Well, it seems that this was inevitable..

After next school year, Riverside Elementary in Maple Ridge will no longer have a French immersion program starting September 2009…

In the last year, we (the parents of students at the school) have fought the school board (and had a temporary reprieve) on the total closure of the school..

Then there was the whole “is Riverside causing cancer in teachers and students” — something that was ultimately shown to not be the case..

But with all the bad publicity about the school only six kindergarten students registered for the French immersion program there next year..

I’m sure that this is the beginning of the end for the school entirely.. 

Our oldest daughter goes there for the FI program..  We have two other children that we, ideally, would like to put into the same program when they start school..  So what do we do?  All English?  Or start the mad search, along with every other family that we be looking for a spot for their children to continue in the program we chose for our kids..

Some people may not see any benefit to the French Immersion program..  but I don’t see any problem with providing every opportunity for my kids..

It’s been MAYBE a couple hours since my post about the concern of the number of cases of cancer at Riverside Elementary..

My daughter came home today with her newsletter from the school…

Here’s what it said..

“On Tuesday evening I know that many families were surprised to see that Riverside Elementary was the focus of not only our local paper but also to many news programs.”

“As outlined in the letter written by (the superintendent), “the Board is working with the BC Cancer Research Center to help develop an appropiate plan of investigation” and “the school has been tested extensively in the past using the most sophisticated methods available and in all cases no risk to the health of staff or students was ever found.”

There was more to this part of the newsletter, but those were the key things I am going to post here..

So.. to the parent who was suggesting that we pull our daughter from the school, why don’t you get out of this ”The sky is falling!  The sky is falling!” response, and actually WAIT for some actual facts.. If you over-reacted everytime that you heard or thought something was happening/going to happen you’d be hiding in a dark corner in the fetal position… Or maybe you do..

I have no intention of pulling my daughter from the school just because of speculation.  I am watching to see what happens here.. I will make an decision once I feel that I have enough facts..

A few months ago, we (the parents of children who attend Riverside Elementary) were fighting to keep our school open. 

Now, there is another concern about our school..

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Last night, I put up a post saying that the board voted against closing schools in SD42 (Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows).  I should rephrase that and say that it is for now.  The board announced that they still have work to do and that the same issues still need to be addressed..   The key thing to take from this, is that they were told loud and clear from the  residents that the speed that they are going through the process was too fast to make decisions.  There were/are still far more questions then answers..

Anyhow, Colleen was in Maple Ridge’s The News again..    Here is the article that was published before the meeting last night..

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Three schools picked to close

By Robert Mangelsdorf – Maple Ridge News – October 24, 2007 

More than 150 people attended a rally in Memorial Peace Park on Saturday to protest a district decision to close schools.
Photo by Simone Ponne/the news

Maple Ridge mother-of-three Colleen MacDonald broke down into tears when she found out her daughter’s elementary school was one of three district staff recommended to close on Friday.

She still hasn’t brought herself to tell her daughter Elisabeth that Riverside elementary, the school she loves, may be closed forever in a matter of months.

“I don’t know what to tell her,” she said, sighing in disbelief. “Maybe the trustees can come and tell her why her school is closing.”

Staff recommended the closure of Mt. Crescent, Webster’s Corners and Riverside elementary schools in their school closure report, released Friday.

In the report, staff cited falling enrolment and the need to qualify for provincial capital funding to build new schools in areas where they are needed as the reasons for the closures.

MacDonald and her husband Cameron moved to Maple Ridge from Burnaby in February specifically so their daughters Elisabeth, 5, Megan, 2, and Ainsley, 10 months, could attend the French immersion program offered at Riverside elementary.

“We don’t know what we’re going to do now,” she said. “We’re just in shock.”

Under Ministry of Education guidelines, school districts must have an average utilization rate of 100 per cent for their elementary schools or 95 per cent for all schools district-wide to qualify for capital funding to build new schools.

Currently, the district’s elementary schools have a utilization rate of 82 per cent.

But MacDonald is not convinced the board is taking the concerns of parents into account.

“I’m not a boat-rocker, but I feel it’s really important that parents stand up and do something about this,” said MacDonald. “Yesterday I sat at my kitchen table and explained to my daughter what it means to be Canadian; how we have the right to education and to democracy.

“But now I feel it’s all a bit of joke when I see the school board ignoring all these parents who clearly don’t want this happen and they’re going through with it anyway.”

She’s not alone in that feeling. She was among more than 150 parents and children who came out to protest the school district’s school closure process on Saturday in Memorial Peace Park downtown.

The protest was organized, in part, by Mt. Crescent elementary Parent Advisory Chair Susan Carr.

