With the commencement of the new academic session 2015-2016 the former William E. Hay Composite underwent a significant change as the middle school of Stettler Elementary was combined with the high school and renamed as William E. Hay Stettler Secondary Campus, which now includes grades seven to 12.
This change has been positive, according to principal Norbert Baharally.
"This is a positive move from both an academic and financial perspective," said Baharally. "Academically, the move to amalgamating the schools has allowed for more professional development amongst the staff and collaboration."
Some of the positive changes have included the collaboration of the entire staff with the junior high homeroom every Friday on the school's Response To Intervention (RTI) program through the Flex Built In (FBI) time, "which has huge benefits for our students on the edges" according to Baharally.
"We also now have a larger staff for in-house professional development, and subject area specialists are able to get together to collaborate and work to develop programming," added the principal.
Kimberley Smyth, currently the chair of the now 'retired' William E. Hay Composite High School council said, "As a parent of three boys in grades 11 and 10, the amalgamation hasn't had an adverse effect on our children thus far. My concerns were voiced and acknowledged at each of the meetings I attended, both during regular school council meetings and the public forums that were put on throughout the last year."
Annual general meeting for the newly amalgamated William E. Hay Stettler Secondary Campus is scheduled forOct. 20.
"Elections for all board positions will be held as a means of starting afresh, encompassing all three schools senior high, junior high and outreach, and including students, staff, parents and other stakeholders," said Smyth. "I had often questioned the validity of having three separate schools (elementary, middle and high), each with its own library, office, time-tables, etc. existing in the same building complex, operating on three separate budgets, with vastly different funding structures, and which were grade configured in such a way as to not conform with the Alberta Learning curriculum ideals for such funding (grades K-5, 6-8, 9-12, rather than grades K-3, 4-6, 7-9 and 10-12)."
According to Smyth, this renewed configuration now fits more conveniently with the majority of schools within the public school districts in Alberta.
"The move to amalgamation has also allowed specialist teachers to teach in their area of specialty full time, or near to full time)," said Baharally. "Prior to the amalgamation the high school was big enough to need specialist teachers but not quite big enough to employ them full time in their area of expertise which meant they might have been teaching courses that are their minor, which is not a bad thing but in general it is better to teach in your area of expertise."
Although it is too early in the academic year to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of this move, Baharally feels it is definitely a positive move.
Commenting on how the duplication of spaces have been reduced, Baharally said, "We are able to share spaces that only belonged to one school such as our weight and cardio room, science labs, video conference room and computer labs to name a few. Besides, our junior high students have also been exposed to more option programs than what was available to them before as a middle school."
Smyth says she is being "cautiously optimistic".
"I do believe that there may be growing pains, and that any change is often met with concern, which is to be expected," said Smyth. "Being cautiously optimistic is how I'm personally trying to address these changes, as well as being empathetic and engaged when parents' concerns are brought to the attention of our current school council."
Baharally has already begun to see the academic and financial benefits of the reconfiguration.
"Besides the academic and financial benefits that we have already seen, I feel that the long-term benefits will be community wide," said Baharally. "The senior high students will hopefully begin to take on more mentorship and leadership roles, and though initially some of these roles may seem to be artificially created, with time my hope is that organically the senior students take on more leadership roles."