Letter to the Editor of The Gleaner, March 10, 2006

Save our schools . . . together

"Save Our School" has become the rallying cry in elementary schools throughout the Chateauguay Valley. It is a little-known fact, even among parents, that the New Frontiers School Board has invited each community school to submit a proposal on how it could become more economically viable.

Some see this as a competition between schools with the end result being the closure of the ones that present the least-convincing proposals. Indeed, there is that risk of the process becoming them-versus-us which would have irreconcilable consequences for the Valley community.

However, we must understand the school board's position; something has to be done in the face of declining enrolment and the limited funds coming from the Quebec Ministry of Education. All around us school boards are dealing with the same dilemma. Even some French schools see lower student numbers on the horizon and fewer students means less funding. There were big headlines last year when the Lester B. Pearson School Board closed schools. The commissioners had to shield themselves against an angry backlash from parents.

Our board certainly wants to avoid anger directed toward it, but it will be worse if the local schools direct their anger toward each other. The school commissioners are people we know, our neighbors, so we trust that this consultation process is not merely lip service paid to an already done deal. We need to work together.

The best-case scenario would be to keep all of our schools open. Each is a vital institution, not simply for educational purposes but also as a community centre where parents meet other parents and neighbors come together at special events such as pageants and suppers. It's also an economic development issue that affects everyone's future.

Town councils hoping to boost your local economy by attracting new families, take note: without a school how can you hope to bring new life to the area? The schools are a symbol of health in such rural villages as Howick, Franklin and Hemmingford. Once they're gone, to paraphrase country singer Montgomery Gentry, "she ain't never coming back."

While this issue does boil down to the bottom

line, the value of these schools cannot be measured through statistics alone. There is much more to our community schools than money matters. In fact, even the closure of small schools is not a sure-fire solution.

For instance, if Franklin Elementary, where my boys attend, were to be shut down, the New Frontiers School Board would likely lose 20 - 30 students to the St. Antoine French school and others to home-schooling. We would also lose the grant money that comes in to maintain the last school in a town, and it would lose the thousands of dollars raised by volunteers. Add to that the increased costs for transporting the remaining children east, west and north.

The solution has to be more creative. It must involve the entire community to come up with ways to pay for keeping these buildings open, perhaps sharing them with private businesses, churches or municipalities. And if you were thinking that an easy solution is to get a militia of anglophone parents to make more babies, forget it; we already thought of that and there's not enough time!

This is a time for community leaders to come forward. Maybe we can make some lemonade out of this lemon, eh? To offer suggestions before the May 31 deadline contact your school's governing board or see the board's "Future Directions" report at www.csnewfrontiers.qc.ca.

Phil Norton is a freelance journalist and photographer in Franklin Centre.

www.philnorton.net