. The schools start facing enrollment declines and unused space problems for two generations until the original settlers start retiring and re-selling to young families. Things might be a little smoother if City plans included enough affordable and starter family housing near the school sites in each community to ensure basic school viability, and if the School Board had a plan for flexible school sizes: a basic permanent unit with a gym, library, resource room and 6 or 8 classrooms, and portables or wings that could be removed or easily converted to alternate uses. Community leagues might even be part of the equation with the gym doubling as a community hall and the recreation facilities (rinks, diamonds, etc.) being part of the school site.

9. We have more than enough children in our area and so the potential for increased enrollments exists. School Board statistics for Sept. 2009 show 1394 EPSB elementary students living in the area served by the 7 CCEP schools. This should be enough to provided 199 elementary students for each school - enough for at least one classroom each for the 8 levels from pre-Kindergarten to Grade 6. However, only 651 of these students are attending their local schools. 743 elementary students (53%) go to schools outside their areas. We have 389 students from outside our boundaries attending these 7 schools. We are out of balance by 354 elementary students in this equation.

We have 668 EPSB Jr. High schools. This should be enough to provide 2 or 3 classrooms for each Jr. High grade in each school. Only 190 of these students attend locally. 478 Jr. High students (72%) go to schools outside the area. We have 135 Jr. High students from outside our boundaries. We have a net loss of 343 Jr. High students in this exchange.

What policies or factors have led to us losing out in this open-boundary exchange? We should be focusing on how to get our students back or how to get programs that will attract enough other students to get a fair share of the inter-school traffic. It is probably more cost-effective to keep existing schools open than to have students attend elsewhere and increase the pressure for new schools in other areas.