A delegation from Pangman spoke with trustees with the Southeast Cornerstone School Division during the board of education's monthly meeting on Thursday.
A delegation from Pangman spoke with trustees with the Southeast Cornerstone School Division during the board of education's monthly meeting on Thursday. The key focus of the discussion was to open communications between the board and the community, as Cornerstone intends to review the Pangman School for possible closure or grade discontinuance.
"We think open communication is essential, we are here to discuss our future and are concerned about the education for our children," explained Elwood White, chair of the Pangman School Community Council. "We are happy with the level of education that is being delivered to our community, and in Pangman there are certain benefits of a smaller school."
"Rural Saskatchewan is seeing a boom that it has never seen before," added Ken Kessler, member of the parents council in Pangman. "We are at 70 students right now (in the school), and we did some research and discovered there are 27 children in our attendance area that are being bused to other schools. This should show that our area is a viable area."
"My big concern is this whole review process and what it is doing to the community," said Kessler. "It is taking away resources; we talked to realtors and as soon as this was announced the prices of housing dropped in Pangman. It is putting undue stress on the teachers, affecting the way they are performing."
"The growth in Pangman within the last two years is absolutely mind-blowing," said Mayor Rod Rowland of Pangman. "In the last year, federal, provincial and the Pangman Charity Farms have put in $3 million into our community which is significant for a small town like this one. I foresee that we could be viable because our community is growing."
After several of the representatives from Pangman questioned the timing of the intent to review the school, Carol Flynn, chair of the Cornerstone board, addressed their concerns.
"One of the things from the board's prospective that certainly triggered us to look a little more seriously at reviewing any schools this year was the way that our funding was being handled or not being handled," said Flynn, referring to the fact that the Saskatchewan government still doesn't have an education funding model finalized. "We are very uncertain as to where our funding is going to be."
Flynn addressed the fact that the Cornerstone was one of six school divisions that experienced a rebalancing of money. "What the government did was they felt there were six school divisions who had too much, and they took from those six schools divisions and gave the money to other school divisions who they felt had too little. To us that was very unfair, and we are hearing word that we will be on the chopping block again."
"Finance is a side that has forced us to look at how we deliver programming, and what programs we can offer especially at the high school level," said Janet Foord, vice-chair of the Cornerstone board. "This review process allows to look at our own service delivery implementation supports for kids in schools, and to see we are able to offer all the opportunities for students in our school system."
The other issue addressed by the Cornerstone board was the students who were being bused out of the Pangman attendance area. She explained that there was a "mismatch of policies" after the amalgamation of the former school divisions into the Southeast Cornerstone.
The transportation policy was changed so that it now involves the principals of both the outgoing and receiving schools. There are several grandfathered transportation agreements from those former school divisions that Cornerstone is honouring.
The information provided by the Pangman delegation, and additional information that will be collected by the School Review Committee and the director of education for Cornerstone will be considered by the board of education no later than Feb. 1, 2012. All final decisions on school closure, or grade discontinuation must be made by the Cornerstone board by Apr. 30.
