Your school was too small to matter (much)
We’re back home from the end of year concert. A celebration of the local school, a place where my sons have all passed years in the loop. A place where the walk home when you missed the school bus was possible, if uncomfortable. I live in the city, where schools have constant population and enough parents watching for governmental error. A school will last for a lifetime around here.
Not so, down on the Island. Remember, I started in a three roomer and traded down to a two roomer after learning to read. Yes, it was possible to know everyone in the school. When we moved to Nova Scotia, my new class had more bodies than my old school. It was easy to come first (in a class of three); less so when the numbers jumped. And then we moved to Ontario, and my school had more students than the whole region on the Island. More than 1500, at one point. That’s a lot of names to learn.
Meanwhile, back on the Island, progress came knocking, and the community schools became the consolidated schools. Trade in a dozen or more for a building with central heating and flush facilities. Times were good, even when surrounded by strangers. Heck, even the parents didn’t know all the other parents, and this was my Island. Education in a mixmaster.
My first teaching job was in one of those consolidated schools. Eight grades and a secretary. That same school received its warrant of closure this evening. In September, the students will spend a little while longer on the bus, and they will have had their consolidated “consolidated” into something not much larger, but much closer packed. Think efficiency studies and streamlining of process. Forget the personal touch, because a government in recession can’t afford to pamper those future taxpayers. Eight schools will close. Or, if you want a Maritime example, call this the “tip of the iceberg”.
For the record: Eastern Kings, Rollo Bay, Fortune, St. Peter’s, St. Teresa’s, Dundas, Grand Tracadie and Tracadie Cross were voted to be too small to matter (much) this evening, at a special school board meeting.
