In Saint John, the school district is looking at closing two middle schools in the North End: Lorne (my middle school), and Hazen White-St. Francis. This post is likely going to be my first of many.

The decision to close any school is always tough to discuss, but the first part of my rant will focus on a sad irony. My curiousity was peaked when I read a newspaper headline saying Chateau de Champlain lends helping hand to Hazen White-St. Francis School library. How sad, I thought, because this school stands a good chance of closing within a year due to its low enrollment, somewhat remote location, and an aged building, and efforts to support could be in vain to some extent.

In the picture above from the newspaper article I linked above, you’ll see a smiling district superintendent, Susan Tipper. This bugs me to some extent since she’ll go to the school smiling for the children and the cameras, and then perhaps return to her office to think about why this very school should close, which would mean students that currently walk would likely need to take a bus to another school.

This is particularly interesting because the NB Education Minister, Kelly Lamrock designated Lorne and Hazen White as Community Schools and their neighbourhoods as priority neighbourhoods in the province a year ago. Now School District 8 wants to close them. How does this make sense?

The following is a letter I submitted to District 8 to be considered as part of their decision in the “reorganization” of the north Saint John schools.

To whom it may concern:

I disagree with the proposal to close Lorne School. I am a graduate of UNBSJ. Prior to moving to Calgary to pursue my Masters in Computer Science, I lived in Millidgeville all my life. I chose to attend Lorne Middle School, and fondly recall my 3 years there.

Lorne has a strong case to stay open. Because most of the building burnt down in the 80′s, it was rebuilt, and is thus one of the newest and most modern school buildings in the Saint John area. It is also the only middle school in the older part of the city’s North End, which has been a struggling neighbourhood, as you know. Residents tired of the crime and other problems have come together to take back their neighbourhood, and have succeeded in making things better, even raising money to build their own police station to raise police presence in the neighbourhood. This is quite impressive to me, and gives me lots of optimism about the potential recovery of this neighbourhood.

Despite this, School District 8 wants to take away the only middle school in the Old North End, a designated community school, perhaps partially because of the perceptions of some parents who believe the neighbourhood is unsafe. If this is a real problem, shouldn’t we work on fixing the problems in the neighbourhood, instead of ghetto-izing it and assuming it will never improve? Obviously those supporting this proposal disagree or simply don’t care.

It’s easy to just get rid of a few smaller schools and bus them wherever. In many cases, the cost savings make sense. But I think such a proposal could be devastating to the Old North End neighbourhood in this case. The report on the district web site lists a bunch of advantages, but in an entirely unbalanced view, fails to list any possible disadvantages. So this proposal is absolutely perfect? The omission of any reference to the possible effects due to the projected “energy boom” for the Saint John area is particularly jarring to me. While school populations have been dropping, it’s not unreasonable to expect these populations to rise significantly once again if the energy boom materializes. How embarrassing will it be to have to have overcrowding in our schools a few years from now because we closed too many schools now without any forward vision?

I feel there are other solutions. If I recall correctly, there have been discussions about rebuilding Princess Elizabeth for years, implying that the days are numbered for the current building. Why is there no consideration about closing this aging school instead of a much newer Lorne school building? I am certain that a sensible solution could be determined that would have some or all of the savings presented in the proposal, while retaining Lorne School in the Old North End.

Thanks for your consideration of my remarks.

Paul Saulnier

You’ll notice my arguments largely are targetted towards Lorne, though most of the same factors apply to Hazen White-St. Francis as well. Moving forward, this proposal has to be accepted in entirety or not at all, so they will close neither school or close both.

You can read the proposal for yourself on the School District 8 web site. If you scroll to the last page, you’ll find an e-mail address where you too can make your feedback heard. It’s too late for written submissions, but there’s no deadline indicated for e-mail.

Additionally, you can write letters to the District Education Council and the Telegraph-Journal expressing your views on this. This is the type of action which actually gets things done. I’ll hopefully be doing more of this myself, and have my blog posts up soon.