There will be no schools being put under review for closure in the South East Cornerstone Public School Division this year.
Three schools could have been subjected to the review process this year, but Estevan trustee Pam Currie explained that there was compelling reason not to undertake any reviews this time around.
"The division is in the process of reviewing our attendance area boundaries. There are going to be adjustments made and those could change the enrollment numbers going forward," Currie said. "We didn't want to start a review process and then learn a year later that a school's numbers had increased."
The three schools that could have been placed under review this year included Macoun, Wapella and Pangman.
Macoun is a kindergarten to Grade 6 facility with a current enrollment of 46 or 47 compared with last year's registration of 50.
Pangman is a kindergarten to Grade 12 school with fewer than 80 students while Wapella offers a kindergarten to Grade 9 program for 49 to 50 students.
"Based on our discussions this morning, I make a motion that we not put any school under review this year," said Subdivision 5 trustee Audrey Trombley, referring to an in-camera session that was held prior to the regular open business portion of their meeting on Oct. 11.
"We've had discussions with these schools in the past and their communities are well aware of the process and all have taken steps to improve enrollments and they are in growing communities," said Currie. "So all those things were taken into consideration, but the main point was the fact that we're readjusting attendance areas and school boundaries, so it just made sense not to do any reviews this year."
If a school were to be put under review, they would have to be notified of that fact before month's end.
Marc Casavant, Cornerstone's director of education, reported to the board that 110 student transfers had been approved including 13 from outside the division's boundaries, and nine transfer requests were denied and two were appealed for a total of 123 transfers and requests for transfers. He said one or two of the requests are conditional on changing circumstances within the families such as changes of residences within a community or from one town to another.
"A handful of these requests are to accommodate students with specific learning needs whether they be medical or special education requirements. Transportation support was requested for about 65 per cent of the requests," Casavant said.
Most of the transfer requests entailed school boundaries within the division's two cities of Estevan and Weyburn.
The trustees received an updated power point report from Angie Phenix, and Jeannette McNalty, occupational therapists, regarding the sensory rooms in various schools that are arranged to assist students who require calmer learning environments on occasion or in some instances, an alerting environment to bring them into a more attentive mode. The two explained the sensory rooms help improve the learning capacities for children with autism or others with attention deficit disorders, as examples.
"We help them everyday, in some cases, get to their least disruptive part (of the day). We learn when they need this help the most and try to provide it," said Phenix. At present, 35 of the division's 38 schools are equipped with sensory rooms with some of them being well prepared and outfitted with suitable furniture and environments while others are more modest but still serving the purpose.
A video testimonial from a thankful mother was part of the presentation that helped outline the benefits that come to a child when they are placed in the helpful environment.
