Our children should be given a head start, not hindered.
Dear Honorable Stephen McNeiI,
I write to you today as another concerned parent with a child enrolled in the Petite Rivière Elementary School. I wish to add my voice to the chorus of distressed families and community members concerned with the impending loss of their school.
We are new to this area, having moved here from New Brunswick in 2014, looking for a new life in a rural community, close to Halifax and the beaches of the south shore. I left a career as an academic physician in the teaching hospital in Saint John, and chose a slower, perhaps less prestigious life raising a family and starting a small farm close to Petite Rivière.
One important factor in choosing this area were the educational opportunities in the area. We started with our first child at an independent school in Blockhouse. The school seemed to fit most closely with the ideals we wished to see imparted to our son. Although a wonderful school, sadly our son did not thrive there and after two years we decided to move him to the Petite Rivière Elementary school. It was not without some trepidation that we did this, for we had no experience with the public school system and stories are not always positive.
We are now eight months into Oliver’s first year at PRES and have seen the most wonderful thing happen. We now have a boy who wants to go to school! This may seem like a small thing, but to engage and enthuse a boy like Oliver is no small feat. We know this because we’ve been trying for years. I am so shocked and happy to see my son engaged on so many levels at PRES that I can not fathom how on earth anyone could bring themselves to destroy that type of environment.
This school is a product of its community and a service to the community. This is a community that is young and growing. This is a community that cares about its members, both young and old. This is a community that has increasingly chosen to eschew the fast pace and opportunities of city life. They have chosen to live a life perhaps a little closer to that of a different time, when humans lived in small communities and really knew their neighbours. To support themselves we see interest in farming, the arts and traditional trades, alongside more modern careers supported by high-speed telecommunications. This is a young and growing rural community, a rare and precious gift in a world being increasingly urbanized.
This school serves as a recruiting tool, bringing young families into the area. This school is recruiting young families that are so smart, caring, wise and brave that they are willing to move to rural Nova Scotia to start new lives. These are people who have so much to offer, so many ways to benefit their community and the surrounding area. These are the people you want in this province, if the province wants to improve its future. Take away the school, and you lose some of your ability to recruit into this vibrant community, and you risk this being the first cut that eventually leads to an unravelling of the fabric of the area in ways that been repeated in so many rural communities in rural North America. Indeed, since I started his letter we have had to warn a young professional family of five, moving from New Brunswick to not look at a farming property in the PRES catchment area.
Finally, I should like to put on my public health hat for a minute. As an internal medicine and intensive care specialist, I have devoted over 90% of my career treating diseases that are entirely preventable. That may seem like an extreme statement on the surface, but ask any physician out there and they’ll tell you the same. Yes, the vast majority of all the big killers, heart disease, lung disease, strokes, type 2 diabetes, cancer are all preventable. They do not need to happen, all that suffering and loss is truly preventable, and yet we do almost nothing. It seems evident but the path to avoid these killers is the simplest one we can know. Eat right, exercise, play and raise a family.
Sadly too many of us now do not know how to cook, meaning our children can not learn from us. Not knowing how to cook also implicitly means that one knows little of how truly important food is on so many different levels, how it can impact health, and bring a family together all at the same time. Now we can’t even learn how to cook in school. Why? Ironically because we’re spending our tax dollars treating the very illnesses we could have prevented.
How many of us, in our busy lives, take the time to exercise on a daily basis? Not enough I’ll warrant. How often do we get out and get our kids heart rates up? Not enough I’ll warrant. Like food, not exercising is often associated with a poor understanding of the benefits of exercise. Who knew being fit can impart a 75% reduction in the chance of dying? And now we can’t really teach our kids how to exercise in school. Why not? Oh yeah, we’re still treating all those illness we could have prevented!
Whilst on the subject of exercise (and mental health) let’s think about those kids from the farthest reaches of the proposed school bus catchment, sitting on their enlarging posteriors for a couple of hours a day. How are we encouraging these kids to live healthy, active and community-based lives when we waste so much of their time enforcing upon them an activity known to be bad for your health? We are stealing these children’s childhoods and transforming them into an unhealthy and uninspiring shadow of what they could be living.
