Give us more time, ask parents at Montague schools meeting

The cafeteria at Montague Regional High School was filled Tuesday nightwith parents concerned about the future of their schools with many raising concerns about the school review process itself, and some calling for a moratorium on closing rural schools.

The Montague family of schools was the topic of the third meeting of this the third round of public consultations.

• 5 school closures recommended in P.E.I. report on public schools

Therecommendationsfor Montague included closing both Georgetown Elementary and Belfast Consolidated and rezoning students to better utilize the remaining schools.

In the weeks since the report was presented parents in the area have been fighting to save their schools. At Tuesday's meeting, many parents and community members voiced their concerns about the loss of smaller class sizes and additional hours on busses for small children.

More time needed

Others raised concerns about the school review process itself.

"Unfortunately there are strong indications that voices are not being heard, listening is not happening and questions are being avoided," said Belfast parent Kevin Ryan.

"In a process put forth by a government under the guise of public consultations, citizens involved are savvy enough to know whether or not that consultation is genuine and if it not, cynicism and overwhelming frustration will be the result."

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There were several requests from speakers for a moratorium on closing rural schools for a couple of years. Many people, like educator Rick Cameron,felt like the process has been too quick from the beginning.

"I liken the process before us to a train which has been coasting along when suddenly the throttle jumps from idle to full power and now the train is out of out of control," he said

"The train can't slow down to let passengers aboard, just as the committee and our government appear to be unable or unwilling to slow down, to reevaluate their vision."

A better way than closures

There were some in the crowd that asked for more time in order to explore other options than closing the schools, and urged the Public Schools Branch to think outside the box.

Keir White withthe Community ofBelfast Action Committee would like to see Belfast Consolidated turned in to a community hub in an effort to save the school, but he said he needed more time to gather support and more information.

• Could rural P.E.I. schools be saved by turning them into 'community hubs'?

"We request that the final recommendation regarding the future of Belfast Consolidated School and Georgetown and all schools for that matter be postponed to allow us to short list feasible business and educational opportunities, solicit interested business partners, develop solid business plans," he said.

The meetings continue this week with the Morell family of schools Wednesday night and Westisle on Thursday.

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