St. Mark Junior High School should launch a Filipino language and culture program to boost faltering enrolment, says an organizer with a group of 20 parents fighting to keep the school open.
The group will send its proposal to Edmonton Catholic Schools officials Friday, the last day for the public to submit feedback about the possible closure of the Woodcroft neighbourhood school.
“We have a large population of Filipino families already in our school and they were saying, well, what about a language program,” said Laura Shewchuk, a mom of three whose daughter attends St. Mark. “There’s not a single junior high Filipino language and culture program in the whole city of Edmonton, Catholic or public. The Catholic board already has in place a high school level Filipino program, so we feel we have a gap to fill.”
Such a program would draw students to the school, at 11625 135 St., and keep it viable while student numbers climb, Shewchuk said. That should happen over the next five years, she suggested.
The group of parents bases that on the increasing number of programs for moms and tots in the neighbourhood and enrolment increases in area soccer teams, baseball teams, Girl Guides and Scouts.
“The school board is relying on 2009 census information that says our neighbourhoods have bottomed out, there’s no more kids, and it’s just very dim. What we’re trying to say as parents is, we live there. We shop at Westmount Shopping Centre. We know there’s baby strollers and babies.”
The school district should not close St. Mark school at a time other organizations are moving in the opposite direction, she said. The city recently released its community sustainability task force report, which recommends a formal partnership between Edmonton school boards and municipal, provincial and federal governments to keep mature neighbourhoods vital and sustainable.
The public school district is studying how to keep schools open and has a moratorium on school closures in place until Nov. 30. The province is overhauling its decades-old School Act and new census figures from Statistics Canada and the city are due out this year, Shewchuk said.
Plans are also going ahead to transform the City Centre Airport site into a sustainable neighbourhood for 30,000 people, she said.
“It’s really not the right time to close a school in any mature neighbourhood.”
Catholic school trustees voted Nov. 1 to consider closing St. Mark Junior High School. Student numbers have declined to 111 this year, from 222 in 2004-05, based information from the school district.
Catholic school board chairwoman Debbie Engel has said the per-student funding from the province covers about half the number of teaching positions the school needs to keep running, meaning the school district has to cover the shortfall.
With so few students, it costs too much to keep the school open and St. Mark school can’t hire enough teachers to meet students’ needs, says areport about the proposed closure posted on the Edmonton Catholic Schools website.
“If St. Mark school were to close, 77 regular program students and 34 special needs students would need to be relocated,” the report says.
Those students would have access to a wider variety of programs, clubs and sports opportunities if they were shifted to larger schools, the report says.
“Where numbers allow, a school can offer a selection of second languages, career and technology Studies modules, fine arts options and other opportunities that a small school cannot offer because of limited staffing,” the report says.
This is the second year of a two-year review of the school. During the first year, in 2010-11, the school district held community consultation meetings, reviewed school programming in an attempt to boost enrolment and informed parents St. Mark might face closure.
Catholic school trustees are scheduled to make a final decision about whether to close St. Mark school at a board meeting Feb. 14.
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