Sadly my point about spending all of our money to treat preventable illnesses is all too true. We (yes us, the voting and entitled public) have chosen as a society to focus the lion’s share of our tax revenues on the treatment of preventable illnesses in our latter years. This is sadly short-sighted and selfish. We appear to have forgotten that the generation that comes next is inherently the one where most resources should be put. All of the issues we wish we could see solved in the Canadian educational system could be solved if we to a fraction of a percentage point away from that gorilla we call health care.
Our children should be given a head start, not hindered. With a properly funded educational system, they’d be fit, active and would largely stay that way through their lives. They’d know the value of food, and they’d know how to prepare it, freeing them from the grips of fast or pre-prepared foods. They’d have learned all this in the communities they lived in and would not have to waste hours of their lives in meaningless commutes.
We know today that with the childhood obesity epidemic that the next generation will likely be the first to live shorter and unhealthier lives than their parents. This is the end result of our selfish choices, favouring the previous generation over the next. We should be ashamed of ourselves. We should do all in our power to advocate for our children, for they are us, and in their turn, they will advocate for and nurture our grandchildren. Closing Petite Rivière Elementary school will be another strike against a healthy future for those children and that community.
Peter West
For years, very committed citizens have been fighting to save the Petite Rivière Elementary School.
For years, very committed citizens have been fighting to save the Petite Rivière Elementary School. The value of this school to a growing population of young children and the value of this school to the community at large have been discussed openly in great detail.
Nevertheless, officials who would rather see young children bused out of their community to an already overcrowded school continue to ignore the educational and social importance of the Petite School.
The officials who vote to close Petite Riviere Elementary School and those who, by their silence, support closure are supposed to represent the interests of the people in their constituency.
My question to those officials: exactly whose interests do you reflect when you vote to close this school? How, in good conscience, can you oppose the position that is universally held by the people in the area you represent and who look to you to lead with thoughtful and insightful decisions?
Peter Barss
It isn’t just closing a building…
To the Honourable Minister Karen Casey, Minister of Education;
Minister Casey, I am writing to request that you look again into the intended closure of Petite Riviere Elementary School in Lunenburg County, and that you provide the guidance, leadership and authority of your office to reverse the decision.
I have lived in rural Lunenburg County since 2001 and am originally from the Kingston Peninsula, New Brunswick, a region not dissimilar to Petite Riviere. I did a Master of Environmental Design in planning and policy specifically because I wanted to work to protect the beauty, nature and way of life that is unique to the rural maritime provinces.
We are so lucky for what we have in rural Nova Scotia; for what has been built over time; for the incredible beauty and plentiful resources we share; for the structures and community hubs across the province that enable and sustain rural livelihoods and are the envy of tourists (some of whom come back to stay). But the exodus of young people from rural Nova Scotia, our declining population, and a lack of investment in or accurate assessment of necessary services for rural Nova Scotia make the future look a bit grim.
It certainly looks grim for Petite Riviere if the school, which is a focal point of the community and literal creator of community, is deemed unnecessary and allowed to close.
Churches were once the unifying structures and connectors essential for giving rural Nova Scotia communities a center and a heart. As church attendance has declined over the years, country churches have closed and will continue to close across the province – and church halls and the social coalescing that churches provided go with them. In 2017, closing a rural school that is a focal point of a community (as this one in Petite Riviere is) isn’t just closing a ‘school’. It isn’t just closing a building and (maybe) reducing County and Provincial education spending. In 2017, closing a school at the heart of a community is a lot more than that: it’s taking away the common thread and communal bond for being there.
