School board gave fair hearing

Dear Editor:

I wish to respond to the editorial contained in the Oct. 26 edition of the Northern Pen titled 'Listen to St. Lunaire-Griquet'.

In the third paragraph of the editorial the statement is made that the board, "has refused to give fair hearing to opposing views." This is incorrect. In April, 2006, the school board presented a document titled 'Long Term Educational Proposal - Capital and Organizational' which contained proposals for school organization for the entire district. This document outlined possible changes to how schools would be organized in the future which could possibly involve new schools being constructed, schools being redeveloped and/or schools being closed. The document referenced possible changes in the St. Lunaire-Griquet area. I note the words "possible changes" because at that time, the school board had not made any decision about any area in the district - decisions would only come about following an exhaustive study of the issues and following a thorough public consultation process.

When the St. Lunaire-Griquet area was looked at, district staff initiated a thorough study which included an analysis of program offerings, enrolment data (past and future), condition of facilities, transportation issues, and resource allocations. Within the context of this study, the school board put forth a 'Notice of Motion' to close Bayview Collegiate. This 'Notice of Motion' started the formal consultation process to provide school board trustees with the information about the issue as well as the views of the public. As part of the consultation process district employees met with the school councils of both Bayview Collegiate and Truman Eddison Memorial (the feeder school of Bayview Collegiate). District staff also met with staff members at both schools. It is important to note that school staffs were afforded the ability to meet privately with district staff to ensure that their views were being heard. This was done because the school board is often accused of muzzling staff members from speaking their views but these meetings allowed staff members the ability to give their opinions freely. Following the meetings with staff and school councils, a report was compiled for board trustees. The next step in the consultation process was a public meeting held in the community, which was attended by board trustees as well as district staff. Members of the public were given the opportunity to speak to the issue and to be heard by board trustees. The final phase of the process was a public school board meeting in which the issue was debated in an open and forthright manner by trustees.

To say that opposing views were not given a fair hearing is simply not so.

There is also a degree of misinformation being stated about this issue. One candidate for election to the school board states in the same edition as the editorial that, "It's a wrong decision to close a school so far away, especially for an elementary school." The fact is that the school board is not considering the closure of the elementary school in the area.

As noted above, there are many considerations school board members consider when contemplating the closure of a school. Two of the considerations are enrolment decline and the ability to provide the best possible educational opportunities for the studentsain the area. The St. Lunaire-Griquet area currently has 39 high school and 27 junior high students, with further enrolment decline into the future. This low high school and junior high enrolment provide numerous challenges to providing the excellent educational opportunities we wish for students. After a thorough analysis of the program offerings that would be afforded students at the new St. Anthony school, it was the opinion of the school board that students would be better served educationally in the St. Anthony school. An argument has been made to institute a k-12 school, but in doing so the challenges of offering an excellent junior and senior high school program will not be helped by the addition of the k-6 students in the school.

The school board has been accused of ignoring winter road conditions in its decision. This, too, is not true. The weather and transportation issues were thoroughly studied prior to the board's decision. It is acknowledged that winter storms can cause difficulties for transportation. But it is also a fact that weather forecasting is much better than in the past thus enabling decisions about school closures to be made with much better certainty. Road conditions are also much better in the area than in the past and the work of highway crews is excellent, thus enabling roads to remain open longer than ever in the past. Some people state that the school in St. Anthony will remain open while students in the St. Lunaire-Griquet area won't be able to get to school. This, too, is not the case. An anlaysis of past weather patterns indicate that when a severe winter storm hits the northern tip of the island of Newfoundland, the entire tip is affected with similar conditions.

In conclusion, I wish to reiterate that the opinions of the people of St. Lunaire-Griquet were listened to and thoroughly considered in the board's decision-making process. All the factors and issues were thoroughly examined by board trustees prior to a decision being made. And, after due consideration, a decision was made that the educational needs of the junior and senior high students would be best served in the new St. Anthony school.

Sincerely,

Alonzo Bessey

Incumbent candidate

for the Western

School Board election