It's earned the dubious title of the most reviewed school in Saskatchewan.
Nokomis School is again under review by the Horizon School Division (HZSD) this spring- for the fourth time in five years.
That means the HZSD is looking at discontinuing one or more grades, or completely closing the school as of August 1 of this year.
The HZSD announced last fall that it had decided to place Nokomis School under review once again. A decision was made to continue the review at a board meeting on January 31, as "the board is satisfied that the review demonstrated projected low enrolment, budgetary constraints and difficulties meeting program needs within the existing constraints," states the board's notes.
But the reasons behind the review are all things that the Nokomis School Review Committee (NSRC) is disputing.
According to the NSRC, the school is still "vibrant and viable" and should not be closed, as the town of about 400 residents is growing right now, and may grow even more in the future, with local development.
Nokomis' argument
The main trigger for the reviews, noted David Mark, a member of the NSRC and the local school community council, is the number of students enrolled at Nokomis School now, and the number expected to be enrolled in the future.
Enrolment at the school dropped to 48 from 55 in 2010, but then came back up to 55 in 2011.
The HZSD had projected enrolment at Nokomis School to drop to 46 students last fall.
Some adjustments to those figures were made after 55 students enrolled in the fall of 2011, and they show the student population rising to 60 students in 2016-17, based on numbers from the health region.
The NSRC, meanwhile is projecting an enrolment increase of 20 per cent in the next four years, hitting 88 students in 2016-17.
Their numbers are based on a survey of the community undertaken by a local business owner in 2011 and again in 2012.
Eighty-eight is actually a magic number - the review process can be initiated if a school's enrolment falls below 88 students.
"Over 21 children are awaiting enrolment in Kindergarten over the next two years," the NSRC report states. "Our local economy has enjoyed a return of the critical 20- to 35-year-old couples that are establishing, or looking to establish, a home, a family and who are working gainfully in the local and regional economy."
There are also 14 more children in the community under the age of three at the moment, Mark stated.
"We have seen, from our point of view, a population explosion," said Mark.
However, data presented in their report is not being accepted or used by the HZSD board, Mark said.
The NSRC also disputes the budgetary constraints argument, saying that the cost of education per student at Nokomis School is still $9,822, below the Rural/Urban average in 2008-09 of $10,084, and below the provincial average cost per student from the 2008-09 school year, which was $9,860.
As for meeting program needs, the NSRC states that approximately 90 per cent of Nokomis School students are graduating with at least 30 credits instead of the required 24.
The school offers the required courses in biology, chemistry, physics, math, social studies, English and physical education, as well as media studies, communication media, law, creative writing, band, driver's education, and offers distance learning options as well.
Extracurricular activities include volleyball, golf, curling, track and field, cross country, badminton, drama, yearbook, student representative council, cooking, central band, as well as special events like the Terry Fox Run, bike rodeos, ski trips, and various other spirit days, weeks, pancake breakfasts and other trips and events throughout the year.
All of this is on par with other schools in the Division, the committee argues.
The community is also arguing that they are on the cusp of some major growth. A new 18-unit adult living complex is expected to be built in Nokomis, and of course there are major potash developments in the area, including the construction of a BHP Billiton mine at Jansen.
Within Nokomis, there is a strong business core of 25 businesses, 10 home-based businesses, recreational activities, groups and organizations, a new subdivision development, and two new homes were built in the town in 2011.
"With all these findings the (HZSD) staff chose to give the board student projections based on population statistics from our health region," said Mark."To make things worse, they list zero children in the pre-K classes. We only were made aware of these discrepancies in our 2011/2012 school review package received by our School Community Council (SCC) in October 2011. It was this mishandling of our accurate and reliable review findings from our March 2011 report that spurred our community to seek legal counsel and organize further."
The NSRC obtained legal counsel last fall.
They also learned that a school can be under the minimum K to 12 cut-off of 88 students as long as it doesn't show budgetary and programming difficulties, two issues which Nokomis School has never suffered from, Mark said.
