On Tuesday, Feb. 12, at its regular board of education meeting, School District 51 (SD51) trustees will be making a final decision on the question of a middle school for Grand Forks.
The road to this decision point began a year ago during preliminary budget discussions between the board and senior and school-based administration.
We were looking at the year ahead and discussing projected student enrolment numbers, alignment with our strategic plan and potential funding shortfalls.
While the conversation at first centered on what we could or could not afford to do, it soon changed into an educationally centered conversation on a possible change to a middle school as a way to address some of our shrinking enrolment concerns.
Beyond that, and even more importantly, it was generating excitement as to the possibilities for our students and what it could mean for their learning.
So began a consultation process that included nine meetings with our senior and school-based administration team and nine meetings with our community and partner groups. There was also an online survey (Thoughtstream) that gathered input from stakeholders. We sent two teams to another school district to observe a middle school model that we were interested in.
Meetings and consultation are still ongoing and just last week, trustees met with school staff to hear its points of view on the middle school concept.
Seventy people showed up for that meeting; it was a great open conversation that provided lots of food for thought for trustees, as we get closer to a final decision.
There was a district development team meeting last week with partners that included the Boundary District Teachers’ Association, CUPE, BANAC (Boundary All Nations Aboriginal Council), administration and trustees.
There will be a last meeting with our senior and school-based administration team today (Feb. 6).
The board began this consultation by asking all the Boundary school communities about their views on the middle school proposal, and after consideration of what we heard, decided to only look at Grand Forks as a candidate for a middle school and possible implementation to be for Sept. 2014.
Now here we are, a year since we first began and this very important decision is only one short week away.
Trustees have been re-examining the input received from all stakeholders, letters, survey forms in addition to research materials, their own personal notes taken during consultations and fresh configurations taking into account current enrolments.
Speaking for myself, and I am confident this applies to all SD51 trustees, we are spending many hours in reflection of what we heard this past year and formulating our thoughts as we get closer to Feb. 12.
We sincerely hope that you will join us for the board meeting to hear what we have to say and what the final decision will be. In anticipation of larger numbers of the public, we are moving the board meeting to the Perley Elementary School gym (1200 Central Avenue in Grand Forks).
The open meeting starts at 6 p.m. and the first item on the agenda is the middle school decision. We look forward to seeing you there.
– Teresa Rezansoff is chair for the SD51’s board of education