Letter to the editor

Re: Rural school closures

It takes a community to raise a child, and it takes healthy communities to raise healthy children. The health of this community depends on the Franklin School. If communities are going to be healthy the people need a place to meet. The churches used to play that role but not any more.

The school is where we meet. We have no town square, no downtown, no shopping mall. It’s the only institution where you don’t have to drive a half an hour or more. Everything else is far, the doctor, the dentist, sports, extra-curricular activities, to Valleyfield for swimming and to Valleyfield for gymnastics.

At the Franklin School the community has a very unique relation with the school. People are in and out all the time being supportive of the children. Here, you know all the children; you can call them all by name. The percentage of parental participation is higher than in any other school in the board. They run a daily morning breakfast program and a weekly hot lunch program. There is tutoring by adults of all ages and there are special programs either by or for the public.

There is something here about living out values from a previous era. There’s a natural connection to the land and an innate knowledge of the hard work it takes to grow our food. Everyone else in modern society has turned the page on these things, embracing things bigger, faster and cheaper. Even the small family farm is dying.

The “Wal-Mart life style” results in untold costs to the human community and

closing small country schools is just one symptom. Once this page is turned, you can’t turn it back.

The New Frontiers School Board is pointing to the cost of running this school, however, there are exorbitant costs at the administrative level that they are not addressing. Time and time again we are hearing from teachers and school board employees and others about all of the money being spent. In the face of declining enrolment the Board is cutting schools; meanwhile the excess Board employees who have been hired are too hard to get rid of. But these informers won’t speak out publicly; they are afraid to give their names for fear of consequences to their school board jobs.

Thus it is up to the taxpayers to call for some serious changes.

This is really a Raging Grannies issue. Finding a solution requires input from all ages in our community, especially seniors. A rare and traditional way of life still exists here that will soon be passing away. The Chateauguay Valley harbors knowledge about the land and about the past that the rest of the world is quickly realizing is vital to the health of the planet. If we do not support our young families now, everything we have built and cherished over the past will be lost. If we want to preserve our history, we better be sure to preserve our present community.

Lynne Donovan

Franklin Centre

November 12, 2006