Heather Latter
The Accommodation Review Committee for Crossroads School has determined its recommendation for the future of the Devlin school.
It chose Option #1—to keep it open and continue to maintain it—although the decision won’t be presented formally to the Rainy River District School Board until September.
“The committee voted unanimously to keep the school exactly the way it is, no expansion, no amalgamation,” said committee chair Krista Kellar, noting members will be working on the presentation over the summer.
However, the committee intends to highlight the need for a school boundary review in its presentation.
“The board is going to be looking to see if re-drafting the boundary lines is in everybody’s best interest,” Kellar said, indicating there is no known date of the last time the boundaries were reviewed.
Kellar noted she requested a map of the current boundary lines for Crossroads School and was surprised to see it looked like a “Freezie”—very narrow and very long.
She indicated there probably are students in Alberton who could be attending Crossroads instead of J.W. Walker in Fort Frances.
“I didn’t realize when they closed the school in Alberton that all the students went to Walker,” Kellar admitted.
Citing J.W. Walker is near capacity while Crossroads only is utilizing 54 percent of its space, Kellar said perhaps redrawing the boundary lines would be beneficial.
“It’s not part of our recommendation but it’s definitely something we want the board to look at,” she stressed.
“We have room to take more students,” she added. “If the mines happen and there is a big boom in the west end of the district, we have room.
“So if they decide to redraw the boundaries and we get 10 more kids, that’s great,” Kellar remarked.
“But we still won’t be operating at full capacity and will have room for expansion.
“Maybe operating the way we are isn’t a bad thing at all,” Kellar added.
“They have to stop looking at the dollar sign as the bottom line and start looking at the overall quality of education that we get.”
Kellar said the school board intends to consider a school boundary review.
“It’s a point we brought up as a committee that the board is taking very seriously,” she noted.
The Crossroads review follows that of Donald Young School in Emo, which held its accommodation review process last year, and Sturgeon Creek School in Barwick, which completed its process in February.
Due to the Ministry of Education changing of the definition of a “supported school,” schools now must be further than 20 km apart in order to secure additional funding.
This has resulted in reduced funding to operate these three schools, which is why they are undergoing accommodation reviews.
For the Crossroads review, the committee considered the value of the school to the student, the community, the board, and the local economy, with the value to the student being weighted to have the most impact on the final decision.
The committee’s recommendation will be presented at the school board’s next regular meeting, which is set for Sept. 3.
“I can’t see them closing Crossroads,” said Kellar. “But at the end of the day, it’s not our decision.”
She added the committee will arm trustee Ralph Hill, who represents La Vallee, Alberton, and area, with as much positivity as it can when it comes to the board reaching a final decision on the future of the three schools.
“We had a lot of positive presentations and some really heart-felt pleas to keep Crossroads open,” Kellar remarked.
“They showed that our school is such a strong pillar in our community and that’s all we can do.”
The Sept. 3 board meeting will be open to the public—and Kellar encourages everyone to attend.
“I think you’ll see all the major families from Devlin sitting in the back, applauding and showing their support because they’ve been there every step of the way thus far,” she noted.
