Indigenous charter school in Alberta permanently closing due to low enrolment

An Alberta charter school that offered an education based on traditional Indigenous teachings is closing after 21 years, due to low enrolment.

Mother Earth's Children's Charter School near Warburg, Alta., about 80 kilometres southwest of Edmonton, will not be welcoming students back in September.

"We just don't have the numbers to continue," principal Erin Danforth wrote in a May 29 letter to community members.

The K-9 school was the first and only Indigenous children's charter school in Canada.

Charter schools, which are not permitted in other provinces, are funded by the provincial government and run by non-profit boards. Alberta has36 charter schools and the number has been increasing since a cap of 15 was removed in 2019. The number of students attending charter schools has also grown by about 30 per cent since the 2019-2020 school year, according to provincial statistics.

Superintendent Ed Wittchen said the school's enrolment, which peaked at 120 but had been declining for the past few years, fell to 20 students this year.

The school's board voted to request permission from the education minister to close the school and give up the charter in late January, according to a school board meeting minutes.

"It was a sad time for people to have to make that decision, but we were all in agreement that it was time and necessary," Wittchen said.

Wittchen said the school mostly served students from Paul First Nation, more than 30 kilometres away, but over the years, families moved away or decided to send their children to a brand new K-9 school that was built on the reserve.

He said Mother Earth's location, on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River, was beautiful, but also a drawback because few students lived nearby.

According to an academic journal article, a group of parents and educators who believed that Indigenous approaches to learning would be more effective for their children established the school in the early 2000s.

The school opened its doors in a former hardware store in the village of Wabamun in the fall of 2003. Wittchen said it later moved into the former Saint John's School of Alberta grounds.

One of the school's longtime teachers, Maxine Hildebrandt, received a Governor General's history award for excellence in teaching in 2018.

Wittchen said another highlight from the school's history was the opening of a culture camp and outdoor classroom in 2021.

Gordon Adams and Marina Kahpeechoose, who live on Paul First Nation, said three of their four children attended Mother Earth's and benefited from its small class sizes and extra attention from teachers.

"One came home speaking in Stoney and Cree at the same time," Adams said.

Adams said they moved the kids to a different school in December because of a busing issue, but they always liked Mother's Earth's teachers and strong cultural focus.

"I'm sorry that it's closing," he said.

Wittchen said he is working on the school's last annual education results report this summer and a final audit report will go to the board at the end of November.

He said an arms-length foundation owns the property and will likely put it up for sale.