Petite Riviere is a living and even exemplar rural community. I live across the river from Petite, I don’t have children and I am not personally invested in whether or not the school stays or goes, but I am writing this letter because I am tired of seeing decisions that diminish instead of encourage and support what people are trying hard to build. The community of Petite Riviere is like no community I have never seen. They welcome newcomers as if they have been there the whole time. When couples break up (as happens), they all seem to rally support for the family and help them get through it. They take care of each other’s kids after school. They organize and attend their own festivals, create their own entertainment opportunities, find grant money to build a community park where an old business had burned down, they support businesses that open up.
It honestly is like nothing I have ever witnessed or known of. They are in it together.
And the school. Because people live nearby and are invested in the school and community and their kids, the school garden gets taken care of, people are able to pick their kids up after school or they can get to someone else’s house until their parents get home from work. Many of the teachers live in the community and are directly invested in helping to sustain it. When a child is struggling or having behavioral problems, it is a community issue they take on. Again, it is honestly like nothing I have ever witnessed. It sounds like I am laying it on heavy here, but it’s honestly true. Petite Riviere is a community that keeps people from leaving, that people are drawn to and come back to and that people are working hard to build, and the school is one of the only public facilities the community has. They have a firehall, and a school.
I know that some rural schools must close. The diminishing population demands it. There just aren’t enough kids to keep them all open. When the Riverport School closed it was a loss, but the numbers were dwindling to none. It was unavoidable. But in this case, the assessment of necessity is off: demographics for Petite Riviere school are increasing and are projected to continue.
Why did the Board make the decision it made? It is hard to know, but I wonder if we are putting too much responsibility on School Boards? Having to decide school closures demands a wide range of skills and analysis and rural development expertise. I am not sure that decisions that are this far-reaching should be left on the shoulders of School Boards. I am not sure this one should have, which is the reason I am writing to you.
Closing this school will diminish and perhaps even destroy this growing community of young families, and that will be a loss for all of us. If you watched a movie of this story, you would be broken hearted at what this school means to people, and at the powers that be who have failed to weigh the importance of this small school to this particular rural community and the growth of the region.
Minister Casey, please require a review of the Board’s decision, or request directly that they reconsider. If not, the loss and the story will permeate this region and beyond. We need a hopeful story like what happened in PEI recently, instead.
Respectfully,
Wanda Baxter
Petite Riviere Elementary has a spirit and energy like no other I have seen…
The United Church of Canada
The Petite Riviere Pastoral Charge
April 15th, 2017
To the Honorable Stephen MacNeil:
I am writing today on behalf of the Petite Riviere Pastoral Charge of The United Church of Canada with regards to the closing of the Petite Riviere Elementary School in Lunenburg County on the South Shore.
As a clergy I have been ministering in this area since September 2008 and am blessed to know many of the parents and families who have young children attending this wonderful school.
I understand that many difficult decisions have to be made in the Education System and that both rural and urban schools at all levels are continually being evaluated, however, it has been devastating news for so many in our area to hear your decision to close the Petite Riviere Elementary School in June 2018.
Unaware of all the variables that led to this decision – I am very aware of the high anxiety and stress that many are feeling at this time. Petite Riviere Elementary has a spirit and energy like no other I have seen through my years of ministry and I believe that with the loss of this school so much of the community energy, moral and spirit will be diminished BUT these are secondary to what is the primary focus – the children! Through all the planning and projecting – these children should come first! Sometimes in our “professional” and “adult” decisions, we forget the very people that we are “in a trusted position” to care and provide for.
Five of the communities I serve as minister have children attending school in Petite Riviere. They are presently bused in the bus times allowed within the policy but if the school closes (and they are bused to Hebbville), the travel time will be much more excessive. I have been told that there are 13 Grade Primary students enrolled for the Fall 2017 and that 5 new children are being transferred into the school. That is a 12% increase. Busing these young children for several hours each day, especially in their first year(s) is not taking their emotional and physical wellbeing into account.
I love the cliché, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way”. Sometimes when finances are tight in our church people think they only have “one option” or “no option”. Many have been surprised to realize that when there IS “a heart and desire for the dream” the finances come! I have also been in situations – when decisions were reversed – for the best of all concerned!
