A delegation from Pangman returned to the Southeast Cornerstone School Division monthly board meeting on Thursday, as they continued to work on the board on providing information on the school and the community.
A delegation from Pangman returned to the Southeast Cornerstone School Division monthly board meeting on Thursday, as they continued to work on the board on providing information on the school and the community. Currently, Pangman School is under review with the intent of closure or grade discontinuance.
Elwood White, chair of the Pangman School Community Council, addressed procedural concerns from the school review handbook. Quoting from the handbook, White said, "The student's most important job is to learn, a responsibility shared by all interested parties to shielding the students from strong emotions that sometimes accompanies a school review."
White said that "this wasn't handled well in Pangman. The students were sent home with a notice of a review, to take home to their parents. The students were horrified, and they knew before the parents did."
Another focus from the school review handbook was on long-term planning. "It is recommended that the school division staff in collaboration with the school community councils with the individual schools prepare annual profiles of all schools, and post these profiles on the website," quoted White from the handbook. "This wasn't followed at all. We weren't communicated with and we weren't part of this process."
"There was no communication in regard to long-term planning. No one talked to the mayor in Pangman, or our RM reeve, or our MLA. We were blindsided," added White.
Brandon Tichkowsky, pastor in Pangman, discussed the successes of their school. "In many criteria areas that should be used to review a school, our school is doing better than the other schools in the division. The one area that the school falls short is enrollment, but we feel this is because the board decided to send potential students to other schools in the area."
"Other things that were not taken into consideration, is that our utilization without the older section of the school would be 65.2 per cent," added Tichkowsky. He then talked about other communities nearby, "Ogema's utilization right now is 54.9 per cent, Radville is 39 per cent and Yellow Grass is 56.2 per cent."
"The model of the school division is for 'success and achievement for every student at every school'," said Tichkowsky. "The transition of my children to another school would cause their learning levels to drop because of socioeconomics, and the aspects of trying to fit in, readjust and new learning styles."
Kathy Bryson, representing the economic development committee in Pangman, discussed the business and community growth. "We have a lot of growth in Pangman just in the last year. There are 14 new businesses that have been established over the last year, included in that is our daycare, community kitchen, and our water treatment plant."
"We have a number of new homes, and there is a possibility of new population within the next year," added Bryson. "There have been three new houses built over the summer, and have sold five additional lots. In the area surrounding Pangman, there are four new farms."
In Khedive, which is in the school attendance area, there are five new lots that have been purchased. "We know for sure that three of them are people with families," said Bryson.
There is also a new development that is in the works at Pangman, on the southeast side of the town. "There is land there that belongs to the town that will be developed; these lots are not going to be your standard city lots, instead they are going to be much bigger and it is something that will draw people."
Other advantages that the Pangman delegation pointed out included a new church, seismic evaluation completed in the RM of Norton and a licence for oil wells in the area, the water treatment plant that was recently rebuilt for double the population, and the health centre.
The economic development committee in Pangman is also working to become one of the stops of the Southern Prairie Railway, and the tourist train that Ogema will be kicking off during their centennial in 2012.
The information presented by the Pangman delegation was found to be very useful to trustees with the Cornerstone board. "You gave us a lot of data on real numbers, that are things that we can be looking at and thinking about," said Carol Flynn, chair of the Cornerstone board.
Referring to the review process as a "really good process that raises awareness in a number of communities," explained Flynn, she added that the Cornerstone board meets yearly with the MLAs for the division to provide them information on the school division, and welcome School Community Councils to present information on a yearly basis. "The more information we get, the better decision we can make."
The information and data collected by the Pangman School Review Committee, and the director of education for Cornerstone, will be considered by the board by Feb. 1, 2012.
