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Superintendent to review issues with Stettler schools

The staff, students and parents of Stettler’s public schools will soon have the chance to have their say on the issues facing those schools

The staff, students and parents of Stettler’s public schools will soon have the chance to have their say on the issues facing those schools and what could be done to address them.

Clearview Public Schools superintendent Peter Barron has been tasked with reviewing those issues and finding possible solutions over the next three months.

After engaging with students, staff and parents, and devising several possible scenarios, each with pros and cons, he will make a follow-up presentation to the board in January 2015.

Following a lengthy discussion, the board approved a motion to that effect at its regular meeting on Thursday, Oct. 9.

The schools’ current configuration has sometimes been a bone of contention, and several board members expressed pleasure that Barron had agreed to tackle the issue.

“I’m just really happy that it’s starting to move in the direction it should have moved a few years ago,” said trustee Yvette Cassidy, adding that she believes parents are ready to support changes.

“We need to get this implemented,” added vice-chair Dave Goodwin. “We can’t drag this on and on and on and on and on.”

Speaking to the Independent this week, chair Ken Checkel said he believes the schools have few issues at present, but added that this is an opportunity to address some concerns and make improvements.

A report commissioned by the division and completed in February 2014 indicated that the schools’ configuration did not have a significant impact on students’ educational achievement, said Checkel.

“It’s not like the whole system in Stettler is broken at all,” he said, framing the question as, “How can we make a good thing better?”

Checkel also said during Thursday’s meeting that if the board can make changes to improve the way the schools work, it needs to do so.

“This is not new, but we are the ones who are responsible for it,” he said. “We’re the ones who can change it.”

Currently, students in Stettler attend the elementary school from Kindergarten to Grade 5, middle school from grades 6 to 8, and William E. Hay Composite High School from grades 9 to 12. (The outreach school also accepts students from grades 7 through 12.)

This configuration has caused some issues when students from other schools in the division graduate into William E. Hay. Clearview’s schools in Big Valley, Byemoor, Donalda and Erskine offer Kindergarten to Grade 9.

This means that students either graduate from their rural schools and start at William E. Hay in Grade 10, or leave their rural schools (and classmates) behind a year early to start William E. Hay in Grade 9 with Stettler students.

Either way, several trustees said, the transition into high school is often awkward, and can have repercussions in other areas, such as Career and Technology Studies programs, sports teams and extracurricular activities.

The province’s public school curriculum currently supports a different division of grades: Kindergarten to Grade 3, grades 4 to 6, grades 7 to 9 and grades 10 to 12.

The configuration can also lead to budgetary issues, as funding for Stettler students is allocated between the four schools.

Checkel acknowledged that the middle school “tends to miss out” as, unlike the elementary and high schools, it has limited means for obtaining additional funds above the basic provincial funding.

“We just don’t have that flexibility to move funding around that easily,” he explained this week.

Meanwhile, the current arrangement for the outreach school means its enrolment, and thus its staffing levels, can fluctuate appreciably from year to year.

At present, the elementary school and middle school are overseen by one principal, Sharon Fischer, an arrangement that could prove challenging over a longer period of time and poses a risk to affect staff morale, according to a memo from Barron.

Other concerns raised by trustees at Thursday’s meeting included issues with the Stettler complex itself, the sharing of resources and facilities between the schools, and difficulties in co-ordinating programs and schedules.

Checkel said this week that he approves of the work being undertaken, noting that it addresses one of the priorities established by the board this fall, and added that he’s looking forward to seeing what the superintendent brings back to the board next year.