Please reconsider possibilities that will enable these young children to attend their rural school which not only has a reputation for a high achieving learning space but also provides a sense of security and personal care for them as well. In a world that is continually “losing” its sense of small community – we can make a difference for these little children in Petite Riviere.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Rev. Vivian Moores
Petite Riviere, Nova Scotia
…treated unfairly due to a two-tiered busing system
Busing children to schools has now turned into a two-tiered system. The SSRSB is offering caregivers the ‘opportunity’ to drive their children to a centralised location, in order to cut down on bus times and guarantee a 30-minute ride to school versus a possible 60-minute ride.
Sounds great, right? Maybe so, if you are afforded the luxury of being able to drive your child(ren) to said location.
What about the caregivers who do not have access to a vehicle? How is it fair for Suzy to have a shorter bus ride than Sally and the only difference is that Suzy’s caregiver has access to a reliable vehicle?
What about the parents who are shift workers or who work away? How is it fair for Johnny to have a shorter bus ride than Jimmy because his parents both have flexible jobs that allow him to be dropped off/picked up at a centralised location?
These are just two examples of children who may be treated unfairly due to a two-tiered busing system that allows the SSRSB to feel good about their ‘shorter’ bus times, as they pull children from their home communities and ship them out.
Surely the elected school board members are able to model the fairness that children demonstrate every day on the playgrounds?
Irene MacDonald, Cape Breton
My family lives in Crousetown…
Another letter to the editor in Lighthouse Now today.
…Petite Riviere Elem is a jewel in the system.
Dear Anna Maria,
Thank you for taking on the topic of small school closures. Across this country, small schools–often the backbone of their rural communities–are crushing under the gavel. I have a unique perspective of this issue. The impending school closure I draw your attention to is Petite Riviere Elementary, in Petite Riviere Lunenburg Co. NS. . My experience with this school may shed more light on the gravity of this situation and its affect on rural Canada at large.
In the early 70’s I taught my first year of teaching and then retired. I had found the educational system in NS not child-friendly. Just before heading off to art school in Mexico my mate, artist Gregg Tracey and I stayed in Petite Riviere where artists Don Pentz and John Cook were giving an intensive art course at—you guessed it–Petite Riviere elementary. People came from around the province to attend. Petite was already, at that time, a centre for the arts.
When we returned to NS we settled in the Petite school area. 15 years later, as my son was approaching school age I began to check out the school system to see if it might be a good place for Tim to attend. I was, in fact, so delighted in the innovation and high creativity alive in that school, I rejoined teaching and began my true teaching career. Tim attended Petite for 7 years over which time the rich arts curriculum along with innovations in all areas of learning helped him along his path of becoming an international award-winning independent filmmaker.
I loved teaching. I loved that school: its parents; its grandparents; its staff and most of all, its kids. As a term teacher, my position at Petite was not secure. A number of times I was sent to other schools to fill vacancies. I got a good look around the system and saw many good schools and dedicated teachers. I worked hard to settle in and do my best but my heart was always called back to Petite. During one year at Petite, I even turned down a permanent position so I could stay in this small community school where the community truly trusted me with their children. It was risky to turn down a permanent job, especially when teachers were being laid off, but it was the only thing my heart would allow. And, it turns out–it was a good decision. That next year was my best yet: I was going into my 4th year in a row of teaching Grade Primary/Kindergarten at Petite. I had reached the place where I had at least one parent in my classroom every morning––all morning––5 days a week. This was incredible! Extra hands and hearts available to the children; mothers, fathers–even grandparents really learning about how kids learn; and a new writing program thriving. I had for several years taken on writing in the Primary Classroom as my greatest challenge. I was convinced that kids who could speak from their hearts could write from their hearts. That special year allowed me to stretch my limits and study my kids and how they were approaching the task of writing. They began to teach me what they needed to be successful. By the end of that year, all children were expressing their hearts at their own developmental level, with help as needed–and they saw themselves as writers with a voice! Had I not been there, in that school with that dedication to innovation and community support I have no doubt I would have failed to reach that level of teaching.
