The controversial reconfiguration of Don Ross Secondary School into a transition school will go ahead, albeit at a slower pace than previously proposed, which has gained the plan approval from the teachers' association.
The Sea to Sky School District board voted at its Feb. 10 meeting to begin reconfiguration this September but to spread the changes out incrementally over two years, as opposed to all at once.
Beginning September 2010, all Grade 8 students will attend Don Ross. Both Don Ross and Howe Sound Secondary School will maintain their Grade 9 classes during the 2010-2011 school year and the Grade 10 program will continue at Don Ross until June 2011.
The move has helped settle consternation from the Sea to Sky Teachers Association, which raised concerns over a "rush" to make all the changes this year.
"I really do get the sense that [the board] really heard everybody. They heard the parents, the teachers and the students, and I'm glad that they have approached it as they have," said association president Beth Miller.
Miller said consultation with the teachers who will be affected by the change is a vital part of ensuring the students' education also remains a priority.
"Part of what they need to recognize is part of what's best for students is having a committed and involved teaching staff," Miller said.
Don Ross teachers had sent a letter to the board raising concerns over the previous plan that would see Don Ross take only Grade 8 and 9 students and Howe Sound Secondary take only Grades 10 to 12 in September 2010.
That possibility caused some blowback over possible negative impacts to students, especially those of Don Ross. They listed loss of school spirit, loss of older students as role models for younger ones, loss of the popular Outdoor Leadership Program and difficulty making the needed planning and administrative changes in such a short time.
"Honestly, my considered opinion as an educator is it would have been a disaster," Miller said.
The change from six months to 18 months to plan out the full transition was a serious issue for Don Ross teacher Julie Wallace.
"There is so much planning to do - staffing alone on what teachers move, what teachers go back and forth," she said. "We're not saying no to it. We're saying slow down, include us. Let's do it well if we're going to do this."
Board members Andrea Beaubien, Laura Godfrey, Rick Price, Chris Vernon-Jarvis and Dave Walden were present for the meeting and voted for each of the incremental changes. The five weighed the sentiment they had heard from parents and teachers to slow the reconfiguration down versus the desire to make the changes quickly and not leaving Squamish schools in "a state of flux."
Vernon-Jarvis voted against the motion to continue offering Grade 10 at Don Ross for this year, stating the benefits of getting the students into Howe Sound are worthwhile compared to giving them another year at Don Ross.
The board passed another motion to advise Grade 9 students at Howe Sound of transfer conditions and their eligibility for transfer in the 2010-11 school year and for the Outdoor Leadership Program.
The board has been considering reconfiguration to help iron out "inequities" between the way the younger students are educated in both schools and to help improve graduation rates.
