Giscome elementary is on the chopping block, but the school's community is keeping a cool head.
It helped, said one parent, that the school was already in a highly publicized state of flux. Earlier this school year, when the school district's engineering assessment of the old building deemed it no longer safe for staff and students, the debates began about how to rebuild or if to rebuild.
Some schools facing a recommendation for closure are holding emergency meetings for parents and community, but the Giscome stakeholders are calm, according to parent advisory council member Denise MacDonald.
"To us, it is not an emergency," she said. "It is rather optimistic, from our end. We are looking at this and feeling a little bit hopeful. We are on the closure list as more of a technicality, waiting for the answer from the minister."
The answer is to the district's question about rebuilding the school. MacDonald said if the ministry said yes to a rebuild, the school would not represent a financial burden to the district.
According to the District Sustainability Report, Giscome elementary's closure would amount to a cost reduction of $119,000. If the new building were to be constructed (students are currently being taught in portables), the community has expressed a desire to inject outside funding into the ongoing operation - to add in public amenities turning it into a multi-use community centre - that would fill that financial pothole for the school district.
"We are in a bit of a unique position in another sense, too," said MacDonald. "They can't say we are not a sustainable school. Us and French Immersion are the only ones expected to have a steady student population on into 2015, while everyone else has a dropping student population. Our school would be built for the size of the student population. We have about 32 students."
MacDonald said most people clearly understand the financial crunch the school district is in, and that drastic measures are necessary to balance the budget. If the provincial government doesn't come through with an answer on Giscome in time, they are fully prepared to lose the school at least for the time being, but even then the fight to restore a school in the rural neighbourhood northeast of the city would continue.
"They did an amazing job putting this report together," MacDonald said. "It is an incredible job they are doing. The numbers are all there, they are rather astonishing numbers. I think we are very lucky to have a board that does a very hard job very well, and doesn't just rubber stamp everything. We can all see that the district just can't go on in with the status quo."
MacDonald plans to express the community's concerns and offer proactive solutions at the public meeting scheduled for Tuesday night at Vanier Hall at 6 p.m. when the sustainability report's 42 recommendations will be voted on by School District 57 trustees.
