Give us more time, ask parents at Montague schools meeting
Hundreds turned up to have their concerns heard
The cafeteria at Montague Regional High School was filled Tuesday night with parents concerned about the future of their schools — with many raising concerns about the school review process itself, and some calling for a moratorium on closing rural schools.
The Montague family of schools was the topic of the third meeting of this the third round of public consultations.
The recommendations for Montague included closing both Georgetown Elementary and Belfast Consolidated and rezoning students to better utilize the remaining schools.
In the weeks since the report was presented parents in the area have been fighting to save their schools. At Tuesday's meeting, many parents and community members voiced their concerns about the loss of smaller class sizes and additional hours on busses for small children.
More time needed
Others raised concerns about the school review process itself.
"Unfortunately there are strong indications that voices are not being heard, listening is not happening and questions are being avoided," said Belfast parent Kevin Ryan.
"In a process put forth by a government under the guise of public consultations, citizens involved are savvy enough to know whether or not that consultation is genuine and if it not, cynicism and overwhelming frustration will be the result."
There were several requests from speakers for a moratorium on closing rural schools for a couple of years. Many people, like educator Rick Cameron, felt like the process has been too quick from the beginning.
"I liken the process before us to a train which has been coasting along when suddenly the throttle jumps from idle to full power and now the train is out of out of control," he said
"The train can't slow down to let passengers aboard, just as the committee and our government appear to be unable or unwilling to slow down, to reevaluate their vision."
A better way than closures
There were some in the crowd that asked for more time in order to explore other options than closing the schools, and urged the Public Schools Branch to think outside the box.
Keir White with the Community of Belfast Action Committee would like to see Belfast Consolidated turned in to a community hub in an effort to save the school, but he said he needed more time to gather support and more information.
"We request that the final recommendation regarding the future of Belfast Consolidated School and Georgetown — and all schools for that matter — be postponed to allow us to short list feasible business and educational opportunities, solicit interested business partners, develop solid business plans," he said.
The meetings continue this week with the Morell family of schools Wednesday night and Westisle on Thursday.
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