Sturgeon School Division and the Greater St. Albert Catholic Regional Division (GSACRD) both say they remain committed to providing a secular option for Morinville students this fall, but where exactly those students will attend class seems up in the air.
Parents that registered for the program at the new Morinville Public Elementary School were told earlier this week the school might not have a location come September and students might need to be bused to schools in Sturgeon.
The Sturgeon division agreed in May to run a secular school for GSACRD students as part of an educational service agreement. Despite being a Catholic school, GSACRD is the public board in Morinville and operates all four schools there.
A group of parents began demanding last November that GSACRD provide some non-religious education option for students. After several months, GSACRD announced they would provide the secular option by having the Sturgeon School Division operate a school inside the community.
David Keohane, GSACRD’s superintendent, said the issue is not, as has been suggested, a funding dispute, but an issue of availability of the portable classrooms.
He said GSACRD wants to provide the option and is now looking at other short-term options until the modular classes are available.
“The issue is the ability to have these in place within our existing timeframe,” he said. “We know for sure there can be a solution in place that will meet the educational requirements very well by December at the latest.”
He said as a fallback option, Sturgeon has agreed to make space for students of the new school in one of their existing schools in Sturgeon County.
Mary McGregeor, acting superintendent for Sturgeon, said it still intends to operate the school and was initially hoping for the modular units. When it appeared that wouldn’t happen, it felt it had to inform parents.
“Alberta Education offered us the option of a modular school, which is what we took to our community in June as a way to operate a secular school in Morinville and that came off the table last week.”
She said the boards are working alongside Alberta Education to find something that will keep kids in Morinville.
“That is still in the works. We are hopeful something will come up for us.”
Eoin Kenny with Alberta Education said there were 52 requests across the province for modular units ahead of the new schools and there simply aren’t enough to go around.
He said the department is doing what it can and is trying to come up with something temporary in the short term.
“That is still part of the negotiation process, but we expect that short-term option in perhaps lease space, the program might have to operate in temporary digs until the modulars arrive.”
Marjorie Kirsop has two young children she had hoped to enrol in grades 1 and 3 in the new program. She said if they have to be bused out of town to start, she would be disappointed, but she wants a guarantee there will be a secular school in Morinville.
“I wouldn’t be pleased about it, but if it is just a few months I would go for it.”
She said she doesn’t think finding the space for public education should be this much of a challenge.
“It is a 45-minute bus drive for a six-year-old, which seems a little long, especially when we have four schools in town.”
She also said the uncertainty over the school’s location is driving away interested parents.
“I have had several parents tell me they are putting their kids back into GSACRD because of the uncertainty.”
She said it’s frustrating given parents first raised the issue last November.
Keohane said the board moved as quickly as it could on such a major issue, especially given the status quo has a lot of support from parents.
“When you are suggesting such a significant change in a relatively short period of time we have to do appropriate planning based on the collective interests of everybody.”
