By tweaking the school calendar, members of the Satinwood School community hope to keep their school striving.
Satinwood School council is proposing a modified calendar similar to a year-round calendar year, where students would have shorter school breaks and spend more time in the classroom.
Like most Central Alberta rural schools, the small school nestled about 20 km east of Red Deer has struggled with declining enrolment in recent years. This year there are 54 students enrolled in kindergarten to Grade 6.
While a closure would save the board an estimated $500,000, the board is several years away before going down that road. Instead, the district and school community are working together to fill the classrooms.
“We’re going to try to provide a choice calendar, which is not happening in Wolf Creek, and attract some of those families our way to increase our numbers,” said principal Ted Jardine.
He said the elementary school does not have the numbers inside its catchment area so they want to attract students from outside its area. For example, there are Wolf Creek students attending year-round schools in Red Deer who may be swayed to attend Satinwood.
Three meetings were held between the division, school community and board of trustees to generate options to keep the school sustainable over the last year. A Satinwood School council delegation presented its case to the board of trustees at its March meeting. The board is expected to discuss the option at its April board meeting.
“It’s a real hub of our community,” said Toni VandLanduyt, school council chairperson. “They don’t necessarily have children at the school but they are still attending events and trying to support the school.”
Superintendent Larry Jacobs said there’s a process in place where the community has the chance to increase enrolment numbers before the school is put on the chopping block. Jacobs said this is unlike others in the province that simply invoke the school closure act. This year, the board gave Satinwood roughly $60,000 to support teacher staffing.
“They support the school . . . while the school attempts to raise their numbers or find some alternative way of providing quality education,” said Jacobs. “That could take two or three years. A lot depends on what happens in a particular way. The board tries to make it a two- to three-year commitment.”
The board would put another year on top of the supported phase before the school would actually face closure.
In the 2010-11 school year, Wolf Creek shut down Mirror School because of low enrolment.
crhyno@www.reddeeradvocate.com