Possible removal of grades

It was a "bittersweet" meeting for Pangman stakeholders, as they first learned their school would not be closed, but that the Southeast Cornerstone School Division would consider discontinuing Grades 9 to 12 at the school.
"We were hoping that the process would end, and had hoped that we would come to a solution," said Brandon Tichkowsky, vice-chair of the Pangman review committee. "They gave us a do not resuscitate by considering the removal of our high school grades. It was just another nail in the coffin for our school."
Tichkowsky noted that if high school grades are removed, it will also affect other schools in the area. "We have Ogema students and our students on the same sports teams. There is no guarantee that all the high school kids would go to Ogema, so they would be affected. Also, our elementary school would also take a hit because parents aren't going to send their kids to two different schools."
"This was the worst decision we could have had," said Ken Kessler, vice-president of the Pangman School Community Council. "By shutting down the high school grades, they have really limited our decisions. It is definitely shutting down the school, only slower."
"The discouraging part was that the board was not showing us anything, they had zero information of how the students would get a better education," added Kessler. "This decision will weaken the whole community, and affects all the small towns in our area."
Trustees from Cornerstone will have to visit Pangman School by the end of March. They will make their final decision if all four grades or partial grades will be discontinued, or to allow the grades to remain the same, by the end of April.
The decision was made during a Cornerstone board meeting on Thursday, and was attended by several stakeholders from the Pangman area. A show of support for the Pangman School was sent to the meeting, in the form of a letter by Wayne Myren, mayor of Ogema.
"Having a school in a community is key to the survival of that community," trustee Bruce Wagner read the letter. "Once the school is closed, the overall community becomes less attractive for young people to move into. Most of the councillors of Ogema are also business people in our community, it would be a great concern to our business sector if there were no education facilities in our community."
"We can make real headway if we were given a few more years to rebuild our school," said Tichkowsky. "We have excellent opportunities to see growth."
The first motion before the board, made by Estevan trustee Janet Foord, moved for the complete closure of Pangman School by July 3, 2012. "School closure is never an easy decision, and I know school closures are emotional. We feel the pain that the community feels and we don't take these decisions lightly."
"We were given sufficient data to date that shows that we are facing significant challenges in providing adequate programming in Pangman," explained Foord. "Next, due to the new funding model, in our past budget we lost $1.3 million, with strong indications that we will be one of the boards affected by huge cuts in the next budget."
"There should be equity in fairness. Our small schools already enjoy a lower PTR (pupil to teacher ratio) than our other schools in order for us to provide programming to them," added Foord. "I believe that if we don't make the tough decisions, that there will be unattended consequences for every student, staff and school next year."
The motion was defeated with a vote of seven against three. Trustees explained their reasoning for their vote. "I am against this motion, I firmly believe that children should be educated as closely to home whenever possible," said Audrey Trombley trustee for subdivision five.
"I think that there is a viable school in that community, but perhaps not as a Kindergarten to Grade 12 school," said Harold Laich, subdivision two, who voted against the closure. "I strongly believe that a school should remain open in this community, I have more concerns about the high school programs."
"I am voting against the motion (for closure), I think that the quality of education is very adequate when compared to the rest of our schools," said Daryl Harrison, subdivision three. He also has concerns for the programming at the high school.
"I too will not be able to support this motion (of closure)," said Bruce Wagner, subdivision six, which includes the Pangman school. "I do believe that at this time, the community has brought a lot of information for our information, and we should have a chance to review more stuff."
"I am also opposed to the motion (of closure)," said Kevin Keating, subdivision four. He had taken a tour of the facility, and referring to an older part of the Pangman School that is waiting for approval by the Ministry of Education for demolition, Keating said he was, "pleasantly surprised by the condition of the school, and closing of the old section would definitely improve the utilization of the school."
"I will support the motion for closure," said Len Williams, trustee for Weyburn. "When I look at the data and criteria that we were faced with, it is only 40 kilometres to the nearest school. When I look forward, Pangman has been under the number of students for a viable school for five years, and the projection is for the next 10 years. Sooner or later we have to make tough decisions, and today is that day."
"When you look at the numbers that are there to put a school under review, I think that we did enough due diligence that the numbers are realistic," said Bryan Wilson, trustee for Weyburn, voicing his support for closure. "Next year (the enrollment numbers in) Pangman will place it under review again, and the year after that it will be under review again, and over and over again. This is unrealistic."
"My philosophy is for education is to have it close to home, especially for the early years," said Pam Currie, trustee for Estevan when she voted against closure. "I can see that the high school years would benefit from more opportunity to help them succeed in future endeavours."
"We are certainly concerned about enrollment, to me that is an issue, and it is continuing to be an issue," said Carol Flynn, subdivision one and board chair, voting against the motion for closure. "We do have to look towards the future and to the whole school division to decide what schools can be sustainable, but I don't think this is the time to pick one school out of the mix."
A second motion was made by Bruce Wagner, to remove Pangman School off the review status, but that was defeated with a vote of seven against three.
Instead, a third motion made by Harold Laich, to review grade discontinuance of Grades 9 to 12 at Pangman School by July 3, 2012, was approved by a vote of seven against three.
"The key components for me is the projected low enrollment, and the ability of the school to meet the needs of high school students," said Laich. "I also feel that we don't want to put the Pangman community through continued uncertainty, as the coming years would still place them under the review status."
Information on the grade discontinuance will be sent to parents in the community, and the Pangman School Community Council. "The board will be discussing when they will be coming out to the community to further discuss the motion that was put forward," said Marc Casavant, director of education for Cornerstone. The board visit must occur by March 31.