She has started a petition to stop the district’s school closure process and has already received more than 300 signatures.

NDP MLA Mike Sather was on hand at the rally and says the closures are a huge loss to community.

“An inner-city type school like Mt. Crescent has a number of special needs programs for their students,” he said. “Are they going to get the same services at another school?”

Like many at the rally Sather wonders why the district’s school closure process has been so quick.

“I haven’t heard an answer to why the process is so fast,” he said. “We know there’s no money for new schools for at least five years.”

On June 13, school board trustees voted to adopt the recommendations of the Cornerstone Planning Group, an independent consultation firm hired by the district to look at the district’s declining enrolment.

In their report they recommended closing up to five elementary schools, and suggested a one to two year feasibility study to identify which schools should be closed.

But David Whetter, a partner with Cornerstone who prepared the report, says the board is right on track.

“We were giving a pretty broad range [of time needed],” said Whetter. “The district’s timeline is not that different to the one we recommended.”

He said that it takes at least three to five years to get a new school built, so the district needs to act fast in order to support areas in east Maple Ridge where schools are well over capacity.

“If you want to get a school open in 2012, you’re going to have to start the process now.”

School board trustees will vote on whether or not to adopt the staff’s recommendations tonight at 7 p.m. at Thomas Haney Centre.

Both Carr and MacDonald are encouraging all parents to come to the meeting and have their voices heard.

“It’s important to act now before it’s too late,” said MacDonald.

Should the board choose to accept the staff’s recommendations, another round of public consultations will take place in the coming months.

Trustees will vote to finalize the decision on Jan. 10, 2008. All schools singled out for closure will be closed at the end of the school year, on June 30, 2008.

Tonight was an outstanding night..

We went to the school board meeting, open to the public.  Tonight, the board was voting on the recommendations of closing schools in SD42.  I’m happy to announce that 5 out of 7 trustees voted AGAINST closing schools in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows!

That’s about it for today. 

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

Hello everyone:

I am appealing to you all as parents and/or citizens of the district of Maple Ridge to do three things:

1) Forward this Email to every other citizen of this District who you know. They do not have to be parents of school age children. They are taxpayers! Enlist their help. Imagine how many people could be reached if everyone sent this to ten others, and they in turn sent it to ten more. The number could be staggering. There is strength in numbers.

2) Call the four School Trustees listed and tell them this process is proceeding too quickly. Voice your opinion! Alternatively you could email them at the addresses indicated. They need to hear from parents, citizens, voters. There are viable alternatives to closing these schools that need to be investigated before a decision can be made in good conscience.

3) Attend the Public Meeting on Wednesday October 24th at Thomas Haney Secondary. Cancel other commitments. Bring your kids. At this meeting your Board of Education will vote on School Closure. Again, there is strength in numbers. A strong turnout and negative public reaction could prevent the closures.

IT IS NOT TOO LATE. STAND UP AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

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 It is now public knowledge that the Maple Ridge Board of Education has received the recommendations from District staff to name three schools for CLOSURE:

• Riverside Elementary
• Mount Crescent Elementary
• Webster’s Corners Elementary

YOU CAN STILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!!

Please phone school trustees: Rick Butler, Dave Rempel, Kathy Marshall, and Kathie Ward.

Tell them the closure process is too rushed.  Tell them that this important decision has not received due process.  Tell them you want them to follow Cornerstones’s plan for a one to two year feasability study.  Tell them they have not investigated all possible options to ensure that they are making the right decision for our community.  CALL THEM TODAY!  On Wednesday, October 24th at 6:00pm they will make their official announcement at Thomas Haney Secondary.

BE THERE!

It’s not very often that I actively oppose something, but today was different.

Today, Colleen, the kids and I went to a rally held today in opposition to the school closure process that School District 42 (SD42 – Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows) is undertaking.

The purpose of the rally was very simple – make it clear that we aren’t happy with the speed of the process.  In the Cornerstone report, that the district refers to, it states that SD42 should take 1-2 years to go through the process..  it’s been 3 months!  

People who spoke included the President and Vice-President of the Teacher’s Association, a couple of students from Davey Jones Elementary in Pitt Meadows, and even one of the school board trustees! (By her own admission, her colleagues are not impressed with her going against the grain!)

