Stu Wood parents make impassioned plea to keep doors open; Beattie parents want a say

By MICHELE YOUNG

/NEWS — School district officials heard vastly different concerns tonight (Thursday) from parents of two elementary schools that face possible moves within the next two years.

Stuart Wood elementary parents cited a loss of a sense of community and, for some families, an inability to afford transportation to take their kids to the Beattie location if they were moved.

The fate of Stuart Wood could be decided in late April or early May, depending on how much more research or information is needed.

Beattie parents wanted assurance their new space in the John Peterson building would be big enough and they wanted a voice in the renovating and planning.

A public meeting to discuss the fate of the two schools drew about 70 people to the Henry Grube Centre, where district administrators mapped out the domino effect if Beattie elementary students join their high school counterparts in the South Kamloops secondary John Peterson building.

The chain begins with South Kam students moving out of John Peterson and being entirely contained within the current, aged SKSS building that is on the capital request list to be replaced. John Peterson is being shared with Beattie high school students, and the elementary kids would then move in to complete the K to 12 arts school.

“Renovations are extremely expensive.”

That would leave the Beattie elementary building on McGill empty. Stuart Wood is at capacity and, as a designated heritage building, can’t undergo some of the alterations that would make it more usable, superintendent Terry Sullivan said. The City owns the building and leases it to the district.

“Renovations are extremely expensive,” he said.

The meeting went more than two hours, and school board chair Denise Harper said afterward she heard points that hadn’t been raised previously.

Among them was the fact some Stuart Wood parents live in the nearby Elizabeth Fry building, or at the women’s shelter, and they can’t afford transportation to get their kids up to Beattie.

While none of the Stuart Wood parents spoke in favour of the school closing Thursday night, Harper said she has heard from some who favour the move.

Assistant superintendent Karl deBruijn said there’s a $1.7 million budget request to renovate the John Peterson building to make it into a K to 12 arts school, which is projected to have 474 students by 2018.

The old Beattie elementary building on McGill has room for all of Stuart Wood’s 189 students in modern classrooms with a larger play area and some specialty rooms such as a dance studio.

Closing Stuart Wood would save the district $250,000 a year in maintenance, repairs and some wages and benefits.

Downtown resident Denise Walsh questioned why that $1.7 million wasn’t being made available to upgrade Stuart Wood, which has an undersized gymnasium and needs other work.

“I believe in neighbourhood schools.”

Stuart Wood parent advisory council president Suanne Wallin said the school is an integral part of the neighbourhood.

“I believe in neighbourhood schools,” she said, adding the school children add to the vibrancy of the downtown.

Some Stuart Wood students were uprooted four years ago when the district reconfigured nearby Lloyd George and took it from a bilingual school to exclusively French immersion. Many English students moved to Stuart Wood — now they’re being asked to move again, she noted.

She asked that the district get the City, the PAC and possibly even Thompson Rivers University together to look at ways of preserving the heritage school and make it unique.

Stuart Wood parent Sharlene Quinney said she moved here one and a half years ago with her kids. They stayed at the women’s shelter at first, and Stuart Wood was the closest school for them. She has since found a house just across the river but didn’t want to move them again since the family has been disrupted 10 times in the past five years.

“How do you explain to a child there’s not enough money?” she said.

Ed Basile of the farmers’ market said his organization sees the school as being essential to the fabric of the downtown and he suggested there could be more food- and arts-oriented programs held there.

“You’re going to kill our neighbourhood”

Longtime downtown resident Ruth Madsen, who has grandchildren at Stuart Wood, said this is the fifth time in her 43 years here that the school has faced closure.

“You’re going to kill our neighbourhood,” she said. “If this is a money thing, then ask us to raise the money.”

One of the Beattie elementary parents noted the two schools seemed to have very different concerns and the two should have been dealt with at separate meetings.

She also asked if the $1.7 million for renovations included playground equipment and if there would be two dance studios or two dance rooms in the John Peterson building if they were needed.

She didn’t want the elementary students to be rushed out of their building because of Stuart Wood, and asked that a committee be formed with the Beattie parents, staff, school district and City so there was a proper plan.

“We don’t want to put our kids into a facility that’s not properly built or equipped,” she said, pointing out the high school students were at the old Pineridge school, then moved into South Kam’s John Peterson building.

Beattie PAC president Bonnie McBride said there are fears the move to the John Peterson building won’t work, with particular concerns around a dedicated drop off area for young children and not sharing with South Kam if it’s undergoing construction.

“We want a commitment the gym and fields and school grounds will not be shared,” she said.

Pat Campbell, whose children went to Stuart Wood years ago, said the school is a part of the community. She pointed out the district has asked for money for Beattie, but not for Stuart Wood.

“We’re just as important,” she said. “We always feel like Stuart Wood gets the short end of the stick.”

Harper said she heard new points and ideas and the board and staff will take the submissions and consider the points raised.