And there was another gift from my experiences at Petite: my own creativity and my optimism soared. I realized that any learning problems were already well engrained by the time a child was 5. I knew I had to go back to the beginning and prevent these problems. The more I considered this the more exciting it got. The fact is Petite Riviere Elem planted the seeds in my heart for a book which would not only help parents along their challenging path but it could also prevent the learning, behavioural, relationship and/or health challenges that 25% of Primary students arrive with. In 2013 my book was published.
What my writer’s voice needs to say now, loud and clear is that Petite Riviere Elem is a jewel in the system. There are many good schools here in Lunenburg. Co. but there has, for decades, been a special flair for creativity, innovation and mind expansion at this school.
The Ivany Report, a report on what’s going wrong in NS and how to turn things around “emphasizes the need for more vibrant private sector growth to strengthen rural communities. It is important also to recognize the essential role of the public sector in providing good quality and widely available health, education, and other public services, so that depopulation of our rural areas can be stabilized”. (http://www.wechoosenow.ca/
Well, Petite Riviere Elementary is doing just that! For a number of years, young people are moving into the Petite school district from across Canada for the lifestyle––and the school. I have never seen so many new babies in a rural area! Also, organic farmers are being supported by this community resulting in an excellent local food system.
Petite Parents highly support their school in ways a school board could only dream of. I believe Ray Ivany would consider this school a gem–proof of what is possible when a community and its school nurture the strengths and gifts of their children and create a world with a very positive future. Rather than closing this school and damaging its thriving community (did I sat thriving–in rural NS? YES! I did!) we should be doing two things: protecting it and learning from it.
[There is a fascinating political story behind this story revealing that the NS Dept. of Education is willing to provide $6 million for renovations but the school board refuses to ask for it. I have attached a link to recent articles on this situation to inform you: http://petiteforthefuture.ca/
Thanks for reading this.
Nancy Tracey
author of The First Five Years, Nurturing Your Child’s Ability to Learn http://brunswickbooks.ca/
This is predictable, this needs to stop.
My family lives in Crousetown – and I love to visit. Who knows, it might be my home too someday. Right now, my nephews are scheduled to go to PR school – it’s the reason they moved to that neighbourhood instead of an urban setting of Bridgewater. I’m afraid that the community revival will be jeopardized if the school closed.
I didn’t get it when my parents fought for our little school in Cape Breton to stay open. I couldn’t imagine what they meant by it being the heart of the community — well our community suffered. The next generation didn’t stay. The community sports teams, youth centres, girl guides and boy scouts all folded due to limited enrolment – and a few years after that all the churches were forced to close. It was too long a drive to the big town (where we were bused for school) to join the same groups there. We couldn’t stay for tutorials or join after school programs or go to the library – all things the bigger school promised because we were bus students. We had to get on the only bus to get home. Grade 7-12, I was a “bus student”. The poor little primary kids were falling asleep to and from school.
Our village is now a shell of its former self. Homes boarded up, no resale value. The few independent businesses were forced to close. I’d like to think the fate of the village I call home is unique – but it’s not.
This is predictable, this needs to stop. Please, please see that this is more than a legal interpretation of an old, unintentional motion of a school board. Do the right thing, follow your conscience and support Nova Scotian families.
Jo-anne Crisp
If you want to save rural schools, please start with ours.
Mr. Maguire,
Thank you very much for your detailed response, you are actually the first board member to respond to one of my emails. I feel that open and honest dialogue is how we can move this issue forward.
Before I address your points of rational individually, I would first like paint for you the feelings of the process that is felt by the parents and community members affected by this impending decision. I want to do this because I want to create the understanding for you, if not already fully aware.
