A petition to the board of Prairie Land Regional School Division (PLRD) has made some headway in keeping Hanna Primary School operational.
Earlier this month, a group of concerned parents started a petition asking the PLRD to rescind its May 30 motion to close the school. The petition was given to PLRD on Monday, July 16. According to PLRD, the petition had collected roughly 800 signatures, which warrants the board taking another look at the motion.
“There were about 800 names on the petition, so we will act in accordance with the School Act. The board will look at the petition and consider the motion at the next meeting in August,” said Superintendent Wes Neumeier.
Parents wish to keep Hanna Primary School, a K-3 school, open. They have concerns about having students attend J.C. Charyk, thus making it a K-12 school. Recognizing Hanna Primary needs some maintenance and modernization, they believe it is possible to keep Hanna Primary open.
The board had decided to concentrate on modernizing and modifying J.C. Charyk in lieu of keeping Hanna Primary open.
“Prairie Land is passionate about the quality of education our students receive. We’re also dedicated to ensuring our resources are used in such a way to maximize learning for all Hanna and Prairie Land. It’s [Hanna Primary] an older building and there’s quite a bit of renovating and modernizing that needs to take place. Is it wiser to work on both facilities or work on J.C. Charyk, modernize it and create an environment for students K-12? J.C. Charyk is a better facility and more capable of handling all of the children,” said Neumeier.
Parents also argued significant investments will be needed by the Town of Hanna to improve infrastructure around J.C. Charyk, thereby increasing the total cost of modernization. However, in this case ratepayers in Hanna would be footing a large bill.
Neumeier does not agree and promises the school division and Town would work together to resolve any problems.
“I don’t see significant expenditures by the Town based upon what we understand to date to be the issues. Most of those issues can be managed within the grounds [of J.C. Charyk] to create a proper entrance and exit path, so the flow of traffic can be managed,” said Neumeier.
Delivery of the petition coincided with the arrival of the Value Management Assessment team from the provincial government.
“We looked at all of the aspects of the schools. We took a tour of the schools with people from Alberta Infrastructure and Schools. I think the consensus was Hanna Primary was a facility that needed significant work from an engineering perspective. J.C. Charyk was an adequate facility. We’re making a recommendation for significant capital funding for J.C. Charyk to modernize and modify it for the different grade configurations,” said Neumeier.
Keeping Hanna Primary open doesn’t make fiscal sense according to Neumeier. Utilities and the cost to renovate and modernize are prohibitively expensive in his eyes.
“It’s cheaper to run one facility than two, the overhead just isn’t there. The utility costs on a building like that are extensive. We’re looking at a cost savings to the province of about $100,000. Prairie Land isn’t going to gain, we’re going to lose funding. The board considered that and we’re responsible for managing public money,”
MLA Rick Strankman was at the meeting where the decision was made to start a petition. Strankman contacted The Drumheller Mail to clarify his position.
“I’d like to say I’m promoting democracy. Democracy is the election of the school board members. If they [the parents] felt the school board was not of the same position as the greater populace, we wanted to encourage the people to petition, plebiscite, or whatever avenue to bring their opinions forward,” said Strankman. “I’m trying to bring forward an open atmosphere of public accountability.”
However, Strankman did have concerns of his own.
“I have questions about the financing of the whole situation. There is the potential for $8 to $15 million worth of expenditures there, not wholly from the community. There’s about $1 to $3 million that may be expended by the community in infrastructure for the roads, parking lots, and things related to the school development. It may be onerous for a town that almost lost seven to ten percent of its population,” said Strankman.
Hanna Primary will be a major topic at the next PLRD board meeting in August.
“To give full consideration, the board will likely make a motion to rescind, debate it, and make a vote,” said Neumeier.
