After four emotionally charged public meetings, the Sea to Sky school board is revising its plans for dealing with low enrolment and overcrowding at local elementary schools and has taken the option of splitting Valleycliffe and Stawamus students into separate-grade schools off the table.
Overcrowding at Mamquam Elementary and under-enrolment at Stawamus Elementary led the board to propose several options, including moving programs like French immersion, restructuring of grades and moving school catchment boundaries solutions some parents vehemently opposed during meetings.
The board is now compiling a master list of options by the end of June for staff to analyze during the summer and will hold another public meeting in September.
The board decided to take one of the original solutions off the table permanently at Wednesday's (June 9) school board meeting.
At the committee of the whole meeting earlier that day, school trustee Chris Vernon-Jarvis suggested taking the proposal to redistribute grades so that Valleycliffe becomes a Kindergarten to Grade 3 school and Stawamus a Grade 4 to 7 school option off the table.
Trustee Laura Godfrey agreed.
"I think it needs to be removed because parents are stuck on that and can't get beyond it."
Vernon-Jarvis's motion passed unanimously at the school board meeting that evening, placating several parents who attended.
"I think it's really good news for our kids," said Valleycliffe Elementary PAC member Isabel Jordan. "I'm glad they're going to move forward without looking at that and hopefully come up with better options for everybody."
Chair Rick Price asked if there were any other options the board wanted to take off the table and trustee Andrea Beaubien suggested that splitting the French Immersion program not be considered an option.
Vernon-Jarvis said he thought there were more logistics that went with that solution and would prefer to keep it on the table at the moment.
To make the process more manageable, chair Rick Price made a motion to ask staff to come up with a master list that would include all the suggestions that emerged from the meetings and not include the primary-intermediate split. The motion passed unanimously.
The list will also be circulated to the public and include all suggestions, including the closure of Stawamus Elementary.
"I can tell you quite frankly that option will be taken off the list very quickly by the trustees because at this point they've said they're not going to close any schools," said Hetherington.
Many Stawamus parents recently made their resentment of Valleycliffe parent's suggestion to close the school known at what was supposed to be the final public meeting on June 3.
The meeting at Totem Hall was largely focused on the Stawamus and Valleycliffe issue.
More than 100 concerned parents, grandparents, teachers, principals and friends crowded the hall to speak about population projections, unfounded concerns and racial values.
Valleycliffe parent Angela Slaght, whose children would be included in Stawamus's catchment if the boundaries change, said she had an issue with both solutions and wouldn't want her children going to Stawamus.
"My older son has developmental delays and from what I've been told there's not enough resources at Stawamus to support his needs," she said.
"I'm also kind of concerned about the whole hydro lines overtop," she said. "That really bothers me because they really haven't had a conclusive study on what could be possible issues with it.
"Valleycliffe isn't broke so don't fix it, just leave it the way it is."
Beaubien tried to placate the crowd, reiterating that the board wants a solution that will please most people, but pleasing everyone is unlikely.
Alison Morrow, a mother of three girls who attend Stawamus, stepped up to the microphone to defend her small school.
"This is beginning to create a bit of bad blood our schools and I don't like the animosity I feel is coming from Valleycliffe," said Morrow. "The fear of change coming from them is almost palpable and maybe they could back off a little and react a bit more calmly."
"Yes, our PAC is small but we are powerful. We raised $180,000 in two years to build a playground, our children attend everything every other school attends and the power lines risk at Stawamus is far less than the fast cars going by Valleycliffe."
Morrow finished by saying everyone should move on from school closure and address real issues.
The suggestion to re-align the Furry Creek, Klahanie and Britannia Beach catchment areas to send those students to Stawamus instead of busing them right past to Squamish Elementary was also brought up again. In 2009, there were 21 students in that catchment.
Squamish Nation education director Joy McCullough spoke up in Stawamus's defence as well.
"I drive my kids all the way from Brackendale to Stawamus Elementary because being First Nations we're a family of people and my school values that tradition," she said.
"I'm sad that so many people don't want to send their kids to Stawamus, but then again I wouldn't send my kids anywhere else."
Jackie Williams has a granddaughter currently attending Stawamus, as did all her children, and she addressed the crowded room.
"I know a lot of you think that Stawamus is where all the little Indians go and you're right," she said. "If it comes down to it, turn it into a First Nations school, but we won't let go of it."
