Concerned parents, public members and staff from St. Michael's School met with Medicine Hat Catholic School Board members last week for meeting to look at determining factors that could lead to the closure of the high school program at the school.
Board members in attendance were Kelly Van Ham, Dick Mastel, Jodi Churla, Peter Grad (chair), Greg MacPherson, and David Leahy, superintendent for Medicine Hat Catholic School Board of Education.
Leahy gave an overviews of the issues, but said until the provincial government delivers its budget, the information they could provide would be limited.
“I'm crystal balling this because we do not know what is coming down in the provincial budget; but I see pretty much the same level of staffing for next year,” said Leahy.
“I am concerned about the numbers in the elementary school. Beyond four or five years, I am concerned about the impact on staffing,” he added.
One member of the public took the mic and informed the board about a situation at the school in the 1980s when Calgary trustees visited the school and compared urban versus rural issues.
“Twenty years ago, the graduation class was four, and still, the school has gone on,” she said.
Leahy
The issue of utilization of video-conferencing, which is becoming commonplace in many rural schools, was also addressed during the meeting.
“To me, from what I am hearing, this is not a matter of quality of education. My concern is with the amount of time students are looking at being taught without teacher interaction. When you have 40-50 percent taught by computers, I have concerns,” said Leahy.
Stephanie Hlady disputed that and told the board that video-conferencing and other alternative methods of learning are becoming more common and Bow Island students should be familiar with them.
“I think lots of people talk about video-cenferencing as being a negative, but the board needs to give it a closer look. I work for Alberta Health Services and do all of my teachings through alternative methods of learning. Video-conferencing is here and we must prepare our students to be in this world,” said Hlady.
“We want people to live in rural areas and we can not expect people to leave in order to get an education,” she added.
Leahy also said the teachers at Monsignor McCoy High School were unwilling to bring video-conferencing back after having a negative experience in offering it in the past.
“Trustees met with teachers at McCoy who were using video-conferencing. The experience on the Bow Island end was a positive one, but the teachers said they were stressed and ready to go on leave because of it. They felt it won't do justice for the students,” said Leahy.
Leahy said three things were needed to make video-conferencing successful for the students: 1. Teachers who are willing to do it. 2. Preparation time and 3. Having properly equipped video-conferencing equipment.
“There was a lot of frustration on the teachers' part and that is why there is no video-conferencing this semester,” said Leahy.
“The teachers enjoyed working with the kids, but not with the video-conferencing. It will be very difficult for me to go into that school now and find a teacher willing to do it,” he added.
Enrollment numbers were also brought into question. According to Leahy, school closure policy dictates that if enrollment falls below 60, the school board has to address closure issues. At the meeting however, Leahy said there was nothing in legislation to force them to do so.
“There is nothing in any legislation that says you must consider closure,” said Leahy when asked why the upper elementary and lower elementary levels were not considered.
In providing those in attendance with numerical data comparing revenues, Leahy said the information was compiled using a site-based resource allocation formula, even though in reality, the MHCSB uses a centralized allocation system.
“We were told numerous times that this was not a financial issue, but this tonight shows that is exactly what it is,” said parent, Roger Ginn.
“If we don't operate under site-based management numbers, then why is that what you are showing us?” he added.
In response, Leahy answered, “Those questions in that document are required by government and that is why they are there. The system we use is not site-based. The money comes in and we allocate it based on need. You need to understand that this is a sore point in Medicine Hat.”
Financial concerns and issues regarding allocations and average expenses and revenues per student continued to be on the forefront throughout the meeting, with little concrete information being provided and Leahy stating it is legitimate for them to pool the money.
“I understand what you are saying. I don't understand what you are not saying,” said parent, Greg Young.
An alternative for St. Michael's high school students to take core subjects at Senator Gershaw, with Religion being taught via video-conferencing was also shot down.
“We had a meeting with the Bishop and the Alberta Catholic Bishops Association voted unanimously to not support that because they believed it would be a slippery slope for Catholic education,” said Leahy.