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Clearview consultations call for more and more

Passionate to keep local rural schools open, parents and residents called for more funding, more student opportunities and more support from the community and Clearview School Division according to comments released by the public school authority following last month’s community consultations.

Passionate to keep local rural schools open, parents and residents called for more funding, more student opportunities and more support from the community and Clearview School Division according to comments released by the public school authority following last month’s community consultations.

“With things changing quickly in the world, we have to pay attention to what is going on and try to stay ahead,” said Ken Checkel who chairs the board.

“It is also more important than ever that our schools are run by people who know our area and what our communities expect.”

About 210 people participated in the sessions held in Big Valley, Byemoor, Botha, Stettler, Donalda, Castor, Coronation, Erskine and Brownfield.

Community participation and support are two of the keys to success in Clearview schools, Checkel believes.

“We will be using the information from these meetings to help us develop our education plan,” said Superintendent John Bailey.

“We appreciate the support our schools receive in their various communities.”

“Community consultations were a positive way to get feedback about our schools now and into the future.”

Comments and notes from these meetings can be found on the Clearview website at http://www.clearview.ab.ca/Community_Consultations.

Parents and residents particularly in small villages and hamlets strongly urged the board to keep schools open despite tight funding and budgets.

According to the notes from community meetings, many people called for the board to request more provincial funding, to commit to maintaining schools for the long-term, recruit more students and develop a pro-active plan to grow small communities with young families with children, expand catchment areas for schools to increase enrolment, discourage separate schools and build community partnerships.

During the sessions participants told Clearview officials that schools play a key role in communities to enhance local public edeucaition.

“We don’t plan to close any schools,” said Checkel, in response to a question from County of Stettler Reeve Earl Marshall at the meeting in Stettler on Nov. 9.

“We want to see them all stay open, but never say never,” said Checkel, considering funding cutbacks from the provincial government which faces a massive deficit.

Future funding for schools from the provincial government – and any possible cuts – will remain a mystery until next spring as Clearview School Division officials –and their colleagues –await the provincial budget for 2010.

For this year, the government clawed back $567,606 from Clearivew’s reserves for this school year as the government projects a $4.4 billion deficit.

“However, potential cuts for 2010-2011 could be more extensive and could reach $1.5 million, although we won’t really know until the provincial budget next spring,” Checkel said.

Premier Ed Stelmach earlier reported that while the deficit may be lower, he and the government do not plan to drastically cut funding from education and health care.