Community members in Hanna are attempting to keep the Hanna Primary School alive. A petition was started last week to influence the Prairie Land Regional School Division (PLRD) to rescind their motion to close the school.
On May 30 the PLRD board of trustees voted to close Hanna Primary School, contingent on approval of capital funding for the modification and modernization of J.C. Charyk.
Parents and concerned community members met and decided to start a petition.
“Most of the primary school council were against the closure, so they got together with parents, like myself. We decided to start a petition to rescind the motion to close the school. We’re hoping the petition will show the community is against closing the school,” said Andrea Heilman, who spearheaded the petition and has a child attending Hanna Primary.
Elected officials MLA Rick Strankman and Mayor Mark Nikota were in attendance at the meeting as well.
“We invited Rick and Mayor Nikota, and anyone else from the Town, so they would be aware the community is concerned about the closure,” said Heilman. “He [Strankman] saw why we were doing what we were doing and supported our decision.”
Strankman did not immediately return queries from The Drumheller Mail.
The group has a few concerns with students from Hanna Primary attending J.C. Charyk, therefore creating a K-12 school.
“We feel there isn’t enough space at J.C. Charyk to accommodate eight more classrooms, which is two classes for each grade,” said Heilman.
“The quality of education is not the concern. Our teachers do a great job where they are right now and they’ll do a great job where they could be, but a school is more than what the teachers teach. There’s the social environment and many other factors. My daughter just finished kindergarten this year, so she’s going into Grade 1. I don’t want her to go to school with so many older kids. There are things the Grade 6’s will learn that will be passed down, it’s inevitable. The Grade 4’s at J.C. Charyk have to travel all the way through the high school before they can get to the playground for recess. It’s not the best environment,” said Lisa Bietelspacher, who is helping to distribute the petition.
The petition group concedes there is work needed to keep Hanna Primary up and running, the PLRD proposal may also have a price tag.
“Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of work, but it can be done feasibly. The problem with the proposal the school division has now is it doesn’t include all the work needed around the school, the infrastructure in the town itself. Roads would have to be paved to accommodate the extra traffic flow and that’s not factored in. The community needs to get involved, because our taxes and property values could potentially be affected,” said Bietelspacher.
“There’s a 1928 section of Hanna Primary that nobody objects to being torn down. Our goal is to have them modernize both schools to keep them both viable. It would have a huge impact on the community if they were to demolish Hanna Primary, especially on the east side,” said Heilman.
The petition can be found in businesses throughout Hanna and people have been going door to door to collect signatures. There is no set number needed to have the decision rescinded, but the group is hoping to get as many signatures as possible by Monday, July 16.
“We’re going for as many as humanly possible,” said Bietelspacher. “We want to get our point across. We’re unhappy with the decision the school board has made.”