"So, why are we continually being reviewed?"
Last year, the third school review process for Nokomis School was halted due to a failure to provide proper notification to the attendance area.
According to Mark, the 2005-2006 and 2007-2008 reviews were discontinued by the Board of Education on their own accord by voting a discontinuance of the process in January of each of the review school years.
"We would ask, if a school successfully shows viability and growth, why would relatively consecutive reviews (four in five years) be required or necessary?" Mark asks.
"Furthermore, if a special process is to be initiated and administered by the division and the local SCC, shouldn't the positive and viable results of these multiple reviews be incorporated into the decisions made by the board and its senior staff?"
Marks says that HZSD board trustee Jim Kolbeck sees that Nokomis School is on par with peer schools throughout the division and will benefit from the growing prosperity occurring throughout our region.
"Our community thanks Jim and the leadership he exhibits in standing up for our school and community," Mark noted.
The reviews, said Mark, have created a great deal of frustration in the Nokomis community and the attendance area.
He believes that ways can be found to keep rural schools open. The NSRC feels that the HZSD board may be working on outdated plans, he said, focusing on consolidating schools.
But the province is booming, he argued, and if rural schools aren't costing any more to operate, why close them?
Horizon's side
Jim Hack, the chair of the HZSD board of education, says the school is being reviewed for a very simple reason: "We're just not seeing the projected growth.... that we should see.... The student enrolment is just not there," he said. "That's why it's under review."
The review procedure is suggested by the Ministry of Education, "so we have a process to follow, so that's what we're doing," he said.
Hack was unsure why two previous reviews of Nokomis School did not result in changes to the K to 12 grade offerings, or the school's closure. He was not on the board at the time, he indicated.
Last year's review process was stopped due to a procedural error on the part of HZSD.
Hack insists there is no vendetta by the board to close Nokomis School.
"It's not that we're out to get Nokomis School," he said. "Our business is not to close schools. Our business is to build and have very effective schools."
The board is not saying at this point that they are going to close Nokomis School.
"This is one step in the process," he said of continuing the review.
The next step is a public meeting, set for March 27 in Nokomis.
"The public will come, and I hope they bring more information, new information," he said.
At the end of April, the board will have to make a decision on which way to go: to discontinue some grades, close the school altogether, or leave it as is.
If the school is closed or grades discontinued, students would be bused to other schools in the area, possibly Drake or Lanigan, which Hack says, according to provincial parameters, are close enough to Nokomis - other schools have to be within 40 kilometres.
HZSD's enrolment numbers differ from those presented by the school review committee, as they take them from public health reports, or from their principal's projections, which are based on the number of students in daycare or preschools as well.
"We have to have students... in seats," he said. "That's what we go on."
They cannot go on hearsay, he said.
He is hoping that there are 21 kids ready to enter the school system in the next two years, he said.
"That would be the greatest thing."
He's hoping those with children ready to enter the school system come to the public meeting to speak with the board.
The program offerings at Nokomis School, he added, are not the same as in a bigger school.
"But again, that's what we're in this process for - to find these things out," he said.
The Nokomis Community School Review Committee submitted a very large report containing surveys, population findings, parents' comments, and letters of support to keep the school open from businesses, students, municipalities, and local MLA Greg Brkich, to the board on January 30. However, the board made the decision to go ahead with the review process because "we just haven't seen the growth.... so we wanted to do some more digging," Hack noted.
Their job, he said, is to ensure all students get a quality education, something that can be difficult to maintain in schools with low enrolments, so they wanted to have a deeper look into Nokomis School.
He had praise for the NSRC and their arguments.
"They're sticking up for their school.... We'll see where it leads us," he said.
The meeting
The public meeting in Nokomis will be a chance for the public to have input into the school review process for Nokomis - and not just the public from the town.
The NSRC is asking municipalities in the area to attend the meeting to provide their input into the process.
"What can be visited here can be visited anywhere in the school division," Mark said. "We want to put a stop to this now, so we can get on with business."