It was nice to see a unified approach to opposing this process..  Up until now, at public meetings and forums, there has been people saying things like “School X is better, so you should close School Y”.   That kind of mentality isn’t helping anyone…

The sad part is that only about 50 people showed up.  From my daughters school we saw only two other parents that we recognized.  You would think that since Riverside is one of the schools that is being considered for closure, more people would take action. Colleen and I ensured that we signed the petition to slow the process down and evaulate things better, such as the statistics error that Colleen pointed out:

For example, in the document titled “School Closure Process, Housing development statistics and projections” it states that the population of children, aged 0-14 in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows has declined by 3722 between 2001 and 2006. In reviewing Stats Canada figures for this same period, I found that the population of children in these areas, aged 0-14, has declined by only 145 (and of these, by only 20 youth in Maple Ridge).

The whole rally lasted for 30-40 minutes overall.  We’ll find out what the school board is planning on Monday at the ”findings” meeting.  The public can attend, but not participate.

Here’s Lizzy and her protest sign:

And Lizzy signing the poster:

Prepare for a good long read!  While this will mean little to nothing for a lot of people, it means everything to anyone with kids in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows… 

Over the last few weeks, my wife has been going to meetings about the proposed school closures in SD42 (Maple Ridge (MR) & Pitt Meadows).  While I haven’t been able to go to these meetings (someone has to watch our kids!), she and I have been talking about the process and posibilities, and digging up information to present (and combat) the school board with.  (Click on Keep Reading for more!)

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Here is a copy of the article that my wife was quoted in!  I’m glad to see that you stood up for what you believe!! 

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Parents Worry About School Closures 

By Robert Mangelsdorf
Staff Reporter

Sep 22 2007

Happy faces were few and far between at School District 42’s school closure meetings held this week.

Hundreds of parents turned up at the six public meetings, held Tuesday and Wednesday, to voice their concerns about the possibility of their child’s school being closed down due to declining enrolment in the district.

Colleen MacDonald was one of them.

MacDonald moved to Maple Ridge from Burnaby in February, in part because of the district’s schools. Now, she doesn’t know if the French immersion program her daughter attends at Riverside elementary will be around next year, and doesn’t know what to do if it isn’t.

“There hasn’t been any clear information on what is going to happen to these programs,” she said.

Her response is one the district is hearing a lot of, said assistant superintendent Randy Cranston.

He said most questions and issues raised by parents at the public meetings will be addressed, and answers will be posted online as well as be displayed at the next round of public consultations on Oct. 2 and 3.

However, Macdonald wonders if the district is really taking parents concerns seriously.

She’s part of a growing number of parents who are frustrated by the district’s school closure process and see it as merely an attempt to pacify upset parents.

“I’m hopeful that they are going to listen to us, but I’m hesitant to believe that,” she said after the meeting. “In the end, it all comes down to dollars and cents.”

Some things can’t be quantified so easily, says MacDonald.

“With all these numbers floating around, we seem to forget that we’re talking about children here,” she said, her voice strained with emotion. “My daughter is not a number, her name is Elisabeth, she’s five-and-a-half, and she’s bright and eager and she loves her school and I don’t want to drag her away from somewhere that she feels safe and comfortable.”

She’s also upset that the district has placed a gag order on its teachers and principals, effectively preventing them from commenting on the closures.

“We’re supposed to be coming together as a community here to bounce ideas each other and we’re missing this whole group of educated people who spend nine hours a day at these schools with our children,” she said.

Cranston defended the move, saying that as employees of the district, principals and teachers have a “fiduciary” duty not to get involved.

“What we learned through the Meadowland [elementary] and Maple Ridge Primary closures is that principals and teachers can get as emotional as parents about their school,” he said. “They can express their feelings, no can stop them from doing that, they just can’t rally the troops.”

He said their input is still being considered as part of the school closure process, just not publicly.

The school board will vote on district staff’s recommendations on which schools are to be closed at the Oct. 24 school board meeting.

However, parents will still have a chance to have their voices heard before the final decision is made at a special school board meeting on Jan. 10, the location of which is yet to be determined.

Cranston says any school that will be closed likely wouldn’t be sold off.

According to a new Ministry of Education policy the district was apprised of only last week, the district must allow the provincial government use of the property, should it so need it. If the provincial government has no use for the facility, the district must make it available for local civic government or community groups to use, should they need it. Only if none of these groups want to use the facility, can the district sell the property.

However, one of the goals adopted by the board as part of the school utilization study states that any school that is closed “should not be deemed surplus” and won’t be sold until “it has been determined that it is highly unlikely that the site will be required to meet long term requirements.”

“We can’t guarantee the schools won’t be sold, but they must undergo this process which takes two-and-a-half to three years,” said Cranston.

The next school closure public meetings will take place at Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge and Garibaldi secondary schools on Oct. 2 from 7 to 9 p.m. and at Westview, Thomas Haney and Samuel Robertson Technical secondary schools on Oct. 3 from 7 to 9 p.m.