Cam I Am

Here’s the letter I wrote to the trustees:

Mr. Butler, Mr. Rempel, Ms. Marshall, and Ms. Ward,

I am writing to you to ask you to reconsider recommending the closure of our schools, especially Riverside.  In the public meetings, parents made it very clear that this process is being rushed for some unknown reason.  The Cornerstone report recommended that you take one to two years to go through the process, yet you are going to complete it in considerably less time.

In one of the public meetings, my wife pointed out an error in your statistics.  The population of kids had decreased by very little in a 5 year span.  If this error was so easily overlooked and accepted as “fact”, how can you be so sure that your predictions on the future are correct?  How do you know that you won’t need schools in the west side of Maple Ridge within the next couple years?  Are you willing to disrupt hundreds of childrens lives and rountines on a gamble that you could be wrong?

It’s obvious that the expansion in the east end of Maple Ridge needs addressing.  Clearly there is considerable construction out there.  But it should not be at the expense of children living here.  On the school boards’ website, it says that “an analysis of French Immersion programs be initiated with respect to location of programs, low enrolment at Riverside, and types of French Immersion opportunities.”  What exactly is that supposed to mean?  If you announce that you are going to close Riverside, how do I tell my 6 year old daughter, “Don’t worry sweetie.  They’ll do an analysis on the French Immersion program.”   How is that going to comfort her?

We moved here from Burnaby to Maple Ridge this past February.  We moved to Maple Ridge because we thought that it was the perfect place to raise our children.  We moved within the Riverside catchment area because we heard great things about the school and the French Immersion program.  If you close Riverside, I will have to move my daughter to her third school in as many years. 

I hope that you take these things into careful consideration.  I hope that you think about the impact that it will have on my 6 year old, and all the other students in the area that are going to be affected by this.  I hope that you consider that the people who call Maple Ridge home elected you into your position, and can certainly elect you out of it.

Cameron MacDonald

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