To the community members of Petite, the actions of the board seem to be of wrong-headed process. They feel that the municipal government of Lunenburg County, all of the other parents of affected children, all of the community members of Petite, Broad Cove, Cherry Hill, Voglers Cove, Pleasantville, Centre, etc, our MLA Mark Furey, the Education Minister, even our MP in Ottawa, all want the school to stay open. The only people that want the school closed are the 8 elected members of the school board and board staff. They feel frustrated that all of these people want something honest and simple, to raise their children locally, however a small number of individuals representing a board, that they don’t fully understand, is planning on closing down their community hub and busing away their young children. Also they feel that the board has the power to change their decision, but are hiding behind false reasons to protect themselves from setting a precedent or following a secret plan for ultimate regional consolidation, eating up every small rural school possible.
That may or may not be your thoughts of the situation, as your previous email stated, but to those you represent, whose children you affect, feel that way over this issue.
To start, you mentioned the decision was made 4 years ago and you used this information from that process heavily. As I’m sure you’re aware, the province halted the school review process calling it flawed and set in motion a new process. The process used to review our school was the flawed one stopped by the province, however the board voted two weeks before that provincial decision, locking in our school for closure.
With that consideration, could it not be viewed by the public in this region that their school is unfairly on the closure list? How does this encourage confidence in the school board? I don’t believe it does.
Also the data on school enrollment is greatly outdated, and higher enrollment numbers are forecasted for Petite for the foreseeable future. However, not increased enrollment for Pentz.
The busing numbers that you have been provided seem greatly underestimated. I could understand an average bus time for Pentz catchment area to be in the 30min bracket, however, 50 minutes and greater for the majority of the much larger Petite catchment area. Does the board staff provide these numbers? Or have they been independently provided? Much skepticism is felt amongst a public that believes the board has its own motives.
As for the A&A justification, I couldn’t help but chuckle. Let me get this straight, the board never requested the money, so they don’t believe it’s there. Is that accurate? The Minister of Education, wrote the board, as well spoke on the CBC that monies could be available if requested. Why didn’t the board request that? There is still time to request that money. You mentioned you wanted to find a solution for both schools, that being your reasoning. The people of Petite and Pentz are reasonable people. We believe that a closure of one of the two is reasonable and that students from one attend the renovated one, bringing the enrollment and attendance to a high and acceptable level. With Petite’s larger catchment area, unique setting being off a busy road, many feel Petite would be most suitable for this A&A.
It cannot be denied that the Stantec report stated that an A&A would be the best value for money and education requirements. What is the purpose of funding an expensive study to ignore its findings?
I have no doubt that Hebbville Academy is a fine school with lots of great amenities. The recent student assessments showed that Petite students did exceedingly well in comparison to those throughout the province. My two stepchildren did not go without, educationally speaking, because they attended a rural school. It’s also just not about extra programming or newer computers, it’s much more than that. At a small local school, where supportive community members and their neighbors surround them, they are taught lessons of community and building a strong social fabric. They understand the importance of playing and building forts in the woods, or visiting the sheep right next door, or taking a walk to the river to learn about a healthy ecology. They get their hands in the soil in the school garden and they help prepare healthy food from that garden. They don’t become lost in the crowd or bullied on a crowded playground without it being properly addressed. They learn to build friendships right in their community and they help rise up the younger children too. These lessons will stay with them for a lifetime.
I went to a small rural school in Antigonish Country, now closed. I have very similar experiences. I’m not sure if you went to a small school, if so, I hope you think back to those times.
I applaud your proposed motion for saving whatever rural schools are not already closed by the time it’s addressed. I feel that deep down you want to keep future rural schools open but that Petite Riviere Elementary is not one to start with. The current provincial policies may favor regionalization however in this case, The current Minister of Education is saying to you, “all you have to do is ask, and we will allocate the money to keep one of these schools open”.
My community and I are pleading with you, one board member at a time, starting with you to make this decision right. You have the power to will it, to win over your other board members to right this wrong. If you want to save rural schools, please start with ours.
I look forward to hearing from you,
Stephen Besaw